A recent UNBC survey shows that, contrary to popular belief, youth actually are involved in politics…at least in Prince George.
Students polled nearly 230 people in the city between 18-35 to see who’s been voting. Results show over 90% exercised their right to vote during the recent federal election, while more than 55% headed to the polls during the last municipal and provincial elections.
The UNBC students who conducted the survey have some ideas to further boost engagement levels.
“Some of the feedback that we had gotten from people that didn’t want to participate in our survey – they just said that they don’t think their vote counts,” says political science student Chunny Varaich. “I don’t think they understand how the voting system works. We definitely feel that councillors should go out there and make people feel that their opinion matters, that it counts and that they care.”
Varaich says the survey’s findings squash some stereotypes about apathetic young people.
“They don’t like the system. They feel that they’re presented with various barriers such as transportation, they don’t know where to go. They don’t understand the system, they don’t think their vote counts. Our findings showed otherwise – people were engaged, they liked the system, they were happy.”
She says another discovery was that the most politically engaged young people were those who had or were getting a university education.
“We did take into consideration where we were getting the majority of our results and it was at UNBC. People with a higher level of education do tend to vote because they don’t want to give up the little bit of control they do have over the agenda.”
Varaich says the poll also found that 60% of respondents were in favour of online voting.