Honourable senators, I wish to thank my colleagues in the Conservative caucus for sharing statement time with me.

My guests in the chamber today are Penticton, B.C., high school student Sophie Robinson and her teacher Michele Cumberland, joined by Caeden Tipler and Sage Newcombe-Garrett, here from New Zealand, or — as they taught me earlier today — in the Māori tongue, Aotearoa.

Sophie is part of a B.C.-wide movement reaching out to the B.C. legislature and municipalities to embrace Vote16.

Caeden and Sage are national youth leaders of a growing movement to lower the voting age to 16 in New Zealand. Working over years, they have developed a grassroots network which includes community groups and young leaders. They joined together in a series of court challenges that went all the way to their supreme court which, in 2023, found in their favour, ruling that preventing 16- and 17-year-olds from voting is unjustified age discrimination in breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights.

Unfortunately, a bill to enact these changes died with an election call, and the current government has not yet complied with the court’s ruling.

Colleagues, all of us involved, in many countries, know that Vote16 is a long game, but I know Sage and Caeden and young people all over the world are not giving up. My guests are here to help us make history tomorrow at the first national Vote16 Summit here on Parliament Hill on May 29, with more than 200 registered participants including experts, politicians and young leaders from across Canada and many parts of the world such as New York, England, New Zealand and Brazil.

I invite all senators to engage with these amazing young leaders in democratic reform. The summit begins at 2 p.m. and is followed by a networking dinner and — most importantly — our parliamentary reception at 7 p.m. in the Sir John A. Macdonald Building, where we will hear from youth leaders, parliamentarians and civil society stars who all support the international Vote16 movement.

The evidence is clear: vote young; vote long. A lowered voting age increases voter turnout and instills lifelong voting habits that strengthen our democracy. It’s a growing wave. It hasn’t crested yet, but it will. I truly think parliamentarians and political parties have the opportunity to show national leadership and get ahead of this wave so that we can potentially direct and inform its trajectory positively.

Thank you. Meegwetch.