Student leaders work to boost struggling youth voter turnout

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At Mount Royal University, ice cream and doughnuts are being used to reward students for voting in the upcoming provincial election.

But student leaders say what they’re battling is less apathy than a disconnect from the political process.

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Student leaders work to boost struggling youth voter turnout Back to video

“It’s not so much bribing them with ice cream, it’s thanking them for participating and telling them ‘democracy is delicious,'” said Amanda LeBlanc, vice-president external with the MRU Students’ Association.

“It’s not that they’re apathetic … they just need the information, the tools to get out and vote.”

But numbers from the last provincial election in 2015 would suggest a marked reluctance of younger voters to cast a ballot, with just seven per cent of those aged 18-34 doing so.

“It’s traditionally been the case of younger people getting more involved as they’re on the age ladder to paying taxes and having children,” said MRU communications professor David Taras.

Get out the vote campaigns mounted at both MRU and the University of Calgary are aiming to increase that turnout by having students sign pledges that they’ll cast ballots.

At the U of C, 4,000 students have signed up, 2,000 short of the campaign’s goal, said students’ union president Sagar Grewal.

“The atmosphere on campus is really energetic when it comes to getting the vote out,” said Grewal.

“Students are becoming increasingly aware of the impact the provincial government has on them — the economic outlook is important.”

But he said election day, April 16, coincides with final exams and studies, making it a challenge for students to vote and leading to an emphasis on advance polling April 10-11 on campus.

“We want to make sure students advocate for themselves at the polls so they can elect governments they believe will represent them,” said Grewal.

But both LeBlanc and Grewal said under their rules they couldn’t discuss electoral issues or political parties.

LeBlanc said student or youth concerns differ little from those of other Albertans.

“They have the same concerns, that the province is going in the right direction,” she said, adding 1,100 MRU students have pledged to vote, exceeding its goal by 100.

Taras agreed, saying jobs dominate the thinking of many students and youths, an issue that polls have consistently found to be top-of-mind throughout the province during the campaign.

“Young people are at the sharp end of the stick on that,” he said.

He also noted during the last federal election in 2015, the youth vote percentage jumped to 59.5 per cent from 33.7 per cent in the previous vote.

“It was a selfie election and another round of Trudeaumania, but none of these candidates in this provincial campaign generate nearly that kind of excitement,” he said.

Taras said he’s noted little attention paid to the election at MRU or at the U of C during a recent visit there.

“I don’t see people with buttons or signs, there’s no sense of political activity … nobody’s coming up to me to talk about the election,” he said.

Students, he said, are too stressed out by exams, job prospects and upcoming Easter travel to focus on the election.

But it’s probably more fruitful for the NDP among the parties to focus on the youth vote, said Taras.

“The NDP does much better with younger voters,” he said.

According to a Leger poll conducted last week, 41 per cent of the youngest group of voters support the NDP, compared to 37 per cent in the same cohort favouring the UCP.

It’s no coincidence ridings around the U of C, like Calgary-Varsity, have elected NDP and Liberal candidates in an otherwise usually Tory-blue town, said Taras.

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrnb