from ChaoticFate.com by qew
May and Laraque say Canadian democracy is at stake if youth stay home
Dec. 2, 2010Youth have the potential to save Canadian federal politics, according to the federal Green Party’s leaders.
On Nov. 26, federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May and her deputy Georges Laraque spoke to an eager UVic audience about the vital need for Canadian youth to vote and current Green Party policies.
“You have to recognize relatively quickly that we have a bare majority of Canadians voting, and of them, a slim minority is calling all the shots,” said May.
According to Elections Canada, less that 59 per cent of the population voted in the last federal election, including only 37 per cent of people ages 18 to 30. The Conservative Party took a little less than 38 per cent of the vote.
May used the recent defeat of the Climate Accountability Act in the Senate as an example of how she believes Canadian politics is broken.
“The recent vote in the senate has really shaken me to my foundations. I thought I knew how Canadian democracy worked, and that was not something anyone saw it coming.”
May says Bill C-311 (also known as the Climate Change Accountability Act) was killed by Conservative Senators who took advantage of their procedural advantage, calling the Act in to the question when there was a lack of opposition. The NDP bill was defeated after being passed by the House of Commons and waiting in committee since 2008.
May says an increased youth vote is vital to the success of Canadian democraxy.
“I feel almost as if democracy is in peril and am putting out an SOS to the young people of this country. We desperately, desperately need you. Democracy itself, not the private agenda of the Green party, is what is at stake – Canada needs the youth vote to turn up in force … regardless of where you live, where you are going to vote and regardless of which party you are going to vote for, for democracy to survive in this country, we really need for the youth to come out and vote.“
To demonstrate her point, May predicted that if only half of young voters had cast their ballots in 2008, Harper would not be Prime Minister today. “It would have completely reshaped the Canadian political landscape,” She said.
The talk also introduced Georges Laraque as the Deputy Leader of the Green Party. Laraque says he accepted the offer to be deputy Green Party leader because the Green Party’s conservationist philosophy complemented his own values of veganism and conservationism.
“[The Green Party helped] open my eyes to the various environmental issues that the planet is facing,” he said. “After learning more about the Green Party and [May], it seemed like a good fit.”
As for his own parliamentary run, Laraque says the timing isn’t right.
“I could stand for election in Quebec and probably get elected […] but I would like to spend my time helping [other Greens] get elected. I also still have my Haitian hospital project that I am still involved in … so I am concentrating what time I have on helping amazing people like [May] get elected. And she is going to make it.”
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