"If you're not liberal when you're young, you have no heart. If you're not conservative by the time you grow up, you have no brain."

I forget who said it, but I've often thought that the main problem in our society is that a lot of people never grow up.

As one of those sub-25 year olds in the disengaged generation, I'd have to say a major demotivator in getting involved in politics is the disconnect between what happens Ottawa (or in provincial or local politics) and what happens in our lives. Unless a policy directly affects tuition costs, food costs or housing costs in a meaningful way, there's little reason to care. There are, of course, big picture things that will have long-lasting and dramatic effects on my generation, but those who are interested enough to care are often too busy to get truly involved, or are one the few who are already heavily involved.

Basically, there's nothing important enough to warrant our attention. The most contentious policy debates recently have been largely about mundane things such as stimulus spending or the GST – and except for the fiasco leading up to the prorogation, the debate has largely been about the details, not the greater picture. We don't have a real health care debate. Our social security in Canada is relatively sound. No Iraq to rally against and the Afghanistan debate has been muted lately. The only social issue to rally about was climate change and since Dion left, that debate has also fallen silent. Every issue we might care about is either largely solved or, at least temporarily, dead. So, we've lost interest.