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Txt the Vote

THROUGHOUT the evening of June 28, tourists and locals alike interrupted their stroll through Ottawa's club district to cluster just outside the doors of a local TV studio. Everyone was trying to catch a glimpse of one of the 20 monitors beaming the live federal election results to the street. Some of the passersby muttered in disbelief, some looked relieved, others merely shrugged. A few watched the talking heads inside the studio prep for their next on-air exchange. Despite predictions of a divisive left/right race too close to call, within minutes of the polls' closing in vote-rich Ontario and Quebec, the outcome was no longer in question. The Liberal Party would form a government for a fourth straight term, albeit with a minority of seats. Prime Minister Paul Martin would have to seek support for his legislative agenda from parties with fewer seats or face a quick and embarrassing defeat in Parliament. Professional political pundits had speculated for weeks about the consequences of a minority government, its inherent instability, and which parties could be persuaded to support particular slices of others' platforms. Was another constitutional crisis inevitable? Political junkies had been so consumed with the unfolding drama that they predicted that a sluggish and petulant Canadian electorate would stampede the polls, reversing several decades of declining voter participation rates, especially among young people. The chattering classes had been wringing their verbal hands for months over Canada's dismal record. With a turnout rate in the 2000 federal election of just 61.5%, Canada had fallen to 77th place in the international rankings of electoral participation. Even more troubling, only 25% of voters between the ages of 18 and 24 cast ballots in the 2000 federal election.1 On election night, as I watched alongside the young voters -- and nonvoters -- outside the TV studio, I overheard a conversation that would please any teacher who believes that the future of democracy is wandering the halls of our schools. In heavily French-accented English, a young man who looked to be about 16 years old explained the intricacies of parliamentary government to his mostly mute companion. He described not only the system of parties and constituencies but also the roles of ministers, backbenchers, and the Opposition. He went on to comment on the impact of the recent ruling that permits the reporting of early results across different time zones. For a finale, he recounted details of the 1926 political crisis that determined the role of the Canadian governor general in the event of elections that fail to produce majorities. It was an impressive performance, even if this young man's one-buddy audience was more interested in the club scene than the political one. I returned to the studio buoyed by my eavesdropping. Maybe it was true. Maybe the $11 million spent by Elections Canada to encourage higher voter turnout, especially among young people, had succeeded. Youth- targeted and self-consciously "hip" advertising had been claiming for weeks that voting was cool, and media of all varieties had plumbed the psyche of pretty well every young nonvoter in the country. At least some of the interviewees seemed exasperated by all the fuss. They complained that youth issues were being ignored in the campaigns and that all the parties had pitched their platforms to the preoccupations of older (i.e., more-likely-to-vote) generations. Like stubborn friends who have had a falling-out, some of these young people warned that, until the politicians paid attention to them, they weren't going to pay attention to the politicians. A few of the more aggressive anti-voters sported Urban Outfitter T-shirts that read, "Voting Is for Old People."2 Or at least it's reserved for adults. Perhaps the "old folks who vote" have underestimated the societal and economic shifts that have delayed adulthood for many youths. …