D250 is on buses. D250 is on posters. D250 is on the violently neon-green pen I stole off someone’s desk. Featuring artsy black-and-white graphics and edgy slogans, D250 is reaching a wide audience here in Halifax. There’s just one question: what the heck is it?
“My guess is a camera model,” says Iain Canuel, a 21-year-old sales representative.
“I’ve seen people wearing shirts with (D250) on it,” says Sean Smith, 20, holds a technical degree. “But (I’ve) never checked it out to see what it is.”
“They’re this company, I guess,” opines Stewart Delo, a student studying theatre courses at Dalhousie. “They give out these forms that have totally oversimplified justice questions.”
Of all the people I talked to, only Hannah Sarrouy, 20, a screen arts student, knows what it refers to. “It’s 250 years of democracy,” she says. “They have all these ad campaigns because they’re trying to get youth to vote... And they have all these hip, cool ads all over the place.”
The D250 website, with the slogan Make Your Mark, does look hip and cool. “Honestly, does your opinion matter?” Its main page asks. “Does your vote make a difference to anyone? Does it even make a difference to you?”
Chastised, I read on. “In the last federal election, more than 1.2 million young Canadians (between 18 to 25) didn’t bother to vote. That’s enough to affect key issues AND determine a different Prime Minister. That’s enough to make people care what you think … But none of that matters if you don’t vote in the first place.”
It’s true that Canadian youth are infamously apathetic when it comes to the ballot box— especially considering their more politically engaged American peers. But is the problem that youth aren’t “bothering” to vote—or that they simply see no reason to? “My personal vote doesn’t really matter,” says 19-year-old Stewart. “I’m out of touch. I don’t know how the world works.” Besides, “The choice (of candidates) is… interchangeable.”
Hannah is more radical. Democracy is 250 years old. Maybe, she muses, the system itself is becoming outdated. “Democracy works better when there’s a smaller country … I’m positive that there’s a better system, I just don’t know what it is.”
Why this sudden wave of contrasted radicalism and apathy? Does the under-25 set simply need a talking to? (“When I was your age, I walked 10 miles in the snow to vote … uphill l… both ways!”) Or, are there deeper forces at work? Apathy plays a role in the absent youth vote, as does disillusionment with a system dismissed as symbolic. But insecurity about being able to make an informed choice when voting is another reason youth steer clear of the ballot box.
“I don’t follow politics or local news … I don’t know what’s happening,” says Matt Coffey, 21. “It would almost be stupid for me to vote … I don’t think I really deserve to vote, if I don’t know what’s going on.”
Iain knows “what’s going on,” but it doesn’t impress him. “Voting for political leaders is very skewed. When given two or three options to choose between, all with similar policies and the pockets of the corporation to think about … my vote ends up meaning very little.”
Perhaps the refusal of disillusioned youth to vote is itself a social critique. For the federal election, Hannah, Sean, and Iain were planning to vote. As am I. Twenty-one-year-old Alycya Moore, Matt, and Stewart were not.
“People my age are a) Marxist, b) apathetic, or c) very jaded about how social systems work,” says Stewart. “Hence the not voting.”
“I just know who I want to run the country, and then I vote for them,” says Hannah. “I’m having a say in how the country is run.”
By the time you read this, a federal election will have just passed and the youth demographic will have made their mark – or not.
Either way, however, it seems unlikely that D250 will sway the youth turnout too drastically, especially since many young people regard the campaign with a cynical eye.
“All of a sudden, they’re die-hard about getting people to vote,” says Hannah. “It’s like high school. The cool kids are putting (D250 ads) out.”
“There are a lot of companies doing this kind of thing,” Stewart agrees, tuning his guitar. “They’re trying to be so hip and cool that it turns people off of them.”
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: What do you think about the D250 campaign? Did it prompt you to vote in the federal election? Will you vote in the municipal election on Saturday?