A Halifax-area teenager says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s marquee policy to launch a youth council is lacking a key ingredient – youth.
The council is limited to people between the ages of 16 and 24, meaning 13-year-old Logan Henderson is cut out.
Henderson says the age requirement means youth are being replaced with young adults who have more options if they want to participate in the democratic process.
“I think youth should be anyone under the age of 18,” Henderson said in an interview with Global News.
“Once you’re 18 you’re of the age of majority, you can vote, you can even run for office.”
READ MORE: Trudeau asks youth to join new council
Henderson is challenging Trudeau to change the age requirement for his youth council to ages 13 to 18.
“If you were listening to youth, then you should be listening to all youth,” he said.
Global News contacted the prime minister’s office for a comment but didn’t receive a response.
An August report by the Canadian Press showed more than 9,000 people had already applied for the inaugural council, and thousands more had started the application process. Of the people who applied, the Canadian Press said almost half had university degrees.
Thirty people will get chosen to sit on the youth council.
‘They should make it easier to contact politicians’
When Trudeau first announced the idea for a youth council, Henderson contacted the party asking it to change the age requirement. And when Trudeau won the election, Henderson says he called and emailed the prime minister’s office but never got a reply.
“I tried so many things… and nothing worked,” he said.
Henderson’s ratcheting up his campaign to bring younger voices to the national stage with an online petition.
“They should make it easier to contact politicians,” Henderson said. “It’s not really democratic if we can’t have everyone have their voice heard.”
If he was able to apply to the council, and won, Henderson says the first issue he would raise is funding for mental health services. And if he never hears anything from the government in Ottawa, he says he’ll still stay passionate about politics.
“I have questions and I want things to change,” he said.
While he campaigns for change at the federal level, Henderson is also helping out a local council candidate with his campaign for a seat on Halifax council.