Kevin Page says Canadians need to get engaged in this election

The country's former budget watchdog is urging Canadians to cast a ballot on Oct. 19, so they can help put the country on the courseit needs to go.

Kevin Page, who has a new book detailing his tenure as the country's first-ever Parliamentary Budget Officer, says there are many parts of Canada's democratic institutions that need to be fixed.

But he says they are not going to improve in the ways that Canadians want them to unless they show up at the polls and get involved in the political process.

"There's a price to our indifference,"Page said, during a visit to Windsor on Friday.

"If we feel that it doesn't matter, we shouldn't go out and vote, that we can't change anything, then the problem is just going to get bigger and bigger."

Page said this includes Canada's youngest voters, whose issues he believes may beleft out of the conversation in the election by design.

"I fear that there has almost been a deliberate political strategy to get youth to tune out,"said Page.

That's why it's important for Page to ensure their issues are being heard and to participate in the vote on election day.

"I think our younger generation needs to know that they need to engage [politically],"said Page. "They're very engaged people, they're very intelligent our youth, they know how to network, but they need to get involved in the political system. They need to vote."