Grit vs. Tory: Youth and Student Issues

So the Liberals released their platform over the weekend, and the Conservatives are basing theirs on the budget that the House never voted on.  Here is a handy issue-by-issue comparison, if you're interested.  I mainly wanted to see who turned out better in youth issues and student issues, and the Liberals won this one.

POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION
Liberals:
- In year two, provide $1,000 each year to every university or college student, for up to four years. Low-income families get more ($1,500).
- Forgive $1,500 in student-loan debt for Canadians who volunteer with the Canada Service Corps.
- $200 million over two years for aboriginal post-secondary education.
Conservatives:
- Will allow Canadian students at foreign universities to qualify for existing tax breaks if their study term is less than 13 weeks.

Or, you know, the Liberals could just lower everyone's tuition by $1000.  Please please please?  

The Liberals also plan to provide incentives to medium-sized businesses who hire 18 to 25-year-old workers.  And then there's this, not strictly a youth issue but a student one: 

VETERANS
Liberals:
- Free tuition, up to four years of post-secondary or technical training, for veterans who've completed their service.
- Will review controversial lump-sum payment disability award.
Conservatives:
- Will put into effect a new Veterans Charter Act which expands eligibility for monthly allowances for seriously injured veterans and also boosts benefits.
RURAL
Liberals:
- $500 million to ensure 100 per cent high-speed Internet connectivity within three years.
- Student loan forgiveness for those who served in rural or underserved small towns: $8,000 per year (up to $40,000) for family doctors; $4,000 (up to $20,000) for nurses and nurse practitioners.
Conservatives:
- To attract health care workers to rural areas, Tories will forgive up to $40,000 in loans for new family doctors, and up to $20,000 for nurse practitioners and nurses.

So, yeah.  I would say the Liberals won this round in the youth vote race.  

Mobilizing Youth Voters: just fracking give us something to vote about!

Another good piece, this time at the Ottawa Citizen, although it's much more skeptical about youth actually coming out and voting, which I hate.  I wouldn't call youth "elusive."

"The jury is out to a certain extent on what ultimately are the causes of youth-declining voter turnout," says Keith Archer, a political science professor at the University of Calgary.
"The parties have been slow in reaching out to young voters where they may pay attention to politics."

I would say that that's it exactly.  There are campaign signs all over the city but none on my university campus.  And young people who go and actually look at the party platforms come away without any burning desire to elect anyone, because most of the issues just don't apply.  It's not that youth don't care about who's running our country, it's that we don't care about most of the issues on the party platforms.  The fact that promises directed towards young people are almost entirely absent erases us from public discourse on electoral politics and alienates us from electoral politics.  

So, how will parties get young adults to care, and in turn, get them to the ballot box?
The Conservative party hopes to engage younger adults by treating them like any other voter, rather than pander to specific demographics.
The party no longer has a youth wing, and a spokesman says it's up to individual campaigns to reach out to younger voters in their ridings.

This is exactly NOT what to do if you want to gain support among young people.  The Conservatives have a stable amount of support from the kind of young people who always vote no matter what, it's true.  But that kind of tactic isn't going to win them many more new voters.  For all of their desire not to "pander to specific demographics," most of their platform seems to be aimed at young families, and the number of voters under 25 who have young children is not that big.  They also target seniors--I think young families and seniors already form the core demographics behind their support, so this makes sense.  But you can't get youth voters by "treating us like any other voter," you have to reach out, because literally no plank of the Tory platform would make any difference in my life.  

Green party leader Elizabeth May says the commonly held belief that "young people don't vote" has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Her party is spending time on campuses with its youth wing, as well as using social media to communicate with tech-savvy youngsters.

See, THIS is what you need to do in order to attract new youth voters.  I've already mentioned that the Green Party have by far done the best job at reaching out to young people.  In order to get young people to vote for you, you have to (1) campaign directly to them, and (2) make sure you campaign on issues that they care about.  Elizabeth May is winning at this.  

I don't know.  This reminds me more and more of the movie The Trotsky, where all the adults believe the students are apathetic, but in the end it turns out they were just bored and with enough of a push they were mobilized into activism.  Actually, I think maybe they should have a screening of that movie in each party HQ.  

Thank you, Ms. Harrison!

Read Rebecca Harrison's piece in today's Toronto Star about youth apathy.  Finally the point that I and others have been trying to make gets into a mainstream news source!  This is the key part here:

After much deliberation, I would have to say the biggest issue facing young people in this election is the fact that youth themselves are not being engaged. This has created a vicious cycle; youth don’t feel like they are part of the process, so they don’t vote. Since the data shows that they don’t vote, the politicians don’t attempt to engage them.

SImple and eloquent.  Ms. Harrison is the Green candidate for Whitby-Oshawa, and I have to say that so far the Greens have made by far the most effort to engage youth voters.  Hopefully this forces the other parties to take notice.  

I'm tired of politicking. Let's all take a break and look at pictures of cute animals.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/Photos+Baby+Animals+World/4544558/story.html

I have a friend who likes to say that you can sell anything in the world with either sex or baby animals.  Perhaps some of the candidates should pose with this adorable baby meerkat:

Or this precious cheetah cub:

Or this absolutely tiny two-headed turtle:

Or maybe we can have a renaissance of the Rhinoceros Party, renamed the Two-Headed Baby Turtle Party????

Stephen Harper: imagine all the people loving themselves today?

So somebody made the comment on my YouTube channel that the party leaders are all old, grey, and bland-looking. But that doesn't stop them from trying to look hip and with it! Here's Stephen Harper hanging out with Maria Aragon, the Winnipeg girl who played on stage with Lady Gaga last month. He sings along really badly to John Lennon and nods his head vaguely to Gaga. Look at him being all cool!





Stephen Harper and Lady Gaga, there's a mind-boggling pairing. And I have to say, of all the Beatles/Lennon repertoire, "Imagine" isn't the song I would have expected Harper to pick. I also love that Maria doesn't know it at all. This just seems really forced.

Truth.

[Text: You wouldn't let your grandparents choose who you date, then why let them choose your government.  Your choice, your vote, May 2nd 2011.  For more information go to www.elections.ca]

Flash Mob at U Guelph!

This is pretty inspiring.



I especially love the line, "Vote for the Canada you want." Too true, too true.

I can only hope that other campuses across the country follow Guelph's lead. Hopefully some of them will use this awesome song as a rallying cry:



Is it just me, or is youth mobilization being led by/crystallizing around Rick Mercer?