Hell no!!!! There's enough idiots in the voting pool already.

Fresh young impressional minds are easy to mold.

should probably let cats and dogs and moose vote too........

I can already see the smear campaigns and messaging that the government will then put into the high school hallways...

I for one think this is not a good idea.

Generally the majority of the population does not vote in elections because they either don't care or they realize that they do not know enough about the system to make an informed decision. I think that if the the voting age is lowered to 16, the same would happen anyways. We might as well let the politically attuned youth their chance to participate in our society while their deadbeat parents refuse to contribute meaningfuly to the political process.

Mike Dejong should be taping up his knees & ankles because his leaps in logic are staggering. Raised to Adult Court is a
responsibility that somehow can be equated
with voting???WTF??? I have a hard time with the fact that convicted criminals keep
their voting rights.
As for Military service you can only enter into the reserves at 16, a person will NEVER see active duty at that age unless they get away with lying about their age. At 17 recruits are accepted with signed parental documentation.
Certainly there are some 16 year olds that are more than mature enough to handle the priveledge & responsibility of the vote but for the most part, no way.

Come on Mike give your head a shake. You wonder why people have stopped voting and turned their backs on the political process?
The lies and deceit spewed by you and your colleagues over the past ten years if the reason. We won' sell BC Rail; we wont break up Hydro; we are not considering implementing HST; we will not expand gambling; we will have the best education system in the world; we will eliminate food banks and on and on. Lies, deceit and subterfuge! The province is drowning in it and you wonder why people stop voting. If you haven't figured this out you are not a candidate for the Leader of this Province.
Everything you stand for is the same old same old.
Now you want Kids to make the difference. What are you going to do to entice them?? Maybe give them a cell phone or an I pad so they can stumble through life text messaging the world.
Why do you not listen to the Seniors in this Province who built the culture and the diversity. Talk to the seniors who have poured Billions into the building of the province, and many thousands of them sit in poverty.
Be realistic Man for God's sake. Don't start looking at Kids to solve our problems, start listening the the people, who pay the taxes. Start listening to the working poor. Stop giving away and selling our assets to foreign corporations, and exporting our resources, when we should be building an infrastructure to create jobs at home.

Enough silliness and political pandering and lets get this Province back on track.
LISTEN MAN LISTEN!

Only if they wear an NV on there Back.
Strange Place we live in, join the Army, drive a Car, now voting at 16, but can't drink a Beer great Logic !

I wonder if Mike realizes that this would lead to more NDP votes. My kids teachers already push that agenda on them daily...

Actually they can't drive, not by themselves anyways. They can only have a learners at 16.

deJong just used poor logic and a small brain to beat himself right out of the Liberal leadership race!
He is indeed an idiot!
Mind you...that was pretty much understood when he entered the race!
The little voices in his head are speaking....

Bone head

I like Mike. Out of the box thinking, but ppl are not ready for this type of idea.

And to tell you the truth, at the end of the day, this idea would probably hurt his party more as other posters have mentioned due to kids being very idealistic young, and more practical older.

Just shouldn't have stated the last paragraph about introducing legislation to lower the age. Know your audience Mike.

Runner46 ..... that is so unlike you!!!! Someone has finally hit a chord with your positive outlook on things.... ;-)

I think this is a diversionary tactic from the real issues. DeJong and others can't even deal with the issues at hand and keep the existing voters and taxpayers at bay. We need an improvement at output side of government, not the input side.

Once we have the output side (that's you deJong and others) back into addressing the needs of the population at large, then we can see whether the voting age should be adjusted either upward or downward.

Drop the drinking age, leave the voting age. 16 year olds won't vote unless they can do it on their iphone. It would add volatility and nothing more. I can just picture a political party catering to know-nothing snot-nosed kids with impractical ideals - wait, that's the NDP!!!

Ask most 16 year olds who the Prime Minister is and they can't tell you. Why would we let them vote? As for low voter turn out, maybe if there was an actual leader who excited the voters or if we choosing between good and good or good and bad instead of bad and worse... we would have a reason to vote.

I think a better proposal would be to put a "none of the above" box on the voter card.

Of course, the leadership race is only open to vote by BCLiberal party members. Don't think that will be something that a lot of party members will endorse. The general population would likely be totally different on that. It might actually get more people out to vote.

Even more positive than that would be to allow a write-in vote.

Imagine the chaos that would ensue if someone would actually win a write-in vote through putting together a campaign through a few of the so-called "social networks".

How many 16 year olds would vote marijuana or green party?

We need a Premier that will pressure the legal system to create and uphold harsher punishments and take the power away from the criminals.

Talk to Harper. The Criminal Code is a Federal Statute.

What will get you provincial votes in Alberta will not work in Quebec and the Maritimes, and likely not much of Ontario either.

Most 16 year olds do not have enough life experiences to make intelligent decisions when it comes to choosing who to vote for or for a whole list of things for that matter.

Hell, a whole lot of so called adults don't either. Just look at the mess we're in now!

Excellent comments Trackster!

gamblor says..."I can just picture a political party catering to know-nothing snot-nosed kids with impractical ideals - wait, that's the NDP!!!"

What do you mean "thats the NDP"?
This story is about the Liberals trying to set it up that way, not the NDP. Do you really think the Liberals would do something the same as the NDP? This is clearly a Liberal vote getting scheme.

Perhaps Mikey thinks he can't count on too many "adults" in B.C. for votes,so he is going after teenagers now?
The comments at coffee time were hilarious!

Here is a link to some informed research on voter apathy for the wonderful Mr. deJong. Do some research before you speak. If that is an indication how this fellow handles all his decision making from his seat in the Legislature, then he is a poor candidate for leadership.

http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features/voter-turnout-canada

For the following reasons, the trend is the younger the respondent the more likely that is the case.
1. not interested
2. busy at work

The trend is reversed for the following:
1. illness
2. too many elections

75% of people in the age group of 18 to 24 DO NOT vote.

The article goes on to explain that moving to a proportional representation system would likely increase voter participation because their vote would have substatnially more meaning.

So, if someone like deJong wants to move out there with vote reform, I think he might get more traction with promoting a PR system.

Hey DeJong you and your fiberal ilk are all liars. What is the point on voting when you lie to get in. Where is the democracy when it is only about the party and only the party. DeJong you are the problem, get a mirror and have a good look.

Hey we have the right to vote to!!! Yes most of us don't no anything about politics and care about doing drugs behind the schools, but the ones who actually care about OUR future... Well then we should vote... And not ALL of us are easily "tricked"

Know* anything

Maybe he thinks there are a lot of baby liberals out there.

I say the younger they start to vote and take an interest in the world about them the better, most 16 year could post more mature comments than those found on here today

This is one of the same clowns who lowered the age of sexual consent to 14. If we do anything, we should raise it bacK to 21, like California did. The 16 year ild minds of today will always vote liberal simply because of the meaning of the word. No moral values and all religions are bunk is their attitude. De Jong is an idiot, just like his leader.

I think De Jong must have joined the Marijuana Party to have come up with such a idiotic idea.

Maybe this is why most politicians (like Bush) talk and interact with elementary school kids all the time. These kids have no idea about voting and they haven't paid any or enough taxes to hate said politicians.