TMU’s Democratic Engagement Exchange encourages students to vote for Toronto’s next mayor
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With Toronto’s 2023 mayoral by-election fast approaching, and 102 candidates running this June, getting out to vote can seem daunting, especially to new voters like university students. However, one group on campus is encouraging Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) students to get involved with local politics and cast their vote.
This May, The Democratic Engagement Exchange (external link) (The Exchange) set up a booth on campus to ask students about their top concerns going into this election and why voting matters to them.
Founded in 2017, The Exchange at TMU’s Faculty of Arts gives different community organizations the resources to engage more people in democracy during and in between election seasons. Along with providing resources like election readiness handbooks, John Beebe, the founder of The Exchange, says encouraging students to vote can start by just having a conversation.
“We’re not just simply saying to people, ‘hey go vote, it’s really easy,’ because we know that’s not enough. People don’t feel connected to our democratic systems,” Beebe said. “What we do is we start with a question, like, what matters to you? Then, we actually listen to their answers and engage in a conversation and connect what people care about to the election.”
Municipal elections have direct impacts on the daily lives of citizens in general, and students specifically. The Exchange created a student (google form) survey (external link) asking them about their priority issues going into the mayoral by-election, whether that’s transit, health care, safety, climate change, housing and more.
The top concern will be used to formulate a question on behalf of TMU students to ask the candidates directly at the mayoral debate (external link) on May 31st. Co-hosted by TMU, the United Way Greater Toronto (UWGT), and The Toronto Star (The Star), the debate, ‘Our Future, Our Vote: A Toronto for all’ will allow leading mayoral candidates to share their platforms on the critical social and economic challenges facing our city so that voters can make an informed decision on election day.
“Housing in Toronto is increasingly unaffordable for students and others of low socioeconomic status. Toronto needs to address these sky-rocketing housing costs by capping rent prices, eliminating foreign investments in Canadian real estate, and implementing a cap on rental prices.”
“Community safety and housing matter the most to me as there are many people at risk. Especially given the latest economic forecasts and post-COVID recovery.”
“Being a commuting student it becomes difficult to commute with transit delays, shut downs, cost of commuting, etc. also fears of safety concerns on public transit.”
“Working a minimum wage job as well as being a full time student is difficult to manage. I pay roughly $1200 in transit fees per semester. I find myself spending more on transit fares everyday rather than spending it on a full meal.”
“Policing is a top concern. I am Black and don't like that post secondary requirements are being removed. This policy shows how out of touch politicians are with the BIPOC community. Officers with a post secondary education are less likely to use firearms and better at deescalation when encountering people of colour and people with mental illness.”
“No one from the younger generations has any way to afford a home. With inflation rising, wages are not increasing so affording food is almost too much of an expense. With the high homeless population in Toronto that should be top priority. Not just “affordable” but active plans to socialize housing.”
“Poor transit means economic loss because of reduced productivity, inability for toronto to stand up to its global city stature, poor access to services for low income and medium income folks, under delivering on climate targets.”
“affordable housing: having unaffordable housing reduces the utility and diversity of the city of Toronto. from the perspective of a student, the fear of being "reno-victed" and being unable to find housing would make completing my degree close to impossible.”
Why student votes matter
Second-year TMU politics and governance student Thomas Mockler, who also volunteered at The Exchange student engagement initiative on campus, says efforts like these can encourage students to participate in the election process.
“It’s definitely important that young people get more politically involved,” Mockler said. “If it’s all older people making all of the decisions, those decisions aren’t going to reflect the needs of young people.”
According to Statistics Canada (external link) , youth are much less likely to vote in provincial and municipal elections than older Canadians.
Beebe encourages students to vote in the upcoming election because he says they have the power to change its outcome. “Young people are very politically active and care about issues that impact themselves, their communities and the world more broadly,” he said.
“But one of the disconnects is that young people often don’t participate in elections at the same level as older folks. But when they do vote they change the results.”
Along with engagement initiatives on campus like the one organized by The Exchange, TMU students also believe voting should be made more accessible.
Third-year TMU creative industries student and first-time voter, Favour Adamson suggests placing polling stations on university campuses to improve youth voter turnout. “I think a lot of students don’t even know that an election is happening, [so] it would be cool if there was a voting station here on campus,” says Adamson.
Ria Roopani, a third-year TMU social work student, says educating students about the candidates is also another way to increase engagement in the upcoming election. “Honestly informing students about voting and who the candidates are [is important] because often that information is hard to get. By putting it in a space that is more accessible to university students, they would have more knowledge, which would lead to more voting,” Roopani said.
To encourage TMU students to get the information they need to make their decision, The Exchange has offered students the opportunity to attend the mayoral debate on May 31, 2023.
Related reading: TMU to host Toronto mayoral debate
“Deciding what to watch on Netflix is more difficult than voting. The daunting part is the pressure of making an informed decision,” says Beebe. “So while voting itself is easy, deciding who to vote for is really challenging. Debates are one of the best ways for voters to hear directly from the candidates about the issues they care about and also get to see their character,” he said.
If you are interested in attending the debate, please fill out this (google form) quick survey (external link) about your top concerns going into this mayoral election. You can also tune in at home as the debate will be covered on major news network CP24.