Research suggests young people who voted at 16 were more likely to keep voting through their mid-twenties, a period when turnout typically slumps.Arlyn McAdorey/Reuters

Scott Stirrett is the founder and CEO of Venture for Canada and the author of The Uncertainty Advantage.

Young people are tuning out. Trust in institutions is crumbling. In recent Canadian elections, seniors were nearly 60 per cent more likely to vote than young adults. That’s a democratic crisis. If we’re serious about reversing the trend, Canada needs to adopt a simple, evidence-based idea: allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to cast ballots.

Britain announced plans to do so before its next general election. Countries such as Austria, Brazil, and Argentina already allow 16-year-olds to vote in elections. Many Canadians continue to dismiss the issue as too fringe or too complex to take seriously. It’s not.

Lowering the voting age would increase turnout. Canada faces a youth voting crisis, with only 47 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds voting in the 2021 federal election, compared to 75 per cent of those aged 65 to 75. That’s a massive generational gap.

Austria lowered its voting age to 16 in 2007. Since then, 16 and 17-year-olds

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