I'd meant to call attention to this part, but y'know, short attention span and all:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Rick Mercer
And speaking of Hillary, when it comes to casting, we can't touch them. Here we are, we think of ourselves as this progressive, diverse nation and yet there's big bad backwards America and who's running for the big job? A woman, a black man, a Libertarian, a Mormon with big hair, and some dude who was in a bamboo cage in Vietnam for five-and-a-half years. Meanwhile in Canada, we're gearing up for yet another race between a pudgy white guy and a skinny white guy and some other white guy. Which may go a long way to explain the other big difference between Canada and USA politics these days: in America in this race, young people are engaged. In Canada – they're choosing none of the above.
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Emphasis obviously mine.
Is there any truth to this? It certainly seems from where I'm sitting that 18-24 year olds in Canada have very little interest in politics; there seems to be a sentiment that one party's the same as the other. I contrast this with ten years ago when there were more parties, but also seemingly clearer delineations. We all knew what the Liberals stood for, what the Reformers stood for, what the PCs stood for and what the NDP was about. These days we've got Liberals vs. the United Right with an NDP party that seems to proscribe to the 'seen and not heard' policy. Except we don't really see them either. It seems to me that the only party that's still showing very clear values and objectives is the Bloc Quebecois and their platform is (and always has been) essentially 'screw you guys, I'm going home.'
So, yeah, I'd say that younger people aren't nearly as engaged in politics. I mean, there's always that subset of twenty-somethings that are more interested in where they left the beer bong than who's running the country, but it seems to me that more and more individuals of my generation are just tuning the whole thing out as so much noise.
I'm wondering how this contrasts to our southerly neighbours. Certainly politics in the United States are much more visible. I'm not even allowed to vote in your elections and I still know who all the candidates are and have at least a vague idea of what they're about. Does this lead to a higher voter turnout? Do flashy lights and giant talking heads make the young uns vote?