Should the B.C. voting age be lowered to 16 instead of 18?
The question was raised recently by Andrew Weaver, Green Party Leader and Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA, when he reintroduced his bill to lower the voting age in B.C.
While it's not likely this private members bill will ever see the light of day, there's no overwhelming reason to deny younger teens the vote. As has been pointed out, they already get taxes taken off their minimum wage paycheques, they can sign up for the military and are old enough to drive — something that's almost as dangerous as voting.
True, if given the vote, many 16- and 17-year-olds might take a pass but that's no different from older citizens, even those who pay a lot more taxes. But research has found that young people are engaged in politics and if they vote early, are more likely to vote later in life. Given the responsibility of voting, they might even take their lives and the world around the more seriously.
This is a no-brainer: Let them vote.
