Party leadership considerations - time for change
My comments shall undoubtedly make me unpopular wish some of the membership, however I am not a politician and I will speak to the point. In my volunteer life I spend a lot of time with young people. It is my perception that most feel disenfranchised from the political process. Fundamentally, this is a result of not having a political figurehead that they feel they can make a bond with.
The Green Party is a progressive political force and a good deal of its untapped support base rests with younger Canadians. It would logically follow that we do what is necessary to promote and expand upon this relationship. However, the problem as I perceive it, is that Mrs. May is not the right person for this task. I think younger voters have a hard time connecting with her.
I have the utmost respect for Mrs. May, and I believe she should continue to be a fundamental player within the Party, however - from behind the scenes. This is after all where the real strategic decision making takes place. The leader is just a public ‘face’, a communicator, a sales person. ..
The Green Party would go a long way in infusing new energy and interest amongst younger Canadians if it were to elect an intelligent, charismatic, accomplished and down to earth young Canadian.
I apologize if I have offended anyone. It is not my wish to drive a wedge between older and younger Canadians. I hope to see all Canadians working together for the common good of our Country and our Planet. The reality however is that when you consider the demographics amongst the voting population – different areas hold different priorities. Many of these priorities are the focus of the other Political Parties and that is in large why they dominate the political landscape.
If we wish to attract that attention of bright, change orientated voters, we need a new leader.
- Philip Staniewski's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Recent Comments
- Rick Mitchell |
- Anne Marie Benoit |
- Frances Thauberger |
- Paul Maillet |
- Steve May |
- 1 of 2222
- ››
Comments
An office full of young people
I visited Elizabeth May's office on Parliament Hill and found it to be quite full of young people - interns, co-ops, and employees inspired by her leadership. And she's gotten a good reception when we've had her speak to school groups.
But you make a bit of a shift - first you talk about young people, then you talk about voters. They aren't the same thing. Surveys show that young people have the lowest voter turnout. So while we should never turn young people away, I question the value of a strategy that focuses on the young to the exclusion of older demographics who vote in higher proportions.
Keep in mind also that young people are the smallest segment of voters. That's because people under 18 can't vote at all, so "young voters" would cover only folks from 18-24 (or whatever you consider to be "young" - the Young Greens allow membership up to 29). Canadians age 18-24 represent only 12% of the electorate (people eligible to vote), but only 8% of actual voters (people who show up to the polls). So to go to a young leader strategy to court this group would mean favouring fewer than 10% of voters over the other 90%. I can't really see that as a winning strategy - more like a perverse misapplication of the Pareto principle.
I also don't think young people are so shallow that they'll only identify with and vote for a party with a young leader. A lot of young people are still finding their own place - they might be suspicous of another person their age who already feels capable and deserving of being prime minister (the ultimate goal of a party leader).
And of course the leader of the party is chosen not in the back room based on a specific marketing strategy, but by a vote by every party member of all ages. So far, I haven't seen any evidence that younger party members prefer younger leadership candidates.
Young leaders don't just spring up because you might want one - they have to build up leadership skills somewhere. Perhaps if you connect with the Young Greens chapter nearest you, you can meet up with the real youth who are already involved in the party and see about helping with their initiatives. Their website is here: http://youth.greenparty.ca/
Meanwhile, there are plenty of opportunities for leadership within the party in places besides the party leader position. For example, Rebecca Harrison is on our Shadow Cabinet in the Poverty Elimination portfolio and is also Media Officer for the whole party, despite being only 27 years old.
Erich Jacoby-Hawkins, Barrie ON - although I'm on Cabinet (Nat'l Rev. and Ecol. Fiscal Reform), views here are my own and may not reflect official GPC positions. Please visit www.ErichtheGreen.ca
Youth already leading Greens
Last year, the Toronto Star asked federal candidates under 30 to blog for them as their "Youth Nation". Of the 27 participants, 18 of them were Green Party candidates, with the other 9 being NDP and Liberal (about half and half). So there is already a key indication that young people are attracted to, supporting, and working within the Green Party despite our non-youth leader.
Another indication is that the 65th Queens (University) Model Parliament this year, for the first time, had a Green Party (minority) government. This was because each student MP was allowed to choose their own party, and more chose Green than any other.
Taken together, I believe these two facts indicate that the Green Party is already doing well in connecting with young people under our current leader - better than any other party, anyhow - so I don't know that it makes sense to do something radical like replacing our leader simply for someone younger.
At the moment, Elizabeth May is the youngest of the opposition leaders (and of the former opposition leaders). In fact, the only party leader younger than her is Stephen Harper - and his relative youth certainly doesn't seem to be drawing the youth vote to his party!
Erich Jacoby-Hawkins, Barrie ON - although I'm on Cabinet (Nat'l Rev. and Ecol. Fiscal Reform), views here are my own and may not reflect official GPC positions. Please visit www.ErichtheGreen.ca
Tried once
In 2008 the Green Party of Nova Scotia had a 27-year-old leader, but that failed to energize the youth vote enough, and their vote was exactly the same in that election as in the previous one. So one can't assume that young leader = youth support.
