Climate change, affordability, transit: what Winnipeg youth care about this election

Youth organizations in Winnipeg are encouraging young people to vote in the upcoming municipal election. They’re also highlighting major issues facing young people.

Victoria Romero with the University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) says young Winnipeggers have the right and responsibility to make their voices heard at the polls.

“Especially for mayor there’s a lot of different candidates, there’s 11, so I think it even goes to show moreso this year that everyone’s vote really matters so much, just because of how close of a race it might be between all the candidates,” said Romero, UMSU’s vice-president advocacy.

“I think that it’s really important that young people get out there in any election, but especially the city because they do play a role in a lot of student-centric services.

“There’s a pretty wide scope of both infrastructural and social things that young people have their eye on in the municipal election.”

Environment, housing, transportation

Apathy is Boring, an organization focused on youth engagement in Canadian democracy, recently conducted a poll. They reached out to 3,000 young Canadians asking them what issues impact them most.

Rise program coordinator Jennifer Block says that biggest issues mentioned in the poll mirror those of youth in Winnipeg.

“It’s climate change, it’s affordability. Those are big concerns,” said Block. “But one concern that they constantly bring up that is very specific to Winnipeg is the accessibility in transportation issue. And I think those three issues are really, really relevant to the current election that’s going on because they all pertain to municipal jurisdiction.

“Mayors can be drafting plans, providing solutions and responding to youth about their concerns because this is directly within the jurisdiction.”

Romero highlights some more concerns such as libraries and study spaces, housing, the environment.

Getting youth involved

She says the student union hopes to get more youth participation in the election by organizing a mayoral forum.

They also plan to send an environment-specific survey to mayoral and city councillor candidates. Results will be posted on the UMSU website for students to access.

There will also be information tables set up on campus, and a social media campaign encouraging young voters.

MORE FROM MUNICIPAL CAMPAIGN:

• Winnipeg mayoral candidates address crime
• Winnipeg mayoral candidates address infrastructure
• Winnipeg’s mayoral candidates address homelessness, housing crisis

Youth leaders say it’s important to get young people informed, and making the information accessible.

“We really try to use accessible language and terms that youth understand and meet them where they’re at,” said Block. “A big barrier to politics is that youths just don’t understand what’s happening because the language surrounding it is so it’s so jargony and convoluted that people just check out.

“So we really try to gather the most accessible information for youth to understand, not only so that they can digest and understand the information more, but so that they can share that information with their friends and family and have more of a conversation outside of social media.”