Alexandria Mitchell
Contributor
No disrespect to your grandmothers and grandfathers (they do their civic duty every few years), but this election, the narrative isn’t about them.
2011 – the election that started with the typical back and forth political spin between major parties, and Elizabeth May shouting from the sidelines, has taken a new direction.
Suddenly, it’s energetic, engaged, and including a whole demographic of voters who, in recent elections, have usually been withdrawn from the political process.
While the Tories claimed this was an election that no one wanted, it’s being turned on its head by the growing movement of ‘Vote Mobs’ across the country.
At 35 universities and counting, hundreds of youth are taking to their campuses and producing videos to share with the rest of their country. The message is simple: Youth are voting.
This election seems to be everywhere, and especially dominating social media, which accounts for growing youth participation. After all, if you want to get young people involved, you have to go where they are.
No one really knows what the vote mob movement will result in this election. Consider this: most youth aren’t registered to vote, most youth don’t have a landline to be tracked by Elections Canada, and thirdly, most youth haven’t given their cell phone number to a political party in order to be targeted through that medium.
If youth actually show up this time, this election could leave everyone surprised – without anyone having seen it coming.
Alexandria Mitchell is the co-organizer of the UBC VOTE MOB