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.

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Canadians give more of their time to the non-profit sector than to organized politics.

While only 10 per cent have volunteered on a political campaign in the last five years, 55 per cent report having volunteered for a non-profit in the past year. An even larger proportion, about 58 per cent, report being involved with a non-profit community group.

Due to several troubling indicators of the health of Canadian democracy, my non-profit group Samara developed the Democracy Talks program to understand Canadians’ experiences with politics and the barriers they face to political participation.

A number of Democracy Talks participants explained that the social aspect and participatory nature of working with community groups makes them much more inviting than political offices or parties. In contrast to the frustration or power imbalance they’ve felt with political organizations, they feel welcomed and encouraged by community groups to make a difference on their chosen issue.

According to the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer the non-profit sector is the most trusted sector in Canada, with 73 per cent of people saying they put some level of trust in non-profits. Only 58 per cent felt the same way about government. Given the confidence non-profit community groups enjoy, and the fact that many are formed around issues that are inherently political (such as neighbourhood safety, the environment or international development), non-profit community groups are well-positioned to help their members engage in political issues. [view:in_this_series=block_1]

By bringing discussions about politics into their programming, community groups can normalize such discussions for their members and reinforce the idea that political participation is socially acceptable and desirable. As community groups continue to provide these opportunities, the members who take part become more likely to translate their discussions into political engagement.

A recent American study clearly shows the impact that the non-profit sector can have on citizen engagement — in this specific case, on voter turnout.

In the 2012 general election in the U.S., the group Non-Profit Vote studied voter registration and found that turnout for those who had been registered by a non-profit was significantly higher than turnout in the general population — 74 per cent vs. 68 per cent. The group also found that because of non-profits’ reach and roots within communities, they were particularly good at mobilizing segments of the community who are usually underrepresented in politics.

It is well known that personally asking someone to vote is the most effective way to influence them to do so. However, because underrepresented groups are often seen as having a low propensity to vote, political parties tend to ignore them when registering voters. Non-Profit Vote’s study shows that non-profit community groups can effectively step in to fill this pivotal role.

Citizens Engaged With Non-Profits More Likely to Vote

Through Democracy Talks, we met two individuals whose experiences capture the impact that community groups can have on democratic engagement.

Uzma Irfan is a Pakistani-Canadian who has lived in Malton, Ontario, for 14 years. Today, she is a leader in her community and works with local city councillors and MPPs on a wide variety of initiatives. Yet she told us that only one year ago she felt “hesitant to talk to political leaders [due to] a lack of confidence.” Her turning point came when she joined a local group called the Malton Women Council. The council provided her with training, and trusted her with opportunities to represent their needs in high-level meetings with her political representatives. Now she says she can “talk to politicians easily.”

James Wattam had a similar experience. He joined an Engineers Without Borders campus group at his university in Saskatchewan, where he received specialized training in interacting with MPs. He says the training made him “more comfortable with raising [his] voice.” James now serves as the campus group’s vice president of advocacy, regularly meeting with MPs throughout the province and pushing forward Engineers Without Border’s international development goals.

Through their non-profit community groups, both Uzma and James learned the skills needed to engage with organized politics. Further, in both cases the non-profit group has provided them a platform from which to constructively contribute to public policy development. Their experiences illustrate an important pattern noted in Samara’s public polling: 73 per cent of those who report having been active in a non-profit group in the past 12 months also report that they voted in the last election. By contrast, just 62 per cent who had not been active with a group said they voted.

One Conversation at a Time

To be in the room during a Democracy Talk is to witness the impact that one conversation can have.

The comfortable spaces that community groups provide combined with a deep knowledge of issues that interest their members allows them to create empowering opportunities for those who might otherwise be frustrated, intimidated or hesitant to get involved.

Most research on the role of community groups in increasing political engagement has been done in an American context, while attention in Canada has largely focused on increasing voter turnout. The fact that turnout levels remain low indicates, however, that traditional approaches to mobilizing voters are not working as well as we might hope.

It is for this reason that Democracy Talks works with non-profit community groups on political education and mobilization between elections, starting with something as simple as an invitation to talk about politics.

In the coming years, Samara will work closely with community partners, settlement agencies, ESL teachers and campus groups to continue to facilitate conversations that open up the world of politics to Canadians who are too often left out of political discussions.

The proportion of the Canadian public engaging in public policy and politics over the past 30 years has been on the decline. By tackling the roots of citizens’ disengagement by connecting with citizens through non-profit groups, hopefully it won’t take another 30 years to turn things around. 

Alison Loat is the executive director and co-founder of Samara, a charitable organization dedicated to increasing political participation in Canada. Find out more about Democracy Talks online or contact John Beebe at john.beebe@samaracanada.com.

This article originally appeared in The Philanthropist.

Image Credit: Zack Embree

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.