Lowering the voting age to 16

The Star is soliciting reader feedback on the possibility of lowering the voting age to 16.

Some of the reasons people are giving about why 16-year-olds shouldn't be allowed to vote are really disturbing. Because random people outside their demographic things their demographic does not care about politics? Because random people think they have too many other things to worry about? Because not all the issues will necessarily affect them immediately and directly? Perhaps those are reasons why an individual may exercise their own choice not to vote, but they certainly aren't good reasons to deny an entire identifiable group of people the right to vote.

People become interested in politics at different ages, and now there is far more information available than ever before, so anyone who knows how to use Google and has the patience and interest for a bit of reading can make an informed decision. I'd say let anyone vote who wants to vote, regardless of age, and people will self-select. Those who aren't interested in politics won't vote, and those who are interested, and therefore make the effort to become informed and engaged, will vote.

I would also propose giving the vote to anyone who can correctly answer the following questions:

1. Name all four political parties who currently have party status in the house of commons, and identify the leader of each party. State which of these leaders is prime minister and which is leader of the opposition.
2. Name any current cabinet minister and their portfolio.
3. Name any two candidates in your riding, and the party each one belongs to.
4. Name your riding's current MP and the party they belong to.
5. State any two parties' positions on any issue.

So if you can show that you're aware of who the key players are and that you've at least gone to the trouble to look at the parties' or candidates' websites to see what their platforms say about your favourite issue, you're in. If a 12-year-old can answer all these questions, let them vote. If some 60-year-old thinks Ernie Eves belongs to the Liberal party (as someone in Lindsay, Ontario, so famously did in a Toronto Star interview during the last provincial election), then they don't get to vote.