Social media can be a valuable tool to inform young voters. Now more than ever, people can log on to their accounts and receive up-to-date political information.
Traditionally, there has been less turnout on election day from youth voters than from older demographics. In the 2019 federal election, only 54% of eligible voters aged 18-24 voted compared to 79% of eligible voters aged 65-74.
On Monday night it was announced that Trudeau was the winner of the 2021 federal election. Saskatchewan was once again overtaken by the blue wave, with a Conservative victory in each of the 14 ridings. In Regina, all three ridings were won by their Conservative incumbents. Andrew Scheer for Regina-Qu’Appelle, Warren Steinley for Regina Lewvan, and Michael Kram for Regina Wascana.
Local news outlets like the Regina Leader-Post and CTV News Regina continuously updated their social media accounts on the night of the election. These updates consisted of links to published articles regarding the election.
24 year old Juliana Khoury, daughter of Nova Scotia Liberal Party President Joseph Khoury and NSLP Secretary Janet Becigneul, encourages following election coverage.
“I went to a bar and watched [the election coverage] because I don’t have a TV but I wanted to watch it in real time… I invited my classmates to come with me. I don’t know that they were planning to go before I put out that invitation.”
How can young Canadians be encouraged to engage with politics? Khoury thinks social media can be used to as one way to promote voting and stay politically informed.
“I know a lot of my friends outside of my cohort were following [the election] on twitter… I always post a lot about voting because I’m a young person and so I have a lot of young people in my circle. I think that the more people who encourage others, the better that could be.”
Prior to the election some politicians, namely NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, got on TikTok to try and connect with the youth demographic. In Regina, the NDP were the second most popular party in two of the three ridings: Regina Qu’Appelle and Regina Lewvan.
Different platforms offer different levels of credibility. Khoury goes to twitter first because it has a feature that warns users of false information.
“We’re seeing some really intense polarization that started in the states but has not stayed in the states, we’re seeing it in Canada. We saw it in this election… I think that social media is a big tool in that. I think that the spread of false information has angered swaths of the population and it’s showing up in dangerous ways.”
Social media can provide young Canadians with accurate political information as long as users can fact check and access reputable sources.
