Getting involved can be more than just a ballot

By Jennifer Burden

burd0018@algonquincollege.com

With just one ballot how can I make a difference? This is a question that has youth turning to non-traditional political activity to make their voices heard.

Signing petitions, political protests and demonstrations, engaging in consumer boycotting or buycotting, and joining issue based organizations are all ways in which youth get their messages across. Although voting is important, it isn’t the only way.

Laura Spragge, the Algonquin Students’ Associations vice president believes it is important to do more than just vote to make a difference.

“I’m a strong believer that you need to do something to see anything change,” she said.

“If you want something enough, you should do something about it.”

A research report written in 2007 by Brenda O’Neill for the Canadian Policy Research Networks and cited by Elections Canada showed that age doesn’t play the same importance in non-traditional political activity as it does for traditional political activity such as voting. For example, the percentage of people participating in at least one non-traditional political act doesn’t increase with age like the percentage of people voting does. In fact, it decreases slightly.

Political involvement, however, isn’t a substitution for voting; it compliments. Voting is like a baby step in the big picture of political involvement.

“As soon as you take that first step to making your voice heard … why stop at that? It’s almost your civic duty,” said Spragge.

Alex Deforge, 18, who is taking a year off from environmental engineering at the University of Toronto, really takes getting involved politically seriously. She spends six hours a day, five days a week, working to raise money and awareness in the downtown streets of Ottawa for various organizations like UNICEF and Amnesty International.

“Getting involved in organizations is what holds the government accountable to their promises,” said Deforge.

Deforge believes demonstrations are the best way for youth to make a difference in the political sphere.

“It’s hard for politicians not to notice what’s going on outside of Parliament,” she said.

Algonquin doesn’t have the same number of organizations on campus to get involved in as the University of Ottawa and Carleton University do, but that shouldn’t discourage Algonquin students from getting involved.

Carole Goodall, a first-year pre-health science student at Algonquin, said she didn’t know of any organizations on campus to get involved in, but believes it is important for students to seek them out.

“It keeps people involved in their community and in touch with what’s going on in the world,” she said.

Spragge said there are some clubs you can get involved in on campus, but that students should branch out off of campus.