THE BATTLEFORDS — This week the Battlefords News-Optimist spoke to two recent graduates from North Battleford Comprehensive High School to understand how teens relate to and inform themselves about the approaching provincial and municipal election.
Both are voting for the first time.
“I'm nervous, personally, because it is my first time [voting], and I don't know how the process goes. But I think it'll be worth it anyway for me to vote,” 18-year-old recent graduate Sawyer Dela Paz said. “…Just after graduating, realizing that I should be more involved when it came to politics because it's my responsibility to know what's going on with my own community.”
Sawyer Dela Paz wasn’t very politically active In 2023. He had an idea of the political terms and what was happening with the world, but “not as active as I am now,” he said since he moved to the Battlefords six years ago.
Now no longer a high school student and starting his civic life, Paz said he is just as plugged in as friends around him and knows who they are voting for.
“[With] my close friends recently, we've had a visit together, and we discussed the upcoming elections.
“I think a lot of them [my peers] are more confident than I am when it comes to the process itself, but I want to say when it comes to the ones who are voting, we're probably just as confident as each other.”
From a new immigrant family, Paz said the election will probably affect him a lot more than he realized.
Mason Charles said learning about the voting process is “motivating,” and important to have his voice heard as a first-time voter.
“I think it's easier and more targetable for the people like my age in North Battleford to be wanting to vote, because it's just now the start of hopefully a long-lasting voting career, and I'm sure that they [my peers] want to be heard as much as I want to be heard.”
While he wasn’t extensively informed of the elections in school, Charles said, what had him invested in the election and its outcome was really a small rally advocating for students’ rights held in town.
“It was very eye-opening to me to how many people are in this town involved with politics and wanting to better change for their talent, for their problems, and I think that's something very special, because you can see that people come from different values and different backgrounds, and It's good to see for them to want change to eventually better for everyone.”
Since then, Charles has been volunteering at the local campaign office and bringing the views and values back to the dinner table with his family members — “just to see where they [my family] stand, and how my values combat with those and align.”
In preparation for voting for the best fit to represent themselves and whom they can match their values with, the two 18-year-olds both mentioned that meeting the candidates in person and attending the campaigns help.
Still, misinformation is a big theme to look out for, they said, especially in online campaign ads.
“… Seeing through a party going after another and putting dirt on their land. But I think that's an issue with today's politics. But going back to the question, I usually follow the candidates who I believe the most, especially online platforms,” said Charles.
For Paz, he would ask for second opinions from “experienced adults” from their years voting and living in the region: “I trust their words that they know what's going on.
“I think it's very important for young people like me, 18, 19-year-olds, to get involved with voting because, at the end of the day, it's our future. It's the younger people's future, and so it's our responsibility to get involved with the communities, especially here in the Battlefords,” Paz said.
“Coming from a person with marginalized backgrounds and my experience with living both urban and traditional ways, I believe it [the elections] will affect me and my family in ways of how we want to be heard and how we want to be treated in our province,” Charles said. “Because we want to follow those who are in power, but also use their power for good, not only for themselves but also for the people around them who they want to treat and to find change. I really believe that my vote will give me a chance to be heard as a Saskatchewan citizen.”
