Is it time for Canada to lower the federal voting age?

OTTAWA — Jaden Braves, 16, says being unable to vote in this federal election is a “disappointment” — and he’d like to be one of the last young Canadians to be left out of the conversation.

Braves and the organization he leads, Young Politicians of Canada, want to see the federal voting age lowered to 16.

“I hope that by the time I am 18, 16-year-olds that will be two years younger than me will have the chance to show up to the polls and cast a ballot,” said Braves, who is also involved with Vote 16 Canada and has a motion before Toronto city council that would extend municipal voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds.

“That’s what’s fair. That’s what represents constitutional democracy and that’s what will protect our future at large.”

Braves said he thinks lowering the voting age would boost civic engagement and voter turnout. He said his organization has proposed implementing standardized civics education to ensure Canadians understand the basics of Canada’s political system.

“You can’t have 15- and 16-year-olds voting if they don’t know the fundamentals of our constitutional democracy and our parliamentary system,” he said. “But also, at the same time, you don’t have adults that are aware of those functions, of the systems of how this country actually works.”

Politicians have been debating whether to lower the voting age for decades.

Sen. Marilou McPhedran has introduced several bills seeking to lower the federal voting age from 18 to 16. She said doing so would add about two million people to the voter pool and would help get young people engaged in politics.

Several parties have introduced bills over the past 20 years to lower the voting age. McPhedran’s most recent bill, which reached second reading in the Senate, was killed when the election was called.

McPhedran said she’s committed to tabling new legislation at the earliest opportunity to extend voting rights to young people who have been “silenced by our political system.”

“Our democracy has, in their experience, very often silenced them or not been prepared to listen to them,” she said.

Sen. Don Plett has described himself as the opposition critic on McPhedran’s legislation. He has argued that while increasing voter turnout is a “commendable” goal, it’s not an appropriate standard to use in deciding whether to lower the voting age.

The Canada Elections Act was amended to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 in 1970.

Several countries, including Scotland, Austria, Cuba and Nicaragua, allow 16-year-olds to vote in elections.

Several politicians have supported a lower voting age in Canada, including New Brunswick Green Leader David Coon and Liberal MP Marie-France Lalonde.

Michael J. Wigginton, a postdoctoral fellow in political science at Carleton University, said research on voter turnout in Austria shows that 16- and 17-year-olds are as capable as anyone else of making an informed voting choice — though they’re also generally less likely to vote.

“You might see some interesting dynamics there where, if the median age of voters gets younger and younger, that might change how parties pitch to the public,” Wigginton said.

“But then again, they might have taken the same stance a lot of them are now, where younger voters aren’t necessarily the best to pitch to because they’re the hardest to get to turn out to vote.”

Wiggington said introducing younger voters to elections could encourage the parties to change the way they engage with certain policy topics, such as education.

“Rather than only be concerned with the opinions of parents and the community at large around K-12 education, parties would now also need to consider the opinions of current high school students,” Wigginton said.

He said issues like government funding of universities and student loans could become more “electorally salient” and the younger median age of the electorate could change the way campaigning parties engage with policy.

“So, a slightly lower emphasis on (old age security) or nursing homes, and a slightly greater emphasis on helping first-time homebuyers or on student loans,” Wigginton said.

The Elections Canada website says voter turnout generally increased with age in the 2021 election. Turnout rates ranged from 47 per cent for ages 18 to 24 to 75 per cent for ages 65 to 74. It declined to 66 per cent for those aged 75 and older.

“This pattern has been seen in every general election since 2004,” the website says.

Wiggington said legislation to lower the voting age would be unlikely to pass without the government backing it.

“If (Liberal Leader) Mark Carney is the prime minister after the election and if he’s behind this, then yeah, it could happen quite surprisingly, quite quickly out of nowhere,” he said. “But otherwise, I don’t really think it will.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2025.

Catherine Morrison, The Canadian Press