Panel discussion during FPA Connects: Engage. From l to r: Maalik Shakoor, Kyle McCachen, and Morgan Baskin.
Why young people vote, why they don’t, and how to convince them to get involved were all subjects of debate at the first event of the FPA Connects Series on September 29th.
The “Engage” event featured a screening of the documentary “The Drop: Why Young People Don’t Vote”, followed by a panel discussion with two youth activists featured in the film, along with the film’s director, Kyle McCachen, and Political Science Professor Bill Cross.
During the panel discussion, moderator Laura Anthony of Samara Canada asked the panelists what they thought of a young man in the film who said he didn’t believe in voting, even though he was working for a political campaign. While film director Kyle McCachen said he was shocked by the man’s seeming hypocrisy, youth activist Maalik Shakoor was more understanding.
“In the black community, it’s not very appealing to cast a vote for a system that has disenfranchised you,” said Shakoor, a member of the Black Lives Matter movement and a resident of Ferguson, Missouri. “People don’t believe voting is going to make a difference in their lives.”
But panelist Morgan Baskin, who ran for mayor of Toronto at age 18, argued that young people would be more interested in voting if political parties did more to address the issues they care about.
From a research perspective, Political Science Professor Bill Cross said voting appears to have a generational gap. Many of the same young people who don’t vote in their twenties show up at the polls ten and twenty years later. Among the reasons: they become homeowners, parents, and more serious taxpayers.
Some say students also find it hard to cast a ballot when they’re living away from their home riding. The event included information for Carleton University students about the locations on campus where they will be able to vote, regardless of where they live. Learn more about voting on campus October 5 to 8 here.
