The Jan. 16 issue of Maclean’s contains an article titled “Stop him before he votes” with a puzzling photo of a young man sporting sunglasses and holding a peeled banana. The authors of the article present the notion that 18-year-olds are “too immature to vote,” and take it a step further in suggesting that the voting age should be raised to 21.
They write that “kids today” are not the same as they were back in 1970, when the voting age was reduced to 18. In essence, they argue, young people today are comfortable living off their parents, moving “willy-nilly from job to job.” If anything, the fact that the job market is becoming increasingly unstable, often prompting students to stay in school longer, are reasons why young people should be voting. Education and employment are political issues that deeply affect youth.
The article goes on to say: “put kids with half-baked brains in a North America that’s learned to coddle its young and you get a group of voters who can’t manage to scratch an X on a ballot.” This statement is not only baseless, but it is as far away from the truth as the article is from good journalism. Voting is not the only way young people are involved in their communities, and voter turnout is hardly an accurate measure of whether or not we care about issues that concern us. At our university alone there are clear signs that students care: just look at all the clubs, committees, and councils on campus, not to mention the party signs that are springing up around the Ghetto during the current election campaign. Perhaps this perceived apathy is a symptom of the ineffectiveness of current efforts to engage young people in politics. This, if anything, would be more of a reason to lower the voting age in order to encourage young people to vote. If we did, we might get young people into the habit of voting before they leave home to pursue their education or take on “willy-nilly” contract employment.
Further “evidence” presented in the article includes findings that “teenage brains are underdeveloped, particularly in areas dealing with judgement and impulse control.” If we were to use this finding as our main criterion for determining an individual’s capacity to vote, it could also be applied to those of older generations who may have experienced an age-related deterioration of the brain and consequently, the individual’s abilities. Few older Canadians are likely to introducing a maximum voting age on these grounds, however.
The Maclean’s article also features a photo of the overturned car on Aberdeen Street last September with KCVI student Zola Mehlomakulu atop it, with the caption: “Why don’t politicians listen to us? Queen’s University students celebrate homecoming.” The photo was used out of context, however, and its caption missed the well publicized fact that Mehlomakulu is not, in fact, a Queen’s student. It is disappointing that a magazine with as wide a circulation as Maclean’s has resorted to such shock-value tactics, trading journalistic integrity for readership.
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