During the last provincial election, only 25 percent of eligible British Columbians under the age of 30 made it out to the polls. The results of this high degree of apathy should be obvious to anyone who has lived in B.C. over the past four years, but it's a shameful statistic no matter which party one supports. That's why the Langara Students' Union (working with the Federation of Canadian Students and the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators of B.C.) has launched its Rock the Vote B.C. initiative. The nonpartisan campaign is designed to draw young people in through events featuring hip music and fashion and encourage them to take part in the democratic process by registering to vote in the upcoming provincial election on May 17.

"The B.C. election pretty much affects everybody that lives in the province," the LSU's Sammie Jo Rumbaua told the Straight. "My thing is, if they're going to complain, they'd better do something about it. There's no sense complaining if you don't know why things happen. Everybody can make a difference because everybody has a voice. A lot of the reasons young people don't vote is because they say: a) they don't care; and b) they don't know the information. So once they have the information in front of them, they don't have any excuse, whether it's knowing about every party that's involved, or what issues are going on in B.C., whether it's about minimum wage, or the environment, or about tuition fees. Once they hear how it directly affects them, whether they're going to school or working, that's when they're going to start caring and actually trying to make a difference themselves, and spreading the word."

The next Rock the Vote event takes place at Richard's on Richards on Friday (January 28), with DJs Tropic and Relik spinning a feel-good mix of hip-hop, R & B, reggae, and old-school from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m. For more info, visit www.rockthevotebc.com/.