Although they differ in their ideology, the candidates running in the June 7 Ontario election to represent the riding of Niagara West all share something in common: they are remarkably young.

Of the four aspiring representatives, only one is old enough to have voted in the last provincial election. The youngest is just 18.

PC candidate and current MPP Sam Oosterhoff, 20, is up against university classmate Curtis Fric, 20, for the NDP. The Green Party is represented by Jessica Tillmanns, 18, while Liberal candidate Joe Kanee, a 27-year-old native of Edmonton, is the elder of the group.

Together, they have a combined 85 years of life between them, in a district where the median age of the population is about 41.

“Here, in Niagara West, we just had a confluence of different factors coming together to lead to this ‘youth-quake’ that we’re seeing right now. And I think that’s a good thing,” said Oosterhoff. “It’s waking a lot of people up to the realization that youth can make a positive difference and be a voice for change, no matter their political background.”

Oosterhoff was a teen when he was sworn in, the province’s youngest MPP, beating out then-PC party president Rick Dykstra in the nomination, then winning the Nov. 2016 byelection with 54 per cent of the vote.

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“It’s been a very respectful race so far, and much less personal than it was in the byelection,” Oosterhoff said.

Although he calls the campaign dynamic cordial, Oosterhoff finds connecting with voters can be challenging when one of their biggest concerns is about life experience.

“But I think that doesn’t preclude young people from being able to speak to some of those challenges,” he said. Oosterhoff named long-term healthcare as a hot-button issue in his district.

Nelson Wiseman, a professor at the University of Toronto’s political science department, predicts Oosterhoff will keep his seat, but not because, or in spite of, his age.

When it comes to leaders, Wiseman says, “age is not just a number. It’s quite relevant.” But local nominees are a different story. “Among candidates, I don’t think it generally matters much,” Wiseman said. “Voter choice is driven much more by party and leader than it is by anything else, including platform.”

There are more young people in politics today, thanks to a series of changes to age restrictions for political office-holders, said Penny Bryden, a history professor at the University of Victoria. The thinking that prospective politicians need to be lawyers, physicians, and professionals first is also beginning to shift.

“Increasingly, we’re starting to see politics being regarded as a job, itself. You’re not bringing your skill as a geographer or a farmer to the House of Commons or to the legislature, but you’re bringing enthusiasm and you’re bringing energy and you’re bringing new ideas,” she said.

Bryden points to U.S. President Donald Trump as someone with “no political baggage” or experience, features which may have been attractive to voters feeling disenfranchised by career politicians.

In Niagara West, Jessica Tillmanns is a green candidate in both experience and party name. The 18-year-old plans to study kinesiology at Brock University next year after a “practice run” in politics.

“I didn’t realize, but campaigning is actually so much fun,” she said, adding that she gathered all her friends to put up signs and knock on doors. “That being said, my age coming into it, a lot of people …. They didn’t know whether to take me seriously or not.”

“I always got that question. ‘How old are you, Jessica?’ I was like, ‘I’m old enough.’ ”

Curtis Fric, a Brock University peer of Oosterhoff’s, also gets double-takes from constituents who say he looks older in his flyer photos.

“The headshot always adds a couple of years to you,” he said. “I’m enjoying what I’m doing right now. It’s been fun. It’s good to hear different opinions at the doors, and what people are concerned about.”

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The veteran of the bunch, in age, at least, is Joe Kanee. At 27, the Liberal party representative is the only candidate to have completed a post-secondary education and hold a full-time job, as a director of operations for a Toronto-based fitness business.

“For me, it’s actually been a really big benefit particularly within this group, because even though we’re all young … being at a different stage of life can be a lot more impactful,” he said.

History professor Bryden agrees that youth can be an advantage. “But it’s not necessarily better,” she says. “It’s just different.”