Spinning the young voter

The Courier's front cover photo was cute, in a Brady Kids sort of way. Apparently someone has kicked in for the painted van, and the article describes a fully decked out Translink bus flying the Rock the Vote colours which the transit company wisely nixed. There are some big marketing dollars involved here, and it is hard to imagine that someone passed the hat around in the name of a "non partisan" campaign.

There are 2 websites of supposedly separate organizations promoting youth voting in BC. Rock the Vote BC's website features the name of Nathan Allen, a COPE organizer and former student activist. A second campaign named Get Your Vote On, however, appears to originate from a similar source. GYVO's website was designed by the same folks who did COPE's.

Naiobh O'Connor, the author of the Courier article, makes no references in her article as to who is supporting these campaigns financially. Isn't it a basic tenet of journalism to follow the money? O'Connor paints Rock the Vote as a pure grassroots campaign, running on volunteer steam. You have to love the make-a-video contest on their website, sponsored by the 7000-member Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of BC (formerly CIEA) labour union. The RTVBC website is co-sponsored by the militant Canadian Federation of Students, a group with a serious axe to grind with the current (or any) provincial government.

These youth voter campaigns have the appearance of being a political deceit. You could argue that they actually contribute to a root cause of voter apathy: the sense that you are being continually lied to.

If you are going to call yourself non-partisan you better damn well live up to what those words mean. Don't mask a voter ID campaign on behalf of big labour or big business. Ultimately you'll be found out, and probably by a blogger.