Why these 16- and 17-year-olds want to cast their vote in N.B. elections
Some young people are pushing to have the voting age in the province lowered to 16
Léo Babineau has had a part-time job for the past two years. He drives a car and pays taxes.
But at the age of 17, he's still not able to have a say in the policies and politics that impact his life.
"You can do all these things. You can be a functioning member of society. You can drop out of school at 16 as well. And yet we can't vote," said the Grade 11 student at École Sainte-Anne in Fredericton.
Among the issues most important to Babineau are the environment and the cost of living. But at the top of the list is the right for youth to vote.
"I'd really like to be able to have my voice heard and just see that the people who represent me — represent me," he said.
Romane Doucet has similar feelings. She wants to be as involved as she can in her community and is intrigued by the idea of lowering the voting age.
"As soon as I heard of it, I was jumping up, doing research and trying to tell others," said the 17-year-old, who is in Grade 12.
"I've been just trying to pass the message as much as I can, to see how people my age feel about it and see if they're as excited as I am."
Open letter to legislature
Across the country, there's a renewed push to lower the voting age from 18 to 16. Some is tied to the national #Vote16 Canada initiative, but local students are driving their own campaign at the New Brunswick Legislature.
"We are hoping that it will become a federal movement in Canada," said Emma Raphaelle, president of the Francophone Youth Federation of New Brunswick.
The goal is to urge MLAs to bring forward a bill that would allow youth to vote in provincial and municipal elections.
So far, representatives from 32 francophone groups in New Brunswick have signed an open letter. They represent student councils from Campbellton to Edmundston to Dieppe, and they are working on getting anglophone student leaders to sign the letter as well.
Along with that, the youth federation wants New Brunswick students to be more informed about politics.
"What's really important would be civics education. It's something that we have on the anglophone side and we are working to get towards the francophones," Raphaelle said.
Not the first time
This isn't a new proposal for New Brunswick politicians. Back in 2014, Green Party Leader David Coon introduced legislation that would lower the voting age to 16.
Bill 10, An Act to Amend the Elections Act, passed first and second reading at the legislature before being sent to a committee where it died. Then, in 2017, New Brunswick's electoral reform commission recommended lowering the voting age but legislation was never introduced.
There are places where the voting age is lower: in Brazil, Austria and Cuba, it's 16. And it's 17 in Greece and Indonesia .
Pushing for progress
The group of students met recently with Green Party MLA Megan Mitton, Progressive Conservative MLA Bill Hogan and Liberal MLA Robert Gauvin, of the province's three seat-holding parties.
"We really were met with a lot of open-mindedness," said Babineau.
"And we're not here to just shove this down people's throats, we really want to hear what the politicians have to say, why they might be against it, and why we think it's a good idea."
All three MLAs introduced the students in the legislature, but no new legislation has been put forward at this point.
And while they didn't get a chance to address the legislature directly, for these teenagers, it's one more step toward making their voices heard.
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