Provincial leaders talk democratic engagement at 'unprecedented' event

With Election Day less than 100 days away, the leaders of Ontario's four biggest provincial parties sat down at Ryerson University Wednesday to discuss ways to engage with more young Ontarians.

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"This was unprecedented. They've never come before an election campaign and talked about democracy to each other and to University students," said Martin Regg Cohn, the event moderator, political columnist and distinguished visiting professor at Ryerson's Faculty of Arts.

Regg Cohn managed to get all of the leaders to agree to participate, saying theevent's topic appealed to each of them.

"Despite all the criticism that politicians face, they really believe in democracy," he said. "We have a huge democratic deficit in Ontario. Only half of the electorate came out in the last two elections, and so they feel that pain."

One of the main focuses of the event was how to get moreyouth to vote and participate in the political process.

Below are six ideas identified by the leaders and by the students at the event.

Knowing the issues

Leader of Ontario's New Democratic Party Andrea Horwath spoke abouthow parties need to identifytopics important toyouth, such as employment, housing and the environment.

Mavis Chan, a Master of Public Policy and Administration student at Ryerson, said she thinks there are several hot topics the parties are currently missing, such as public transit.

"I'm just finishing my degree, so employment is a big thing," she said. "I am looking into buying a place maybe in a few years, or maybe renting, and that's a really daunting and scary thing as a young person in Ontario and Toronto specifically, so I'd like to hear more about their platforms on that."

Modernizing the voting system

The interim leader of Ontario's Progressive Conservative Party, Vic Fedeli, said he's interested in looking at ways to implement online voting.

PC members are already votingonline in their own leadership race between March 2 and 8.

"You work with tablets, electronic voting... the way you work is completely different than the way our system is set up," Fedeli said to the audience.

The other leaders disagreed, saying an online system is too vulnerable.

Wynne looked to the audience for ideas on how the government can use more technology, like social media, to engage with young voters.

"I didn't grow up with the social media that we have. With all due respect, nobody on this platform grew up with the technology that is available today," she said.

Another way to modernize the system, according to provincial Green Party leader Mike Schreiner, is to lower the voting age to 16.

"If you think about it, that's when your Grade 10 civics class is taking place," he said. "High school students are incredibly engaged in politics... and once you establish that voting habit that becomes a lifelong voting habit."

Ensuring youth are represented

Chan also spoke about the need for young people to be able to identify with their leaders.

"If we feel like we're just voting for the typical middle-aged white male we might not feel like it really represents our interests. So someone who articulates things a little differently, has a different personality and is relatable to youth I think could get us out there."

With the exception of the PC party's 20-year-old MPP Sam Oosterhoff, Fedeli said the next youngest member is 38.

"Young professionals, they don't see themselves reflected," he said.

Second year sports media student Raquel Franco said she wouldn't mind seeing more women in leadership roles, including as the next leader of the PCs.

"We see a lot of the same people at the helm, so I think if we could have three females running against each other it would be fascinating and great to see."

Reducing voter apathy

Although third year political science student Marshall Darbyshire votes, he said a lot of his friends don't feel the need.

"I think that a lot of young people don't realize how much it does affect them and how much their votes count," he said. "They feel like all politicians are the same and I think that a big part of that is they don't feel accessible."

A way to get past voter apathy, according to Wynne, is to introduce structural changes such as enhancing civic education courses and registering young people to vote before they finish high school.

"I can tell you having lost my first election by 72 votes, every single vote matters," she said.

Spreading information on how to vote

All of the leaders thought the province could do a better job making sure people have the information on how to register and how to vote.

Schreiner said Elections Ontario should be doing more education on school campuses, where there is a lot of confusion on how to vote and where.

It's a feeling Franco is working through right nowas the provincial election approaches.

"I go to school here in Toronto, but I'm from Ottawa and I don't know where I should be voting," she said.

Creating a better tone

Many attendees at Wednesday's event commented on the tone of political discourse these days, including Franco, who said the civility between leaders surprised her.

"To see Vic and Kathleen kind of joke around and talk to each other, that's refreshing. That's not what's advertised to the voters of Ontario and it was really nice to see that," she said.

Out of the hour-long discussion, the tone is also what stood out most to Regg Cohn.

"They usually are going at each other, and they actually, I think, respected each other and respected each other's sincerity about the idea of democratic engagement."