Canada should follow U.K.'s initiative to lower voting age to 16, says senator (www.nationalobserver.com)

submitted 4 days ago by NightOwl@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca

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[-] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

90 year olds shouldn’t be voting on things that are going to affect 2 year olds for the rest of their lives without 2 year olds having a voice. That argument is kinda vague and baseless.

And likewise, why does a 16 year old get to decide how an 80 year old that can’t get to the polls should live their final days? How much OAS they get, or which healthcare they get, etc.

Those old people will die soon and the rest of that 16 year olds life they can vote for whatever selfish things they want to have too. It’s annoying to arbitrarily assume old people are just trying to fuck over the younger generation without a care when that would be wildly unpopular with basically all other age groups.

Honestly I do not think 16 year olds should get to vote. They’ve barely had a chance to have a job (legally 1 year at most) and they haven’t even applied to university or college yet. They broadly don’t know what responsibility is, they don’t know what work is, and they’re not fully mentally mature.

18 sure, life is starting to hit you then. 16 is simply too young and too inexperienced at life to put in a place to decide how we all live.

[-] MapleEngineer@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago

90 year olds aren't going to vote for education, childcare, etc. They have a few years left to live. 16 year old have their entire lives to live. Look at what happened in Britain. Old people voted to withdraw from the EU which disproportionately harmed young, mobile professionals.

[-] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 0 points 3 days ago

I could defintely see 16 year olds voting against their best interests, such as lower drinking ages, less school years, easier school circulums. Ending school at grade 10 might sound like a great idea to a 16 year old and the mp pitching it could convince older canadians it would save a lot of taxes as well, all well significantly impacting that new generations education potential.