01 May 2025 4 min read drop

You Want 14-Year-Olds to Vote? You’ve Lost Your Mind.

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There was a recent column in the Salmon Arm Observer by a guest author, André Carrel, titled “Lower Municipal Election Voting Age to 14.”

A more insane idea, I have not heard.

Have you talked to a 14-year-old lately? They are a terrifying breed of human. I wouldn’t let a 14-year-old walk my dog, let alone vote in a municipal election.

I could maybe understand if you were referring to teenagers in the 1950s, but this is 2025. It’s a nightmare out there these days, in case you haven’t noticed.

75 years ago it wasn’t uncommon for a 14-year-old to be working on a farm before and after school to help support their family. Harvesting crops, tending to livestock, and spending hours outdoors. If you find kids like that these days, sure, let them vote.

Image posted on Reddit by user Due-Suggestion-2137

But that demographic has changed, maybe more than you realize. These days, they spend their time talking to strangers they meet on Snapchat, searching for the fastest way to go viral by degrading themselves on TikTok, and looking for money they can steal to buy another vape cartridge.

These are the voices you want to include in elections?

Careful what you wish for. If there’s a rogue candidate that is running on the promise that they will force all boomers to dress as ballerinas in public parks, the 14-year-olds will vote them in faster than you can say “rizz.”

And why shouldn’t they? What, you expect a child to not act childish?

I know you think we need younger voices to help shape our future, but I have a different opinion.

Don’t lower the voting age to 14. Raise it to 48.

By age 48, people will have (mostly) let go of the youth they cling to and fully accept that they are middle-aged. At age 48, it’s no longer funny to trash the world, you actually want to do something constructive.

At age 48, you’re tired and just want things to calm down. People that are 48 and above right now probably don’t know who Andrew Tate is. They don’t post videos of themselves dancing on TikTok. They speak in full sentences made up of actual words found in the Oxford English Dictionary. They understand that actions have consequences.

We should get those people to vote, and only those people.

Real footage of a voter in the last municipal election

Picture these two voter profiles:

A 14-year-old who spends $900 on a pair of sneakers (yes, they are actually doing this)
A 48-year-old who invests $900 in their RRSP every month

Both are allowed to live in our society (for now) but only one of them should be given a seat at the adults' table.

Now, you might not agree with the arguments I made earlier, and that’s fine.

If that’s the case, here’s one final attempt at getting my point across:

Have you ever been so fed up with local government that you come to the end of your rope and think, "This whole situation is such a mess and we’re out of options — we should get some pre-pubescent teens in here to help sort things out"?

The answer is no, nobody has ever thought that, including you.

I’ll leave you with a trivia question: below is a sentence made up of Gen Z terminology, along with four possible translations. I’m not going to tell you the answer, because I want you to experience the rage of dealing with a modern-day 14-year-old.

(Disclaimer: I used AI to help come up with this trivia question because it’s literally impossible otherwise.)

"Bro got caught lacking in the comments, got cooked, tried to spin the block, but it’s giving desperate energy."

What does this mean?

A) He said something dumb online, people made fun of him, he tried to defend himself, but it just made him look worse.
B) He got caught cheating on a test, blamed the teacher, and now everyone thinks he's desperate to pass.
C) He was flirting with someone’s girlfriend in person, got punched, tried to come back later, but everyone saw him as weak.
D) He was late to a party, forgot to bring drinks, and tried to leave and come back, but people thought he was annoying.