betsy Posted April 25, 2011 Report Posted April 25, 2011 If the youth really comes out to vote....who's more like to benefit now? Quote
Wild Bill Posted April 25, 2011 Report Posted April 25, 2011 If the youth really comes out to vote....who's more like to benefit now? Well, youth does tend to vote NDP or Liberal when they are young, becoming more conservative as they gain life experience, particularly with financial matters. There are exceptions, of course. There will be young Conservatives just as there are young scientists or mathematicians. However, there will be far more arts students who think that government money is free. Still, while I laud anything that gets the new blood more involved I don't think it will have quite the impact some think. There just aren't as many young folks as there used to be! The Baby Boom is over. Most parents of small children have noticed elementary school closings. There was a mini-boom about 6-8 years ago but it was nothing like the one that led to huge wave of citizens born after WWII and beginning to die off now. Sadly, this demographic situation is why politicians are really just stalling us about a lot of the medicare and income needs of the older baby boomers. They know that if they can BS us for just another 10 years or so the problem will begin to fix itself, as the numbers fall. Quote "A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." -- George Bernard Shaw "There is no point in being difficult when, with a little extra effort, you can be completely impossible."
Handsome Rob Posted April 25, 2011 Report Posted April 25, 2011 who's more like to benefit now? The NDP & the Tory's. Quote
Moonbox Posted April 25, 2011 Report Posted April 25, 2011 There just aren't as many young folks as there used to be! The Baby Boom is over. Most parents of small children have noticed elementary school closings. There was a mini-boom about 6-8 years ago but it was nothing like the one that led to huge wave of citizens born after WWII and beginning to die off now. I would think that there are more people in the 18-30 range now than there has ever been wouldn't you? The baby boom stopped in 1964 and those people's children are still coming to voting age. My parents were baby boomers and my generation is HUUUUGE. Quote "A man is no more entitled to an opinion for which he cannot account than he does for a pint of beer for which he cannot pay" - Anonymous
Moonbox Posted April 25, 2011 Report Posted April 25, 2011 As for the mob votes, I'm not really a big fan of them. I don't think it promotes an educated vote and I don't really feel that an uneducated vote is any better than no vote at all. Increasing voter turnout isn't really what we should be worrying about. Increasing electoral participation and INTEREST in the process is. When the only way you can get people voting is to peer pressure them into a mob, something is wrong. Quote "A man is no more entitled to an opinion for which he cannot account than he does for a pint of beer for which he cannot pay" - Anonymous
Scotty Posted April 25, 2011 Report Posted April 25, 2011 If the youth really comes out to vote....who's more like to benefit now? Whichever politician can put the dumbest message into the simplest format, with lots of colour and sound. Quote It is an inverted moral calculus that tries to persuade the world to demonize one state that tries its civilized best to abide in a difficult time and place, and rides merrily by the examples and practices of dozens of states and leaderships that drop into brutality every day without a twinge of regret or a whisper of condemnation. - Rex Murphy
Molly Posted April 25, 2011 Report Posted April 25, 2011 As for the mob votes, I'm not really a big fan of them. I don't think it promotes an educated vote and I don't really feel that an uneducated vote is any better than no vote at all. Increasing voter turnout isn't really what we should be worrying about. Increasing electoral participation and INTEREST in the process is. When the only way you can get people voting is to peer pressure them into a mob, something is wrong. Sooooo... where do you suggest interest (self-education, informed decision making and turnout) begins? I know that my own first party membership was the admission ticket I needed to an evening of free beer. Is that worse than those who learn their politics (but not any analysis of those political objectives) from their parents and grandparents? Quote "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" — L. Frank Baum "For Conservatives, ministerial responsibility seems to be a temporary and constantly shifting phenomenon," -- Goodale
August1991 Posted April 25, 2011 Report Posted April 25, 2011 (edited) This election occurs at the end of the academic year when students are busy with exams and final papers. I don't think efforts to get students/young people to vote will have much effect. I have always felt that the future will be more rational than the past. Young people can see that their single ballot has no effect on the outcome at riding level and so most find something more useful to do with their time. (BTW, a switch to PR would not change this fact.) Here are some graphs to illustrate my point. IOW, people increasingly don't vote, and young people are simply early adopters. Edited April 25, 2011 by August1991 Quote
Moonbox Posted April 25, 2011 Report Posted April 25, 2011 Sooooo... where do you suggest interest (self-education, informed decision making and turnout) begins? It goes far beyond getting people interested in voting or politics. The average person is completely ignorant of anything outside his immediate circle of friends, family, job and whatever TV show they're watching. My suggestion is that parents impart the importance of voting on their children, that schools teach it to their students (without the bias they sometimes present) and that the people themselves peel themselves away from Criminal Minds or Jersey Shore for maybe 30 minutes a week to pay attention to what's going on in the world. A tall order... I know that my own first party membership was the admission ticket I needed to an evening of free beer. Is that worse than those who learn their politics (but not any analysis of those political objectives) from their parents and grandparents? No offense intended but it is sad that your first exposure to politics was motivated by free beer and you were presumably 18 or 19. Even if your parents are giving you biased politics when you're younger, at least you'll have been thinking about it and learning about as a youth. By the time you're 18 you'll actually have an idea of how the system works and you'll at least have some of the tools needed to understand what's going on. By the time you're 20 something it's really kind of late but I guess whatever helps those people get interested is for the better. If it's a vote mob then fine, but I highly doubt that these people are actually getting interested in what's going. Theirs will likely be dumb and uninformed votes. Quote "A man is no more entitled to an opinion for which he cannot account than he does for a pint of beer for which he cannot pay" - Anonymous
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