New voters sorting their priorities ahead of election

First-time voters in Quebec are looking to have their voices heard during this election. They’ll head to the ballot box for the first time on October 3rd.

New voters say the environment, social justice issues and inflation are at the top of their priorities they’ll be taking to the polls.

“If I can narrow it down to two priorities, it would be of course, the environment is the first one,” said Kal Rochon, an environmental studies student at Dawson College. “That’s always going to be my first priority because I think it’s a problem that we all deal with collectively and we’re all facing collectively in disproportionate ways, of course. And another priority I have is the housing crisis.”

“Unfortunately, the statistic is that only 50 per cent of my generation is actually going to vote. Probably so there’s a huge involvement. There’s a will. But I think as a whole, we’re very distraught, discouraged considering the options,” added Rochon.

Another student told CityNews, “I have not voted already and that’s why I’m honestly very, very anxious to vote,” said Brendan Schwartz, a cinema communications student at Dawson College. “Sometimes I go grocery shopping for my parents and I see outrageous prices, like for a thing of sliced meat it’s like almost $10 and everything is just going up, up, up, up, up. And I feel like the concern for companies or the government is profit and it’s not the people.

“Priorities or the immigration, the inflation and climate change I find that I need a party that disagrees with bill 90 with bill 96, and they need a party that disagrees with bill 21 more younger people to get out there and say what we want, say what we believe in.”

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Gowrish Subramaniam, a law, society & justice student added, “[what] really concerns me the most is really about the question of the direction in which Quebec as a society is heading. And as a Quebec and as a son of two immigrants who immigrated to Canada and to Quebec, as it’s really I’m concerned about the decisions and the policies that are in place.”

Dónal Gill a law, society & justice profile coordinator noted, “some students are expressing a feeling of demoralization at the way in which minority communities and immigrant communities have kind of been weaponized. And maybe even scapegoated over the course of this election campaign.

“Something else that’s incredibly important to students is climate change and just transition away from fossil fuels and doing so in a way that is respectful to indigenous sovereignty and land rights,” Gill explained.

“It gives them a flavour of what many Canadians have to experience every two or four years or so. Which is the dreaded strategic voting choice. Many students feel as though they don’t have a perfect option and they have to settle for some type of hold your nose and grit your teeth and settle for a second or even third best because you want your vote to count that of the electorate who do not support the pack.”