With the Kamloops municipal election fast approaching, candidates may need to do more than put up campaign signs to win over young voters. Some Thompson Rivers University students say they want candidates to visit campus, answer their questions and connect with them through social media.
People can usually tell a vote is coming up by the signs posted at high-traffic areas around town. The large number of these signs and candidates can quickly overwhelm voters, especially younger people who don’t feel well-informed enough to vote on election day.
“The most I see is just the names of people and their faces,” said Kalysse Harris, an English student at TRU, regarding the signs along Summit Dr., “I don’t actually know who they are, what they’re running for, or what their political agenda is.”
According to research done by Elections Canada, the two main reasons fewer young people vote are motivation barriers and access barriers.
They found that, compared to older voters, youth are less interested in Canadian politics, less satisfied with democracy, believe government and politics are hard to understand, and view voting as a choice rather than a duty. They also found that youth were discouraged by the voting process and found it too complicated to register and the different ways to vote.
There is limited information on how many young people participated in the 2022 Kamloops municipal election. However, Elections Canada found that in 2025 only 55.9 per cent of eligible 18 to 24-year-olds voted in the federal election. This percentage was the lowest of the voter turnouts from all the age groups, with 65 to 74-year-olds being the highest at 77.6 per cent.
In recent years it has not been uncommon for voter turnout to be low, especially in larger B.C. cities where around only 30 per cent of eligible people vote. In 2022, Kamloops experienced its second lowest turnout since 2008 with only 30.42 per cent of eligible voters participating (CivicInfoBC).
To overcome the barriers that hold young people back from voting, Elections Canada’s research suggests that “more knowledge about and interest in politics can help remove motivational barriers.”
Harris and other TRU students believe that there are two major ways electoral candidates could campaign towards younger voters outside of the usual signs along busy roads. That is, meeting students where they are (on college campuses) and taking advantage of social media.
Vasudha Nikku, a student at TRU, believes that if students can meet the candidates, then it makes them and the election less intimidating. “I think there’s a huge impact when they connect with people one on one,” said Nikku. She recalls previous times when candidates have come to campus and encourages more candidates to do the same.
A few other TRU students have suggested that candidates host a panel on campus where students are free to ask questions in real time. This is a way to engage students while also letting their voices be heard whereas, in the usual panels, the student-interest questions are just a fraction of the discussion.
The biggest way some TRU students think young voters could be reached is through social media. Candidates mainly focus on Facebook to campaign on social media, but the reality is that not a lot of young voters are active on Facebook.
Harris thinks that many students are getting their news from platforms like TikTok and Instagram, instead of traditional sources. “If it’s something they just happen to come across in their own feed,” she said, “then that is definitely a better way to capture their attention.”