Erich Jacoby-Hawkins, Barrie ON - although I'm on Cabinet (Nat'l Rev. and Ecol. Fiscal Reform), views here are my own and may not reflect official GPC positions. Please visit www.ErichtheGreen.ca
Youth vote relevant
There is a lot to agree with in Erich's posts. I just want to point out a few things. The 2008 Nova Scotia leadership had some controversy surrounding it and the executive appeared to be in turmoil during those years. I don't think this is a fair comparison to the discussion at hand.
It's true that young people can't vote under 18 and that 18 - 30 year olds have a troubling habit of not voting. However I wish to point out that the Party still needs to work hard at this connection and there is a bit of an illusion around the Green Party being a party of youth. The national student vote program has been very successful in giving elementary and high school students a say in provincial and federal elections. It also has an enormous participation rate. So a few points;
in 2008 the student federal vote elected a number of Green candidates. I finished second to Olivia Chow in 2008 in the local student vote. In 2007 the student vote elected the GPO as the official opposition.
In 2011 only two or three Green candidates survived the NDP sweep in the student vote. In 2011 the GPO was virtually wiped out.
This vote should not be dismissed by any means and it does not reflect a desire in young people to have a young leader at the helm of any of the major parties. Jack Layton had excellent appeal to these youth as does Elizabeth. There is a shift in attitude when young people reach official voting age and this needs to be addressed. The Green Party needs to reach out continually to youth who are not able to vote yet. We need to know why this vote swing happens and exactly what impression youth really have about the Green Party, because many of those student votes will be official voters in 2015.
This blog reflects my personal opinion. It is not official Green Party Policy. www.departmentofpeace.ca
http://stephenlafrenie.blogspot.com
Agree fully
I generally avoid "me too" posts, but since there isn't a "like" or "thumbs up" button here, I'd like to say that I fully agree with your comment, Stephen. We need to reach out to youth in ways that build on our current strengths, including our (IMHO) youth-friendly leader.
Erich Jacoby-Hawkins, Barrie ON - although I'm on Cabinet (Nat'l Rev. and Ecol. Fiscal Reform), views here are my own and may not reflect official GPC positions. Please visit www.ErichtheGreen.ca
I believe I have weakened my
I believe I have weakened my argument due to my use of the word "young" in the below statement.
"The Green Party would go a long way in infusing new energy and interest amongst younger Canadians if it were to elect an intelligent, charismatic, accomplished and down to earth young Canadian."
I did not wish for this to become a debate centered on the merits of electing a young vs. older Party leader. My intent was to promote the election of a political figurehead who would have a broader appeal to the voter base that finds our values most attractive.
While certainly not the largest body of voters, young Canadians are the most likely to support the Party if we can win their vote. There is indeed a disconnect between the political orientation of high-school/college students and just a couple years following when they enter the workforce. However, I do not believe that this is a mystery. This occurs because life gets in the way of ideals. People find a partner, have kids, buy a home, go to work....suddenly paying the bills, the price of gasoline, the cost of food, etc. become more pressing concerns then the impact of environmental degradation 50 to 100 years down the road.
It may not be fair, but politics is a game of strategy. A leader should be elected not necessarily based on merit, but rather on an overall sense that they will be marketable to the voter base a party is hoping to win over. One only need look at the fate of the Liberals in the last couple elections to see the disastrous effect of their recent leadership selections.
Aiming at young vote not strategic
I agree that young Canadians are the most likely to support the Green Party if they vote. However, if one is looking at this from a purely strategic approach, you can't ignore that young voters are both the smallest segment of the overall electorate, and have the lowest voting turnout. Even if we could somehow overcome the latter issue, the simple fact is that electing Green MPs will require the support of the majority of voters in all age brackets - most of whom are not "young".
However, I believe that when we elect our party leader, we DO in fact take into account the marketability of that person to the electorate as a whole (not just one segment), and that Elizabeth plays well with younger voters. Her leadership campaign attracted a lot of our younger party activists, and she continues to inspire a rather young-leaning group of key volunteers.
You may meet many young people who have never heard of her, but that's not due to her lack of appeal to them, but due to their general lack of knowledge of political issues and personalities in general, for the exact reasons you list. (You would probably find these young people could also not name other opposition party leaders, or the local candidates in their most recent federal election, even though, statistically, their Green Party candidate was probably the youngest main-party candidate on the ballot).
When the Liberals lost, it had a lot to due with lacklustrue leadership, but it wasn't from having lost a youth vote that they never really had. And the NDP picked up a lot of the youth vote despite having a leader who was no spring chicken - largely because the "Orange Crush" was infectuous across all demographics. I don't recall Layton as having had a long reputation as a particularly "youth-approved" leader before that.
Erich Jacoby-Hawkins, Barrie ON - although I'm on Cabinet (Nat'l Rev. and Ecol. Fiscal Reform), views here are my own and may not reflect official GPC positions. Please visit www.ErichtheGreen.ca