In the last municipal election, a meagre 25 per cent of Lake Country voters dropped their ballots into a white box.

B.C.鈥檚 average voter turnout for municipal elections is 33 per cent and you can鈥檛 argue that it鈥檚 Lake Country鈥檚 population size that makes its voters so uninterested in local politics as Peachland, with a population of 5,000, has had the highest voter turnout in the Central for the past decade.

Don Wilson, with the Peachland Museum, says its because of Peachland鈥檚 retired population, as about half of the municipality is over the age of 55.

READ MORE: Peachland has highest voter turnout for the past decade in Central Okanagan

While this theory may be true, we then turn at the age-old argument of why young people don鈥檛 vote. Lake Country has a growing population of young families, who will be affected by rising housing costs, public beach accessibility, water quality, taxes, ect. for years to come.

It鈥檚 not a problem that only Lake Country deals with, young Canadians under 35 don鈥檛 often show up to the polls on both provincial and national levels (however, there was a spike of interest for the federal election in 2017).

The decisions your council makes has a direct impact on your city. Politicians will naturally gravitate to policies and messages that affect baby boomers, as they are Canada鈥檚 largest demographic, but that shouldn鈥檛 be a deterrent for millennials. If we voted more, maybe we鈥檇 see politicians start to address issues that have more of an effect on our age group.

It鈥檚 baffling how many young people complained about the smoke this past summer, yet took no time to research what politicians are doing to mitigate forest fuels and more importantly, what politicians are doing to combat climate change, which is directly linked to the increase in wildfires. It鈥檚 also costing $1 billion annually for B.C. property damage losses.

READ MORE: Climate change blamed for $1 billion annual B.C. property damage losses

You will be directly impacted by this, either for smoke, fires, floods or landslides, increasing taxes ect. and you also have the ability to go to your local politicians and talk to them.

Millennials will also be on the earth longer than the baby boomers, maybe it鈥檚 time we started thinking about how we want to leave our mark.

carli.berry@kelownacapnews.com
Like us on and follow us on .