Ontario MPP tables bill to lower voting age to 16

Toronto MPP wants voting age lowered to 16 A Toronto MPP is calling for the provincial government to lower the vote age to 16.

An Ontario legislator has formally proposed that the province lower the voting age from to 18 to 16.

Liberal MPP Arthur Potts, who represents the Toronto riding of Beaches—East York, says that if 16-year-olds are trusted to drive cars, coach soccer and pay income tax, “it is time to trust them to vote.”

“I believe we need to get youth more involved in the political process and doing so at age 16 will provide a mix of school structure and family engagement that will help ensure high registration, interest and participation,” Potts says in a news release announcing the tabling of his private member’s bill.

Potts points out that jurisdictions including Austria, Argentina and Brazil have lowered their voting ages to 16, and that Scotland did so with its independence referendum in 2014.

“Most recently, the activism of high school students in the United States following a spate of school shootings has demonstrated that high school youth have the capacity and a willingness to engage in the political process,” the release says.

Potts says the idea was raised by the Young Liberals wing of the party in January.

Some Queen’s Park observers have pointed out that a private member’s bill such as this one is likely to die without becoming law, because there wouldn’t be enough time to pass it before the election on June 7.

Potts calls the bill “an first important step.”

CTV Toronto asked people on Twitter what they think of the idea. One responded, “Weren’t they just eating laundry detergent?,” an apparent reference to the Tide Pods challenge. Another said, “Of course the old farts … will say no because they have this superiority complex.”