Cynical, apathetic and uninformed - in a nutshell - Canuck kids these days, according to a flurry of media  on the subject of Canadian youth voter turnout & political engagement.

Between September 10th & 15th, The Dominion Institute conducted an online survey of 18-25 year olds (reported in today’s Globe & Mail).  Some troubling stats were unearthed…right?  Of the youngins’ interrogated, 75% agreed that low turnout among their peers was a bad scene.  Adding insult to injury, 30% of’em said they “aren’t informed enough to cast their own vote.”  Pot, kettle, blackness, anyone?

Why aren’t these mini-citizens puttin’ an e-for-effort into E-day? 11% are “too busy”, 11% “don’t care”.  Ouch.  50% of’em “definitely plan to vote”, though.

So let’s take a deep zen breath, Predictors & review some of the factoids.

Youth voter turnout in Canada’s federal elections is increasing:  25% in 2000, 38% in 2004, 44% in 2006.  (All ‘youth’ stats relate to an age range of 18-24, much to my chagrin).  The 50% reported in the Dominion Institute survey tracks the trend of adding at least 6% growth in this age bracket to voters each election.

Young Canadians (& Americans & Whateverpeans for that matter) probably think of civic engagement differently than ‘the ‘rents’ - E-Day is one day every four (or, um…well, yeah) years, whereas grassroots & local-level happenings can be ongoing campaigns, include frequently updated websites, activities, facebook fan pages & e-newsletters.  Track the momentum from the C-61 protests to gauge the political engagement of youth in an issue that directly impacted their inalienable right to access Cribs bit torrents.

Seems easy to lament those moody’n'broody late teens & early twentysomethings, but directing energy into improving online tools & engagement projects for political parties, Elections Canada, NGOs, think tanks and their ilk, might be a better path to someday achieving 100% turnout (stop laughing) & serenity now.

What do y’all think, Predictors?  Getting all anxious to turn over the keys to the hyper-connected, LOL’ing txt-sending teens?  Thinking about merging Canadian Idol vote-offs with leadership debates?  Send us your suggestions before we book the Jonas Brothers on a desperate cross-Canada registration indoctrination tour.