I get excited about lots of things: croissants, good books, the surf forecast, Netflix.

But the Canadian election is a tough thing to get amped on right now, even though it’s such a tight race. It doesn’t help that it’s starting to get dark before dinner — a phenomenon that has a way of dulling one’s enthusiasm for many things.

But Canadians’ disenchantment with the prospect of casting a ballot on Monday goes beyond the late-fall blues. 

“It’s been a horrible campaign,” Frank Graves, the president of Ekos Research, a polling firm, told the New York Times. “People are discouraged in the extreme.”

The debates — if you’ve forced yourself to watch any of them — have mostly spawned deep sighs, eye rolls and disillusionment with this whole damn democracy thing.

I have a personal rule that every time someone starts talking about Donald Trump, I make them talk about the Canadian election instead. (My friends love me, I swear.)

The most common sentiment I’ve heard over the past few weeks? “I just really dislike all politicians and hate having to choose the least-bad person.”

Fair. It’s easy to want to just tune out of the whole thing. Heck, it’s even kind of trendy to tune out of the whole thing. (Need I mention that a book called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is at No. 2 in the ‘advice’ section of the New York Times Bestseller list and has been on that list for at least two years? Spoiler alert: it’s actually about how to give f*cks selectively.)

But, despite all of these bummer factors, there are some really good reasons why it’s worth summoning the willpower to get out to the ballot box on Monday.

As a millennial myself, I find it pretty exciting that 18 to 38-year-olds are the largest group of voters this election, at 37 per cent.

“If political parties want to win in October, they need to have the millennials on-side,” according to opinion research firm Abacus Data.

Eighty-seven per cent of millennials consider themselves to be either environmental moderates or ardent environmentalists.

We finally outweigh the baby boomers. That’s kind of a big deal. 

As the folks at Future Majority put it:

“Young Canadians have grown up in the shadows of older generations who until now have had the most power in shaping our electorate. Historically, politicians have been able to succeed without representing us while in office. But not anymore … We are the new majority.”

Here’s the thing though: us young-ish folk show up way less reliably to vote than older voters. The kicker: in a close race, the outcome is largely going to be determined by voter turnout.

With the leading parties pretty much tied and tons of ridings up for grabs, young voters have the opportunity to change the outcome of this election, simply by getting out to vote on Monday.

How the hell do I figure out who to vote for?

Because of Canada’s first-past-the-post voting system, what we really have on our hands are 338 individual elections — one in each electoral district, or riding, in the country.

While this makes for some tricky voting choices, the upside is even if you feel disenchanted with those leaders’ debates, you can still find some hope in the fact that what you’re really voting for is a local representative.

Here’s how to figure out what to do:

Step 1: Find out what riding you live in. 

Step 2: Check out your local candidates (once you put in your postal code on the Elections Canada site, scroll down and click the “who are the candidates in my electoral district” button).

Step 3: Don’t have any idea who you want to support? Take the Vote Compass quiz to find out how your values align with the parties. Another great resource for young Canadians are Generation Squeeze’s handy voting guides. 

Step 4: Many Canadians choose to vote strategically depending on who the leading contenders are in their riding. Check out 338Canada to learn what happened in your riding in the last election and how the race is shaping up this time.

Step 5: Find your polling station and get ‘er done. 

In the 2015 election, voter turnout was the highest it’s been in 22 years, with 68.3 per cent of voters casting a ballot. The biggest jump was among 18- to 24-year-olds. Compared to 2011, 18 per cent more of Canada’s youngest voters chose to do some adulting and cast a ballot in 2015. 

This increase in turnout, especially among young women, was largely credited with Trudeau’s victory. And while many young people may feel jaded about that outcome now, the fact is that just by showing up in larger numbers, young people forced politicians to shift their platforms to address our concerns (climate change and affordability — two top-tier millennial concerns — are the issues in this election). 

All of which is to say, if you aren’t super enthused about the choices, you’re not alone. But by getting out to the ballot box — even if you don’t elect the candidate of your choice — you still may help move the needle on issues that matter.

Young people have been leading the way in climate strikes around the world this year, but to make the change we need to see in the world, we also need to be a leading force at the ballot box.  

If you’re still feeling like you’re in the “all politicians are liars” camp, take a deep breath, go back to Step 2 and look at your local candidates.

Then, on Monday, just go do it.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

Only two weeks remain until Election Day in British Columbia and one of the biggest questions to be answered between now and then is how many millennials — voters between the ages of 18 and 34 — are going to get out to vote.

