There is a major flaw with our democratic system – not enough people vote in elections nowadays.
In this last election where the B.C. Liberals won, just over half of the people eligible to vote actually voted, and yet we still called it a Liberal majority government.
This doesn’t work, because a majority government should mean that it represents the opinion of the majority of people in B.C.
Some reforms in the election system would make voting more fair, such as only declaring a majority government if over half of the population in B..C that were eligible to vote had voted for the party. But the biggest, most effective change would be to get young adults who can vote to vote in elections.
Many voters nowadays are middle-aged or older people, which makes up about half of B.C.’s population. As these people get older, the majority of people eligible to vote will be today’s young adults, who likely won’t vote.
If this trend continues, eventually there will be very few votes in total, and our democratic system will become ineffective. We have to convince young adults to vote and continue to teach kids to vote.
I wish I could vote, but I’m not old enough.
Jonathan Wang
Berkshire Park Elementary