ERIC BOWLING | 25-year-old NDP pollcatter and freelance writer.
The youth vote is to democracy what cold fusion is to physics — an elusive white stag, a constant enigma.
Every election year, political wizards stand on the other side of the generation gap, pulling their hair out like frustrated parents trying to identify with their uncooperative children. Finding what’s needed to get the under-30 demographic out to the polls on Oct. 14 seems futile. However, SEE sat down with a group of Edmonton young people anyway to try to capture a snapshot of their collective political psyche.
We discovered that they really aren’t that much different from the rest of us. All they expect is a little honesty, vision, funding for arts, and the ability for women to carry handguns so they can shoot rapists in the face if the need should arise (honestly, see below). The following is an abridged compilation of interviews conducted in SEE’s campaign war room over the weeks leading up to Canada’s 40th general election.
DAVID TOMPKINS
Age: 24
Occupation: Welding Inspector
Leaning: NDP
ERIC BOWLING
Age: 25
Occupation: NDP pollcatter,
and freelance writer.
Leaning: Liberal/NDP
MICAH BROWN
Age: 24
Occupation: Economics student, U of A
Leaning: Conservative
SPENCER GINGRAS
Age: 21
Occupation: English student,
MacEwan College
Leaning: Liberal
STEPHEN HODDER
Age: 22
Occupation: Musician
Leaning: Liberal
What are your political leanings these days?
Micah Brown: I’d be more of a (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper guy — I guess I’m naturally more Conservative. I’m not thrilled about his platforms, but he seems to be the best out of a bad lot.
Stephen Hodder: I’m still Liberal, they’re my party.
Spencer Gingras: I’m leaning towards Liberal because I don’t want Harper to have a majority.
Eric Bowling: I’m kind of switching back and forth between the Liberals and the NDP — whichever one ends up looking the strongest, but probably NDP. I’m mainly focused on making sure the Conservatives don’t get a majority because I think that would be absolutely detrimental to everything I look forward to in this country.
David Tompkins: I’m going to go with [NDP Leader Jack] Layton. I really want to vote for NDP, but I know I might just be helping to pick a new second in command (a new official Opposition).
What traits does a leader have to possess to gain your support?
SG: Somebody who seems approachable at least, someone who is genuine and doesn’t need to sit in front of a fireplace to make me think that he’s genuine and teary-eyed. God, I wish Harper was my dad.
SH: They’d need a level of empathy and humanity and confidence in what they have. [They should be] sly and classy enough to just present their debate and have faith in it, and appear as though they are human enough to say, “I really am fighting for you. I... tried to organize community basketball so people wouldn’t smoke crack.” Somebody that really knows what it is to be a human being. I hear buzzwords and catchphrases like “around the kitchen table” and I want to know how many of them actually have a regular-size kitchen table?
EB: Someone with an actual vision, instead of just trying to take the threads that are being held and trying to make a knot out of them. We need somebody who actually knows and can see where he wants our country to go. Basically we need Trudeau.
DT: I need to know that what he says he’s going to do is what is going to happen. Even if it pisses the fuck out me, as long as it was on his platform and he did it I would probably vote for him again.
EB: What if the plan grew old and was no longer relevant?
DT: Then you switch parties.
What do you think about the propaganda machine that’s driving this election?
SG: Harper’s ads are ridiculous. [Especially] the one where he’s crying by the fire — teary-eyed talking about our forefathers that he doesn’t give a shit about because he’s pissing all over everything they fought for.
SH: Yeah, when I watch Harper sit down I’m like, “Fuck you, you’re lying.” And it’s not that I think you’re a Conservative piece of shit, I just know you’re not like that.
DT: When the campaign started I was up in Fort Mac for almost a month and a half.... Every radio station has poll alerts and election news every day at six and 6:30 a.m. and I find them to be very pro-Harper because he protects the industry up there. A lot of them care about the environment, but they also care about being able to pay their mortgages 12 months a year. A lot of the ads up there go toward keeping jobs and more jobs and roads being created.
What election issues are most important to you?
MB: I think in light of the recent events in the States it’s probably the economy. Given that I’m studying economics I might be a bit biased, but I think it’s pretty important right now. There’s a lot of instability and fear.
So who is the best candidate to deal with Canada’s economic situation?
