Bay of Quinte candidates address young people’s concerns

Some of the candidates said they have become friends over the campaign, and through the night they always remained respectful. Photo by Liam Radford, QNet News

By Liam Radford

BELLEVILLE – Young people and their hope for the future were the focus during the 16th meeting of the Bay of Quinte federal candidates Tuesday evening.

Youth2Youth Hastings-Prince Edward, along with the Poverty Roundtable of Hastings-Prince Edward and the St. Joseph’s Parish Social Justice Committee, hosted the event.

St. Joseph’s Parish centre filled up very quickly, with a crowd of more than 100 people. Photo by Liam Radford, QNet News

Standing up at the microphone in the front of the packed room at St. Joseph’s Parish Centre Ian Dales, a 17-year-old involved with Youth2Youth, asked what the candidates and their parties would do to foster dialogue and instill hope in his generation.

The night was organized following the Youth2Youth summit in September, at which young people brought up the election as a priority and said they want their concerns heard. Youth2Youth Hastings-Prince Edward is an initiative through United Way Hastings-Prince Edward.

The questions asked at the meeting were created by young people at the summit and included issues like mental health support, right to housing, poverty reduction, human rights and the environment.

Dales helped create the question he asked and said that to him it really mattered.

“Most important to me is the issue of youth hope in the community and in Canada as a whole because I think it is connected to so many issues including climate change, high tuition fees and high housing costs,” he said.

Devlyn Lance, a member of Youth2Youth HPE, gave the closing statement for the night thanking the candidates, hosts, audience and young people in attendance. Photo by Liam Radford, QNet News

Each of the candidates had a different response to Dales’ question, but all agreed that engaging young people and inspiring hope is an important issue.

Green candidate Danny Celovsky answered first saying that hope is where society needs to get to and that government would have fewer problems if more elected officials listened to young people.

“I’m inspired by what I’m seeing in this. You people have the plans done. You are our leaders. Our job is to go to Ottawa get the funding or whatever you need to implement your plan. Not to tell you what the plan is,” he said.

The next candidate to speak, Conservative Tim Durkin, said that giving people hope and a belief in the system is one of the most important things politicians can do. He continued that listening to young voices is a way to engage youth in the system.

Liberal candidate Neil Ellis talked about what he and his party have done to fund projects that engage young people, like Youth2Youth, and starting a youth committee as a member of parliament to talk about issues that affect young people and to give them a voice. He said youth are engaged and need to be listened to to stay that way.

Paul Bordonaro, the People’s Party candidate, said he lacked hope when he was younger and that young people now need to build hope in their own lives through education and employment.

“You’ve got to be positive about it. I know it worked out for myself and for my children,” he said.

The final response went to the NDP candidate Stephanie Bell. She said her party seeks out young and diverse candidates to make sure that people have a voice. She says part of what drew her to the NDP was how Jagmeet Singh, NDP leader, talks about love and courage.

“It’s something that I think our politics has often missed, and has no been included in our conversations. I think it really engenders a kind of positivity amongst everybody, and it makes it so that our politics is not so cynical,” she said.

Devlyn Lance, 19, asked two questions and gave the closing statement for the night.

“We have to take it on ourselves, actually take ownership and responsibility for voting. Because if we don’t nothing is going to ever change. The things that matter to us aren’t going to come into affect unless we stand up for them,” Lance told QNet News.

The candidates will participate in their final debate Thursday at noon on 99.3 County FM.