I have created this mini photo collage with the picture above! I chose to use this collage as I believe it accurately depicts The Canadian Government system in 3 parts. In my opinion, these three major points of The Canadian Government make Canada the way it is today. An open-minded, inclusive, and supportive country. 

 

1. I have chosen the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to Depict Canada as a nation. It represents the Canadian population and the amazing country we live in. I chose “The Charter” to represent this because in a way it shows our values as a country and provides us with personal identity. As a Canadian, I can fully stand behind “The Charter” and say I am proud to live in a country that supports all of my rights and freedoms.

 

2. For this collage, I chose these three images to represent The Queen and Canada’s roots in England. This is a significant part of our country and shows us how far our country has come since being a British Colony. This also depicts the side of The Canadian Government that Canadians can not necessarily control. We do not directly influence the decisions The Queen makes and what she approves, and what she does not.

 

 

3. I chose these three images to represent the impact the people of Canada have on the government. The freedom we have to DIRECTLY impact the way the country is run. I chose to include different voting results in federal elections as this is the most direct way we can have influence over our government.

 

To reiterate what I mentioned above, I made this photo collage to represent the three major parts of the Canadian Government and how our country is run.

In the rest of this post, I will be providing you with evidence and key ideas and relate them to my opinion to lower the required age to vote!

Government History

Now to start things off, Canada is aConstitutional Monarchy, as well as a Democracy. What does this mean though? A Constitutional Monarchy is similar to a regular Monarchy. Monarchy means that the king or queen (Queen Elizabeth II in my case) is the head of state. This gives them complete power of their reigning land and can do whatever they want. A Constitutional Monarchy, is similar in how we still have a queen as our head of state, but we also have a Constitution. The Constitution is the Supreme Law of Canada. It was first founded in 1867. The Constitution includes basic human rights, right of free speech, free choice of religion and so much more.

The Constitution and the Queen work hand in hand. No law made by congress (The Parliament of Canada) can be made a law without the Queen’s approval. And no law The Queen makes can be applied without the approval of congress.

I mention this history because the law states that anybody under the age of 18 is not allowed to vote. I believe this should be changed.

With proof of the youth Canadian election that occurred on September 20, 2021 hopefully I can get you to agree with me. And who knows if we agree on this, who knows what else we might agree on. Want to start a political party?😉

Election History:

Every time there is a Federal Election, there is also a nationwide Student Election. This takes place so Political Parties and the government can see the thoughts and interests of the youth of Canada. I will take the two most recent Federal Elections to base my points off.

In 2019, The Liberal party of Canada won theStudent Vote with 24% of votes and 117 seats. The NDP formed the official opposition with 28% votes but only 105 seats.

In 2019 the real election was much different. With the Liberals winning 33.12% of votes and the Conservatives with 1% more. The Liberals had more seats but this marked the second time in history where a party won the election with less than 35% of the popular vote. The NDP party won 24 seats, its worst result since 2004.

So why was the NDP so present in the student election, and not the real deal? Let’s take another example, the 2021 Federal Election.

This year, in the Student Vote, the Liberals took 117 seats, (minority government) and the NDP won 107 (official opposition).

In the actual vote, the Liberals won 158 seats despite losing the popular vote and receiving the lowest percentage of votes in history while winning. The Conservatives remain the Official Opposition with 119 seats.

Takeaways

Where is Jagmeet Singh! Why has he been so present in student votes, and not nearly as present in the real elections? Does the youth of Canada need a change? I would ague yes. With 3 years in between federal elections, and the results VERY similar, it seems like the youth of Canada want a change? And of course their voices must be heard!

While a great move, I do believe there are some risks that come with lowering the age restrictions to vote. In the 2019 student vote in the Burnaby North-Seymour riding, a candidate for the Conservative party of Canada named “Rocky Dong” won my school, Seycove Secondary School with a staggering amount of votes. All because of his name. Student’s bought his t-shirts and loved him because of his name and his commercials. As you can obviously tell, this is not a good look when trying to lower the age restrictions to voting. I believe this party occurred because the students knew that “the student vote doesn’t matter” although it is useful data, it does not actually determine who leads our government. I believe if the students know the impact of their vote and know that it may determine who leads their country for the next years, they will take it more seriously.

I would like to send you to my friend Grace’s blog. She mentions some key factors about the riding system in Canada. This furthers and continues my point about how with different laws and if things are done differently, the outcome of elections can change completely.

I would like to emphasis that this post is not intended to be bias or supporting any party in any way🙂