I couldn't care less about either of them until my husband came along! All I knew was what I learned from my parents which is, that all politicians lie so don't bother getting involved. And also what I learned from high school which was, it's all confusing and boring anyway.
I don't know about you guys, but when we learned about the Canadian Government in high school, it was terribly boring. Just read from a text book. Half the class was asleep at their desk. How is that supposed to make it interesting and how are you supposed to learn anything. My history class...well, man, that couldn't have been any more boring. History and politics go hand in hand. It really makes both more exciting when you put them together. If we could get ALL teachers to be passionate about what they are teaching, maybe we could get the youth to pay attention and want to stay updated on world issues instead of which which pop star is next in line to get plastic surgery and I can assure you, my teachers were not passionate. I mean, my Social Studies teacher was first and foremost a gym teacher, he wore his gym clothes to class, lol, and he was not passionate or very focused when teaching us Social Studies. This has a huge influence in shaping peoples political participation.
I also think that parents should encourage their kids. Start involving your 16 year old. Stay as bias as possible. I know it'll be hard, but give them the info, help them understand it and remember, when it comes time for them to vote, they may vote differently then you, but that's okay because as we can see as you get older your ideas and thoughts could be expired and with most of the votes being from 30+ year olds, that's how we ended up with a majority Conservative Government. But ya know, it's not ALL bad. Elizabeth May got her well deserved seat!
