I miss my old riding! ('Riding' is slang for Canadian Electoral Distract, I have learned on wikipedia.) I used to live in Ottawa Centre, the shape of which adorably kind of looks like a maple leaf. Ottawa Centre is a predominately liberal riding, this is probably helped by the fact that it includes two universities: Carlton and Saint Paul's. It hasn't had a Conservative Member of Parliament since the late 70s and even then it was only for a short period of time. It has been represented by the New Democratic Party since 2004 when it was originally Ed Broadbent's riding, the old NDP leader before Jack Layton. Paul Dewer has been the MP for the last five years. I loved being represented by NDP and was so proud of the political leaning of my little district, even with the Glebe which I find a little too yuppie-hippie-leftist.
I follow Paul Dewer on Facebook and recently he linked to a video made by a high school student somewhere in Ottawa. It is a bit of a strange video in places but it is so nice to see the desire and drive to vote that feels missing from a lot of Canadian youth. I have always loved to and believed strongly in voting. On May 2nd - GET OUT AND VOTE!
As someone who has spent the last two years specializing in the study of why young people don't vote, I don't know that that video really gets to the heart of the issue....
ReplyDeleteAlso...Audrey Mcglaughlin and then Alexa McDonough were leader before Jack...Ed Broadbent was back in the 80s. It seemed important to point out as I don't think we should just skip over two of the only female federal party leaders ever.
A.
Oh Paul Dewer.... I miss the days when i was in a position to vote for someone both cute and capable.
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