When Canada’s federal voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in 1970, there was consensus among parliamentarians across party lines following years of student protests and uprisings in Canada and abroad. MPs perceived young protesters who weren’t yet able to vote as a threat to the stability of Canadian democracy.

The current debates among parliamentarians about lowering the voting age from 18 to 16 lack this kind of catalyst. While there are some MPs, senators and advocacy groups that advocate lowering the federal voting age, there’s no real incentive today to do so.

Debates in Parliament, attempts to pass a Senate bill on lowering the voting age or hosting advocacy summits might keep the issue of the federal voting age in the Canadian news cycle, but are unlikely to encourage parliamentarians to act, according to new research I’ve conducted.

I’ve found that unless parliamentarians have an incentive to lower the federal voting age, it probably won’t happen.

To better understand today’s intransigence, it’s important to look back to 1970. Until then, there were decades of debates among parliamentarians about whether to maintain a voting age of 21 or lower it to 18.

My research found that if one parliamentarian argued that young people were educated and........

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