MB: Paul Martin. Honestly, Harper is an economist, but he’s done a few things that most economists would frown on, like cutting the GST. Paul Martin was probably in term fiscally the best finance minister that we had, but I don’t have the confidence in (Liberal Leader Stephane) Dion that I would have in Harper to take tough measures that wouldn’t make everybody happy.
What about Layton?
MB: Layton in my opinion is very backward economically. He seems like he comes from the 1930s class-conflict economics instead of modern.
EB: I think the opposite. I think Layton is the best guy to deal with the economic situation if North America starts to go down the toilet, because of his logic of trickle-up economics. Historically when there was the Depression, I think Roosevelt’s New Deal was criticized a lot because it was considered socialist, because it started up a lot of work crews and put money back in the pockets of working class who then went and spent that money on corporate products.
How about the environment? What do you think about Dion’s Green Shift?
EB: I’m totally for Green Shift, but from what I read this morning, it looks like he took all of the teeth out of it. I agree with Jack Layton, who feels that you need a great economy in place first before you can really start taxing carbon, because otherwise you’re kind of punishing people for doing stuff that the government has basically been flipping back and forth on.
So, who has the strongest environmental platform?
EB: The Greens.
Any chance you might vote for the Greens?
EB: Not this election.
DT: Yeah, not this election. I don’t see them getting into power until somebody else’s platform comes close to theirs — where they can be a stepping stone instead of a leap of faith.
What do you think about Elizabeth May initially being refused a seat at the debate table?
MB: I think that it’s pretty clear when you have a party that does have support, and you know the environment is sort of the zeitgeist of our time, so I think that no matter what your views are it’s not right to exclude her.
EB: Likewise. I almost walked out on my support of the NDP over that. Fortunately they got over that hump quickly.
How about the issue of arts funding?
SG: I think that it is really naïve and insulting that Harper thinks ordinary, everyday people don’t care about the arts. It’s not just musicians, dancers, singers, and writers that are affected. It’s people that work for those people: the cooks and the hairdressers and the carpenters and set designers. Everybody is affected. I think the cultural sector in Canada employs something like over a million people. Where would we be without art? We need to support our cultural identity.
SH: It’s going to be harder for someone like me who wants to get into musical production. What if theatres and studios that I want to work for have their funding cut? Why get into the arts when you’re going to be dirt poor? It’s almost a guarantee that that’s the case. If you’re passionate about what you want to do, you’re going to do it anyway, but it definitely doesn’t make it easier when the future is made just that much more bleak when the actual opportunities that are out there to make a living are reduced, just because somebody doesn’t think what you do or how you want to spend your life is significant. They would rather have you work in a fucking cubicle, and that doesn’t fly for people who want to express the soul of this country.
SG: It’s a shame that he would write everybody off and dismiss the arts community like that. I’m not elitist. I’m poor and the reason why I’m taking English in college is because I don’t feel like I have the support to take a glass-blowing course in Red Deer. There’s a little voice inside my head saying that I’m not going to be able to make it, but how healthy is that?
SH: For the prime minister of Canada to make that kind of comment really does speak volumes about their party. Their priority is not people like you and me, it’s people who make $100,000 a year for the government or corporations.
How do you feel about the parties’ crime platforms? Is gun control still an issue?
DT: I agree with making handguns illegal, or at least having special permits for special people.
MB: I think this is where my redneck comes out. I’m an Albertan and I’ve grown up hunting and around guns and I think that most gun users are very responsible people. I don’t know how much the [gun] registration has helped in the reduction of crime. If I go steal a registered gun and go shoot someone with it the guy who will get blamed is the gun owner. As for handguns, they’re combative weapons. There’s an interesting statistic in Virginia, where they allow handguns and they have one of the lowest rape rates, so frankly I would be happy if every woman here in Edmonton was able to carry a handgun.
DT: Until you showed up late for a date.
MB: That’s true.
How do you think the election is going to pan out?
EB: Right now I’m predicting it’s going to be a same-old minority Conservative. Though the NDP are getting a lot more attention in the national press, I don’t think they’re actually as popular as people are making them out to be.
MB: Well, I’ll go with the polls to be safe. Looks like Harper’s going to get a majority, Dion’s going to shrink, Layton’s going to grow and I’m not even going to comment on the Bloc because I have no idea what’s happening in Quebec.
