This short post draws from my post-comprehensive exams backlog of ideas. With provincial elections happening in Ontario and Quebec later this year (June and October, respectively), I figure it’s worth highlighting some examples of democratic engagement with young people that could help inform political debate. Because children are citizens too.
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I just started reading a book by French political philosopher Alain Renaut that opens with a discussion of the “paradox” of the child-citizen in a democracy. The gist so far: citizens are understood to be autonomous actors in democracies; children as citizens should therefore enjoy autonomy. However, children require adult assistance to exercise their autonomy, so how can children be fully citizens? I’m sure I’ll have more to say as I work through Renaut’s ideas, but in the meantime I thought I’d look back at last fall’s Canadian federal election and Quebec municipal elections, among other sources, for examples of ways that children are already practicing their citizenship (often with adult assistance).
A fairly widespread form of democratic engagement with children and youth happens through mock voting in schools. During the last federal election, CIVIX coordinated with schools across Canada as part of its Student Vote Canada program to teach students about elections. Student polls took place in schools ahead of the official votes to see where students stand in comparison to their adult counterparts. While the student results differed from those of adults, there was an important similarity with the official election: no one party would have earned a majority if only student votes were counted.
Youth engagement by civil society organizations isn’t just the purview of CIVIX. The Students Commission of Canada conducts workshops with young people on issues that are of concern to them, resulting last year in a series of #CanadaWeWant reports that lay out a vision for what Canada could be. The Young Canadians’ Parliament, for its part, isn’t just a mock parliament, but develops reports on issues affecting children that are shared with policymakers. Similarly, Shaking the Movers brings young people together each year to hear their voices and make recommendations related to a specific theme.
Local governments offer a more direct way for children and youth to contribute to democratic debate, especially around issues in their communities. During the municipal election in Gatineau, Quebec, youth issues were covered in the news, including a reminder from the Commission jeunesse de Gatineau that youth are citizens too. The local Radio-Canada website even had a municipal elections page dedicated to youth issues. Youth engagement at the municipal level is increasingly common, not only in Gatineau, but also in my hometown of Burlington, Ontario, among many other places.
With all these examples, a question often arises: are children really being heard and taken seriously, or is it all for show? I had some thoughts on this during last year’s federal election debates, but I’ll leave the more sophisticated discussion to Laura Lundy, who has done extensive research on child participation. At least in Canada, civil society and some governments are seeking out ways to engage children as citizens. Mainstreaming such practices, alongside lowering the voting age and other potential democratic reforms*, would go a long way to ensuring children are respected as citizens of both today and tomorrow.
*Andrew Potter in his piece mentions several commentators who wrote against lowering the voting age in Canada’s (generally conservative-leaning) op-ed pages. While I imagine those writers reflect a not insignificant subset of adults in Canada, you can easily find other politicos in favour of the idea. For example, during a chat between three Canadian media personalities during a podcast episode last December, when the discussion of lowering the voting age (starting at 28:37) turned to the downsides of letting 16- and 17-year-olds vote, the trio’s answer: “…crickets…” (39:54).