Young people juggle studying, exams and politics

Francesca Patten can’t vote, but that hasn’t stopped her from getting involved in the May 2 federal election.

“I’ve always had a sense of social justice and I have a clear vision of what the world should be like, so that kind of got me involved (in politics),” says 16-year-old Patten, a volunteer in Calgary East Liberal candidate Josipa Petrunic’s campaign.

Like Patten, young people across the city are juggling door-knocking with studying for exams. They're also encouraging their peers to get engaged with the political process.

“I do all sorts of jobs," says Patten. "Recently we’ve done a lot of canvassing.”

Patten has also made YouTube campaign videos and has started bringing her friends to volunteer, hoping they will also become involved.

The Grade 11 student says that although she's not able to vote, the results of this election will impact her and her friends down the road.

“A lot of the plans that the political parties talk about are things that will go over five years or 10 years — they’re longterm plans," says Patten.

“Just to be aware of them for when I can vote, I find it really helps,” she adds.

Like Patten, 21-year-old Josh Traptow got involved in politics at a young age.

“I’ve been politically active for about five and a half years now,” says Traptow, who volunteers with both Calgary Centre Conservative candidate Lee Richardson and Calgary Centre-North Conservative candidate Michelle Rempel’s campaigns.

Traptow, a SAIT student, says he's involved in politics because the decisions government makes will have consequences in the future.

“Why not get involved now, learn the issues, vote and make an impact?” says Traptow, who ran for school trustee in Calgary’s municipal election last October.

“It’s important because if no one does anything, nothing changes,” says Vincent St. Pierre, a University of Calgary student whose interest in politics began in high school.

“I just saw that my values weren’t being represented in Ottawa and weren’t being represented in Edmonton.”

St. Pierre runs a political blog. He also works as an arts faculty student representative at the University of Calgary, where he is helping organize candidate forums for students.

As well, he is the tech guy on the campaign of Calgary Centre-North Liberal candidate Stephen Randall.

Juggling school, work and politics is difficult, but the latter is something St. Pierre feels passionate about.

“I work really hard. I’ve given up on a lot of other things I could have jumped on to so that I can be politically engaged.”

While St. Pierre, Traptow and Patten are each cheering for a particular party and donating many hours as volunteers, 29-year-old University of Calgary student Adam Worobec is encouraging all students to "dress Canadian," leave the partisan politics at home and attend a “rally for democracy.”

Inspired by Rick Mercer's Rant daring students to vote and students at the University of Guelph, the organizers behind Vote Mob Calgary are asking students to rally at lunchtime on April 13.

A video of the vote mob will be created and posted on YouTube. The video that students at Guelph created has almost hit 14,000 views.

“Like the media’s been saying, youth don’t vote and it makes me sick, really,” says Worobec.

“I’m just trying to get people excited about it. It means a lot to a lot of people and we Canadians in particular take our vote for granted.”

University of Guelph Vote Mob: Dog days are over
A rally organized by University of Guelph students Yvonne Su and Gracen Johnson was designed to fight apathy among student voters.

Rick Mercer's Rant March 29, 2011
The University of Calgary and University of Guelph Vote Mob events are inspired by this video from Rick Mercer daring students to vote.