Young Voters Missing

Monday, 28 April 2014 14:51

Oxford Liberal MPP candidate Dan Moulton, (shown here in March) accepts the nomination from the local Liberal riding association.

Oxford's provincial Liberal candidate says he's ready in the event a snap election is called over the budget.

TORONTO -- The provincial budget will be released at Queen's Park later this week and represents the latest hill to climb for the scandal mired minority Liberals who have been teetering on the edge of an election call in recent months.

Dan Moulton was nominated to run for the Liberals in Oxford last month and says it's unknown what result could unfold with the subsequent budget vote later next month.

"You know it's anyone's guess as to when this election is going to be. I want people to know that I'm working really hard right now to prepare for an election whenever it comes. We're going to be ready, We've got a really strong and engaged team of all ages coming together."

While Moulton says he's ready for an election whenever it may be called regardless of the budget vote, his other main focus is getting young people to participate more in political process.

Moulton says while Oxford County has done well in overall voter turnout when compared to other ridings in past elections, that percentage could be even higher if more young locals cast their vote.

"Young people are turning out less-and-less. I think it's about fifty percent turnout for the general population, but much, much lower for young people and so we need young people to realize that coming out to the polls, speaking up and starting to take leadership is going to make a difference."

Moulton, who's 25, says he's made it one of his priorities to get more young voters engaged in the political process and he's been trying to reach out to young voters who he says have been disaffected by a lack of trust, integrity and accountability with government.

"I think we need to expect of our public officials and expect of our elected officials in particular an adherence in those values. But we also need to trust in our governments and our public officials. We need to rebuild that trust so that we can restore as I would put it, faith in democracy."

This week's upcoming budget at Queen's Park has also prompted an increase in campaign rhetoric from all parties with campaign style commercials battering airwaves from Premier Kathleen Wynne to budget trickery accusations brought forth this week by the Tories.

PC Leader Tim Hudak this week accused the Liberal government of using "card tricks'' and a "fiscal sleight of hand'' to try and sell deficit reduction figures.

The Tories say leaked cabinet documents show the government knew the 24.7-billion dollar figure which it gave for the deficit in 2009-10 "was never a real expectation.''

They say the Liberals misled the public with "fake'' figures in a deliberate move to provide a "worst case'' scenario, then showed it would reduce that amount to zero by 2017 to 2018.

Hudak says the Liberals just made up their deficit reduction targets without having any real plan to achieve them.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa meanwhile has insisted the province will balance its books on schedule by 2017 to 2018.