Regarding your editorial “Lowered Voting age only a matter of time” in the March 21 Saanich News.
I disagree with your editorial view. Sixteen-year-old children (youths) are insufficiently mature to participate in voting in our elections. When they have accepted responsibilities for their actions, their education, their careers, their families, their debt and tax obligations and their responsibility to the broader community, then they have earned the right to vote.
Using the Student Vote program as validation that the participating children are qualified to vote is nonsense. The program is a teaching tool an exercise without consequences, it is not a demonstration of ability to make informed critical decisions of government direction. Oak Bay - Gordon Head MLA Andrew Weaver’s support of the bill to lower the voting age is a thinly disguised opportunistic exploitation of children.
Frank Borkenhagen
Saanich