The Greying of Canadian Political Parties and What Needs to be Done

par Apathy is Boring Volunteer Stephen — 11 juillet 2008

Walk into a meeting of any one of the various Canadian political parties and you’ll immediately be struck by both a presence and an absence; namely, the overwhelming presence of increasingly mature members and a discouraging lack of Canadian youth.  This imbalance ultimately challenges the relevance of Canadian political parties.  To ensure the continued relevance and representativeness of the parties, increased efforts need to be undertaken to attract more of the youth cohort.  How can this be done?

1. Increasing the number of youth candidates
Youth tend to interpret local candidates and party leaders as out of touch with the concerns of their generation; simply, they assume that older politicians are unable understand their specific needs and concerns.  By increasing the number of youth candidates in elections, this shortcoming could be addressed in a cost-effective manner. By running a series of candidates more in line with the interests and desires of Canadian youth, we have a better chance of a greater response from the younger portion of the population.  The logic is simple: supporting candidates is an important motivating factor to party membership, so by having a younger team of candidates to represent them, political parties can gain more youth members. 

2. Creating/strengthening internal youth wings
The Liberal party’s moderate success in attracting and retaining younger members (and by extension, voters!) calls for a closer study of the structure of the party.  By providing an institutional voice to youth members, the Liberals let them feel more involved in party matters and similarly made them feel as though their opinions mattered.  Other parties should follow suit and adopt such a commission as an easy way to increase youth party membership.

3. Civics education
Many people link the political apathy of today’s youth to a seemingly lost sense of public service. A possible remedy is to increase the prominence of civics courses in the education system.  Such courses possess the potential to aid in the creation of a civic identity and instill ideas of public service in the current generation.  If more youth believed in the positive and necessary nature of public service, perhaps more of them would join parties as a way of engaging in their communities.

4. Greater focus on technology
Few can argue against the importance of technology in today’s society, and with its ubiquity among the young generation, it’s obvious that if political parties embraced such technology, they could increase their appeal to youth.  Efforts to increase party membership should inevitably focus on the Internet, as youth are disproportionately overrepresented amongst Internet users. This overrepresentation calls for a political party recruitment process that relies on Internet technologies.  Using the latest technologies could also allow political parties to demonstrate their continued relevance in the modern world.  Characterized by youth as exclusive, elite oriented groups that are entirely out of touch with modern society, Canadian political parties could stand to change such attitudes by staying abreast of the most current technologies.  By using all emerging technologies, including blogs, podcasts and social networking, parties can demonstrate their relevance to youth. 

5. Creation of policy foundations
Parties put off some youth because they’re seen as exclusive and insensitive to the political hopes of potential youth members.  Still other youth understand protests, boycotts, and special interest groups as more effective ways to change government policy.   Both concerns can be dealt with by creating in-party policy foundations. The development of such a policy foundation would allow for party members to have a greater voice in policy development.  Policy foundations could allow grassroots members to play a significantly larger role in policy formulation. The establishment of a foundation dedicated exclusively to policy issues would allow parties to refocus away from their current goal of simply winning elections.  Any policy foundation should include a segment dedicated to seeking input from youth.  Such a segment would ultimately involve facilitating input via youth-centric forms of communication.  This would involve fully embracing the Internet as a key form of communication.   Debates, policy conventions, news conferences, committee speeches, and more would all be streamed online to allow youth to stay informed and involved.

Bringing youth into the various political parties remains a priority in Canadian politics, as parties exist as the gateway through which one enters the political realm.  Such a goal is of utmost importance if political parties want to remain relevant in the 21st century.  Continuing on their current path is simply not a viable option: parties would overflow with elderly members and ever-dwindling numbers of youth members would be insufficient to replenish the ranks.  The measures listed above provided a guideline as to what parties can do to remain representative and relevant in Canadian politics.


For those interested check out;
Contours of Political Party Membership in Canada by William Cross and Lisa Young
Are Canadian Political Parties Empty Vessels? by William Cross and Lisa Young