MOTIVATING MILLENNIALS
SURVEYS SAY HOUSING COSTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUES TO MILLENNIALS. BUT IT’S IN CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVISM WHERE YOUNG PEOPLE SEEM MOST INVOLVED AND COMMITTED, AND WHERE THEY WILL LIKELY MAKE THE MOST ELECTORAL NOISE IN THE COMING YEARS
FOR MANY YOUNG VOTERS, CLIMATE CHANGE IS TOP OF MIND
The Amazon rainforest is burning, students are striking in the streets, Greta Thunberg has risen to international fame.
2019 has been a very busy year for environmental issues and young people are leading the charge.
Young people see these challenges beyond the lens of the next couple of years — they’re thinking about what waits for them in the decades ahead if actions aren’t taken now to mitigate the potential horrors of runaway climate change and ecological devastation.
But will that sense of urgency translate into a wave of young voters in the upcoming federal election?
Lilian Barraclough, 21, is a former organizer with the Halifax chapter of Our Time, which is a youth-run organization endorsing candidates in the upcoming federal election who advocate for a ‘Green New Deal.’
But she’s taken a step back from that group after deciding to dedicate her efforts to the Green Party, volunteering for Jo-Ann Roberts’ campaign in Halifax.
Now in her fourth year at the University of King’s College, people keep asking her what her next steps are; but for her, that future is filled with doubt unless something is done now.
“This election is really a turning point,” Barraclough said inside the Glitter Bean Cafe near campus. “This is where we need to be pushing for a Green New Deal and progressive policies.”
“We don’t have another four years to wait,” she added. Barraclough has been involved in climate activism since middle school.
It stemmed from studying weather patterns after noticing her winters at home in Ontario were getting shorter and warmer.
“In Toronto, we normally have really cold winters, but one year it didn’t go below 10 degrees Celsius all winter and we didn’t have any snow,” she said. “I spent every day after school looking at historical weather patterns and trying to see if this was normal.”
“When I realized that wasn’t normal, I knew I had to do something.”
Barraclough said she’s definitely not alone among her generation, saying many are not only actively involved in environmental organizations, but are also dealing with eco-anxiety, a feeling of an uncertain future if climate change’s worst prophecies come true.
“It’s our future that’s really at risk here.”
But, she said a lot of concerned young voters are still making up their mind, and each party’s climate plan will play a major factor on who they vote for on Election Day.
BUILDING BLOCKS
Christine Saulnier, NDP candidate for Halifax in the Oct. 21 election, said young voters represent an important demographic for her campaign.
“Their energy, their activism and their passion make for great volunteers,” Saulnier said. “This is also one of the largest building blocks in this upcoming election.”
Saulnier said she’s been inspired by young people gathering in large numbers, holding climate strikes and making their voices heard.
“I could see the kind of analysis that’s going on among the youth is really impressive,” she said. “This is about collective action and that’s really exciting for us.”
All major political parties in the upcoming campaign will have an environmental pillar as part of their platform — it’s just a question of which one will resonate.
Saulnier is hoping those voters will pick the NDP’s plan. She said the Liberal government’s purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline in B.C. contradicts their stance as a green-friendly party.
Saulnier said the climate crisis has been top-of-mind for people she meets at the doorstep on the campaign trail, along with other issues like household affordability.
“The climate is always top three (issues) for sure.”
PASSIONATE AND ORGANIZED
It’s no longer just a fringe movement or a few groups of people who are getting involved — it’s starting to reach a critical mass, according to Meghan McMorris, community energy co-ordinator at the Ecology Action Centre.
“We’re really lucky because we have a lot of volunteers and members who are constantly interacting with us on a variety of environmental and climate-related issues that they’re concerned with,” McMorris said. “Lately we’ve seen more organized groups of youth showing up and working with us.”
Three of those groups that have partnered in some way with the EAC include Our Time, iMatter and the Halifax Strikers.
The EAC helped to facilitate the Our Time community town hall in Halifax, which was calling for a Green New Deal on June 17 along with other organizations such as The Council Of Canadians.
McMorris said she was struck by how passionate and organized the young people were during that process.
“Afterwards I had a young person come up to me and say, ‘I can’t believe the number of people who were here who were older or elderly who felt the exact same way that I do,’” she said. “About 10 minutes later an elderly person came up to me and said, ‘I can’t believe this event was organized by these youth. I can’t believe how passionate they are and motivated.’”
Back at the Glitter Bean, Barraclough is contemplating what it’ll take for a wave of young people to show up at the polls.
“People assume that young people either know how to vote or if they don’t they’ll look it up themselves, but that’s not necessarily true,” she said. “We have so many things occupying our time: student debt, working full time, going to school full time, there’s just so many things we have to keep track of.”