“In the past, we’ve had a really low youth voter turnout,” Raaj Chatterjee, a third-year engineering student at Simon Fraser University and organizer with Young Climate Voters B.C., told DeSmog Canada.

“I think that’s starting to change,” Chatterjee said.

“Especially with events in the States… a lot of people are waking up to being more involved or at least know what’s going on in politics.”

Federal Election Brought Major Bump to Youth Vote

During the 2015 federal election, there was a massive spike in the number of young people who headed to the ballot box: voter turnout for the age category of 18 to 24 spiked to 57.1 per cent in 2015, compared to only 38.8 per cent in 2011.

The difference? Liberal leader and now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Young voters adored him: his approval rating among British Columbians aged 18 to 34 hit a stunning 71 per cent a day before the election, compared to 27 per cent for Stephen Harper.

Unfortunately for youth voter turnout advocates, there is no Trudeau-like figure in the upcoming B.C. election. In fact, millennial perception of the three major party leaders is extremely low: when asked by Insights West who would make the best premier, 17 per cent picked the NDP’s John Horgan, 14 per cent picked the Green Party’s Andrew Weaver and only seven per cent picked current premier and Liberal leader Christy Clark.

That leaves a full 62 per cent — or almost two-thirds — of young voters who aren’t sure. However, it’s that block of undecided voters that often end up determining the outcome of an election and 69 per cent of millennials feel it’s time for a change in government.

“It’s interesting: a lot of people plan to vote, but not a lot of people knew how they were going to vote yet,” says Emily Glass, organizer with Dogwood, referring to recent conversations with students. “I think it speaks to the reality of my generation, that we seem to be less partisan and the conversation looks different.”

Will Youth Voter Turnout Decide the BC Election? #bcpoli #bcelxn2017 https://t.co/mlrjeiTYKa @dogwoodbc @SamaraCDA

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) April 25, 2017

Housing and Poverty Rank As Highest Issue For Young Voters

Millennials appear to be driven more by issues than by particular parties. In a recent Insights West poll, just over half of people in that age group pegged “housing / poverty / homelessness” as the most important issue facing British Columbia, compared to only 27 per cent of people over the age of 55.

The environment was the second most important issue to young voters (alongside healthcare). For older voters, environment ranked fifth, below other issues like education, the economy and accountability.

The big question is if young voters are going to show up on May 9. In 2013, only 39.8 per cent of people between the ages of 25 and 34 who were registered to vote actually voted. That’s compared to 74.2 per cent of registered voters between 65 and 74.

Over 50 Voter PopUps In Vancouver Attempt to Familiarize Voters With Process

One of the big inhibitors for young voters is their lack of permanent address and awareness of the registration process.

That’s where strategies like the Voter PopUp — designed by the nonpartisan democracy organization Samara — can come in.

According to John Beebe, Samara’s manager of outreach, the tool was developed during the federal election and is now being piloted in Metro Greater Vancouver in partnership with Elections B.C.

“It’s really a tool for community-based organizations to help engage their communities and demystify the voting process,” Beebe told DeSmog Canada. “It does that in a very simple but very powerful way by allowing community organizations to set up mock polling places: you have ballots, and ballot boxes, and voting screens and all the elements that you would experience when go into an actual polling place.”

The over 50 Voter PopUps in Vancouver don’t specifically target young voters, with locations including food banks, drop-in shelters and libraries.

But Beebe says that young people with higher education experience already participate in voting at a relatively high rate, whereas young people who have not attended post-secondary education at all or who may not have a stable income participate at a “very, very low rate.”

That fact is exacerbated by the failure of political parties to perform actual outreach to young people.

“They haven’t because they’re cynical and think young people don’t participate,” he says. “It’s this catch-22 situation, where they don’t think young people participate and don’t meaningfully reach out to young people, and then young people don’t participate because no-one’s meaningfully connecting with them.”

Millennial Focus on Issues Over Parties

Both Chatterjee and Glass say their organizations are deploying similar tactics, including helping young voters register and providing information about the voting process.

Other efforts have been used by the likes of the B.C. Federation of Students, which set a goal of 10,000 voting pledges from university students with a particular focus on “peer-to-peer persuasion.”

“Of course it looks different when there’s an election or certain campaign points, but we’re always organizing in neighbourhood teams,” Glass says. “I’ve found that is one of the most effective ways to reach youth. If they’re interested in an issue more so than partisan politics. Between elections, that’s the moment to have those conversations.”

As we’ve seen with recent elections, the undecided voters can make all of the difference. So come May 9, the result could come down to which party did the best job engaging with millennials — and how many young voters ultimately make it to the ballot box.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.