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02/02/2005 Entry: "Voting at 16 urged"

MORONS II: I'm young enough at 33 to remember myself at 16. Boy, did I know it all. Though the very faint traces of my eventual conservatism was beginning to become felt, I felt -- as most teens do -- that I had the answers to everything. As everyone learns, the older you get the more you realize you don't know very much at all. Or to put it another way, you realize that you don't have all the answers. At least that's what the modest among us would say.

At any rate, the reason why I bring this up is up here in Canada a Liberal MP named Mark Holland is campaigning to lower the voting age to 16. Enough MPs from all parties support the notion that his private member's bill is actually being debated.

"I don't think we give them enough credit. We're asking them to be responsible, yet at the same time we're sending a contradictory message, saying you're too young to understand and you shouldn't have a voice," the 30-year-old MP for Ajax-Pickering said.

Noting voter turnout runs as low as 22% for 18- to 22-year-olds and about 33% for those under 30, Holland said lowering the voting age is a good antidote for voter apathy. If young people are engaged in the civic process while they're still in the education stream, they're more likely to keep it up in adulthood, he said.

Why not give them cigarettes and alcohol as well? I don't want to diss the teens of Canada -- or anywhere else for that matter -- but at 16 most teens are simply not equipped emotionally and factually to participate in the political life of the country. I love them, but let them mature a bit before we start giving away the keys to the country's car.

The funny thing is that the Toronto Sun surveyed some teens at a shopping mall and found that most thought it would be a mistake to lower the voting age.

"I don't think kids are responsible enough at that age," said Shre Singh, a 17-year-old high school student in Toronto. "I know I'm not."

Frank Campos, of Brampton, agreed.

"I don't think it's a good idea," the 15-year-old said, explaining, "I don't know much about politics and neither do my friends. I don't think teenagers are interested in that stuff."

Listen to the kids Mark.