In an effort to encourage young voters to get out to the polls, the British Columbia Federation of Students (BCFS) has launched the Generation Vote Now campaign.
Young adults in BC make up a significant proportion of the population, but in the 2020 provincial election, approximately 1 in 5 adults under 35 voted. According to Elections Canada, only 24 percent of registered young voters actually voted in the 2020 elections versus the 75 percent voter turnout for those over age 65. BCFS chairperson Jessie Niikoi says that the objective of the Generation Vote Now campaign is to empower young people to get out and vote.
“The campaign is one of the biggest things we’re doing,” says Niikoi. “It’s an informational campaign. So, the biggest aim of the campaign is to empower young people like us to engage with the electoral process, as the [provincial] elections are coming up.”
The BCFS (which all Camosun College students are members of) provides easy access to non-partisan information about each political party’s platform.
“We always run a non-partisan campaign to be able to get information to young people to get them out to the polls and make sure they have the information needed to make decisions,” says Niikoi.
Elections Canada has also identified areas concerning access that limit youth’s ability to register and vote, such as lack of information or knowledge about the voting process, perceived difficulty in getting to voting stations, and a general lack of interest or trust in our political system. The BCFS addresses these issues by providing easy-to-access information about registration, voting, advanced voting, and platform strategies through vote-now.ca.
“One of the things we are doing is, on the website, we’re sharing information about the different party platforms,” says Niikoi. “We realized there were a lot of young people who were registered to vote, but not all of them were able to get to vote, and this was mostly due to COVID. And that’s one of the reasons we’re making sure people have the information that they need, which is easy and accessible for them to understand.”
Aside from providing easy-to-access information about the platforms, the BCFS and its members are trying to get candidates on campuses in person so that students can advocate for their needs directly. (Here at Camosun, the Camosun College Student Society is holding political dialogue fairs with candidates from the Greater Victoria area; the events are at Lansdowne on Wednesday, October 9 outside between Fisher and the library and at Interurban on Thursday, October 10 outside of Liz Ashton Campus Centre).
“I know some of our student union members have started… reaching out to the different parties [to try] to get all the candidates on campus and have an all-candidate forum, if possible,” says Niikoi.
Through the Generation Vote Now website, students can obtain party and candidate information, receive updates, and pre-register. Students can also find out when voting starts and how to vote in advance or by proxy. Niikoi says that voting is important for students because what happens this fall affects them for years afterwards.
“As students we are future workers,” says Niikoi. “We need to make sure that as we are going through school, our needs are provided for. The province is in charge concerning education. So, students need to make sure they are making the right decisions… so when they graduate, they will have what they need within the community that they find themselves in.”