Media coverage and questions of opponents reminded us that Martin was behind the initial cuts to health care, that he had failed to improve health care before despite similar money investment schemes, and that Premiers didn't think that the plan was adequate. Jack Layton and Stephen Harper then came out with their own health care plans. We have tried to fix health care before and we've failed. And there is clear disagrement on the approach to take. The average young voter is turned off by this haggling over details and approach. They think health policy should be simple and we should just fix the problem. This debate over details turns them off on politics.

Steve Smith then accepts then goes on to accept my other two arguments. However, he does raise a good point that voting by young people is lower now than it was in the past. He's right that my arguments don't explain this. But I wasn't trying to explain that—I was only arguing why voting is lower amongst young people compared to older people. The whole debate is why do young people vote in smaller numbers than the rest of society. If Steve wants to discuss the trend, that's an entirely different topic.

The first thing to note in answering this, however, is that all segments of the population vote less now than they did in the past. The decline in young voter turnout is just a reflection of a larger trend in decline of all segments of the population.

I think Steve does raise a couple of good points to explain this. His arguments that polling reduce the impetus for people to vote and that habit an duty are no longer strong motivators to vote are both well taken. However, I'd add that rising cynicism due to better knowledge of politicians actions has turned many people off from voting. As the media gets more exposure and better disseminates information to us, we have a better idea of the dirty side of politics and we see less of a reason to waste our time electing politicians who'll end up doing a poor job and wasting our money anyway.

This topic warrants more discussion and thought. However, I'd urge Steve not to confuse the youth turnout debate with the declining turnout debate. And if Steve thinks that declining youth turnout is a separate issue (something I've seen no evidence of), I'd ask that he keep that separate as well.