The conservatives in Ottawa today, gathered for their party’s policy convention, arrogant and ignorant as always, defeated a motion to create a youth wing for the party.
Apparently, the argument against the creation of a separate vehicle for individuals under the age of thirty, that the proposal would “ghettoize the age group” and “sandbox” the younger generation of conservative voters, won by ninety percent during a vote at the convention.
Now I personally think this will bode well for us liberals, since it will help the Liberal Party gain some traction in recruiting and building a younger base of voters for the future. If we build up a strong liberal following now, get them young and early, then we can secure our votes for the future.
Despite the fact that I agree that persons between the ages of twenty-five and twenty-nine should be considered full-fledged adults in the PC and as such be apart of the normal congregation of conservatives, the party should have still created a vehicle targeting voters at the cusp of adulthood, voters between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four.
If the Tories would have been smart and change oriented, preparing themselves for the future, they would have recognized the benefit of campaigning to earn the trust of the next generation of voters. They would have realized that there is no respite from this task, that no politician’s job in keeping the spirit of his or her party alive, is ever complete.
It is a never ending struggle!
Nevertheless, this is a good opportunity for the Liberal Party to get working on gaining more voting-age youth support. For if we can influence the next generation, the party ‘s future success, and indeed Canada’s prosperity, is assured.
Not to misunderstand my position, I think that those of voting age and beyond are equal in deserving the same respect, maturity and inclusion offered to those more seasoned in life and politics. Thus, a youth wing does not imply a separation of classes within the party. Say a younger group that gets treated differently than the rest of the constituency.
What it implies though is that the programs targeting a younger voter base, should be run and headed by clearly identifiable members from that base.
For example: Who better to appeal to the twenty-four year olds than a twenty-four year old, or who better to represent the eighteen year olds than an eighteen year old.
A youth wing can operate relatively independently and does not need to be the megaphone for the rest of the party. Also, a youth wing does not mean differential treatment within the caucus or at the party conventions or anywhere else. It just simply means that we have party representatives from a young age group, usually the age group in which everybody is starting to enter political life, targeting the population in that same age group, recruiting members for our cause.
The Liberal Party of Canada must not shy away from this reality. It must always remember that the spirit of liberalism will always present itself first in the young in this country, and eventually germinate into political maturity in the adult member of the Liberal Party.
A youth wing is both essential and integral to the always perpetuating existence of the party.
A reality which the PCs overwhelmingly chose to ignore today.
