In a last-ditch effort to shore up the vote, the Liberals are now fighting to lower the voting age in Canada to 16 years old.

It’s indisputable at this point. The Liberals have absolutely tanked their reputation in the public eye and essentially have no shot in the next election.

For months, poll after poll has found the Conservatives way ahead, poised not just to win a majority but a super majority due to the Liberals’ horrible handling of the pandemic and the economic fallout thereafter.

And the Liberals are getting desperate, pulling out all their old tricks from baselessly calling opposition MPs racists to saying the Conservatives are going after women’s abortion rights (they’re not). Only it’s not working this time around.

Clearly, they need to try something new, and lowering the voting age may just be the ticket.

During the Vote16 Summit, Liberal and Green Party Senators and MPs, along with youth representatives, convened to voice their defence of a new bill introduced by Trudeau-appointed Senator Marilou McPhedran that would see the minimum voting age lowered by 2 years in the name of ‘fairness’ and ‘having all voices heard’.

“The science and the research is clear,” began executive director of Apathy is Boring Samantha Reusch, who cited no science or research, “that extending voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds and allowing them to participate in their first election earlier in life when they’re at a less volatile stage—typically living at home; typically in classrooms engaging with their teachers on matters of civic and engagement—improves the likelihood that they will turn out and vote and improves the likelihood that they will participate long-term in our democracy.”

What wasn’t mentioned during the summit is that younger voters—having extremely limited life experience, underdeveloped brains, and so far being unaffected by high taxes that result from inflationary spending—historically vote overwhelmingly for left-wing parties, while people over 30, having felt the effect of bad government, vote increasingly right wing as they age.

That’s somewhat lessened in recent years as right-wing parties gain momentum globally and adult problems like the economy and immigration begin to negatively impact adolescents. However, there’s no reason not to believe that a majority of an even younger demographic would majorly vote Liberal, especially if most of their political opinions have been shaped by the public education system.