Elections BC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2009

VICTORIA – This May 12 is an important day for all of British Columbia, but especially for Robert Prior, a high school honours student who celebrates his 18^th birthday that day. 

Robert only recently found out he’ll be joining hundreds of thousands of British Columbians gathering at voting places across the province on May 12 for the General Election and referendum on electoral reform. 

He qualifies by one day: anyone who is 18, a Canadian citizen and a resident of B.C. for six months on May 12 is eligible to vote. 

And despite other distractions like exams and school reports, he’s enthusiastic about exercising his democratic right. 

“I’m looking forward to it,” says Robert.  “There’s no point in democracy if people don’t vote. What would happen if people didn’t care about voting at all?” 

Robert is one of an estimated 50,000 young people in B.C. who turn 18 this year. He recently discovered that only 35% of 357,000 eligible voters aged 18 to 24 voted in the last B.C. election, a lower rate than any other age group. 

“That’s pretty poor,” he says.  He hopes he and many other young voters across the province will make a difference and boost the voting rate in May. 

Robert is six-foot-four, and a gold-tier honours student, the kind of Grade 12 student other kids at St. Andrew’s Regional High School in Saanich literally look up to.

He may be a serious, studious teen-his high marks have already earned him entry into first-year engineering at the University of Victoria. But he also enjoys video games and playing rock and blues on his guitar.  He’s currently learning “Sultans of Swing” by Dire Straits. 

He’s been discussing the election and referendum with his parents and plans to accompany them to the voting place in Saanich South on May 12, where he will register and vote for the first time–and then go home and enjoy his birthday cake. 

Robert’s father Ed Prior says elections come naturally to the Prior family as he and his wife Gill always vote and have taken Robert and his younger sister Katie to voting places. 

“The enthusiasm of youth like Robert is contagious,” says Gillian Angrove, Elections BC’s Youth Liaison Officer.  “It helps spread the dialogue about voting among family and friends.”  Angrove has been meeting with youth who are voting for the first time in schools, colleges and universities in various regions of the province and has helped more than 800 students register to vote. 

RESOURCES FOR YOUTH VOTING 

Elections BC’s Student and Youth resource page
Elections BC’s Facebook page
Get Your Vote On, young people raising enthusiasm for voting
Student Vote, working with educators to engage students in democracy 

-30-

Contact:
Kenn Faris
Manager, Event Communications
Phone: 250-387-2949
Email: Kenn.Faris@elections.bc.ca

Click on image for print quality version.