Will the visibility of the youth climate strike translate into political influence?
Credit to Author: Derrick Penner| Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2019 01:34:18 +0000
Young people who walk out of Metro Vancouver schools, colleges and universities Friday to join the global climate strike, will be joining a substantial social movement with certain hopes for political influence on climate action.
Their call for radical change on climate issues falls in the middle of the federal election, but whether or not it translates into political influence depends on whether it can break the propensity of youth to simply not vote, or move older voters to vote differently.
However, the politics of the event is a fine line for both the youth organizers, who have designated the strikes as non-partisan, and politicians who are attending to show support for the cause, but without directly campaigning for votes.
“The main message I’ve been trying to get across with Sustainabiliteens, but also in talking to the adults in my life, is vote with climate in mind,” said Samantha Lin, a 17-year-old organizer of the event and a Prince of Wales secondary school student.
If candidates do want to show up and show support, “that’s OK,” Lin said. “But this is not about endorsing one particular party or candidate.”
And although most of the youth participating might not be of voting age, Lin said with an expected turnout of 15,000 or more at the climate-strike event, she thinks it does have an impact.
“Just the fact the strike exists, there are more conversations happening,” Lin said. “The narrative around climate change and the climate crisis is shifting in our daily lives and getting harder for people to ignore.”
And with that, Lin said they are encouraging the voters they do know to “use their votes in the most effective way” to influence climate action.
However, younger voters do have the potential to have a bigger impact, considering that the millennials in Canada, have become the largest single demographic group in the population, said Avery Shannon, a volunteer organizer with the advocacy group Our Time.
A youth activist holds a sign during a Global Climate Strike demonstration on September 20, 2019 in San Francisco, California. In what could be the largest climate protest in history and inspired by the teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, thousands of people around the world are taking to the streets to demand action to combat climate change.
Our Time, which is supported by the climate group 350.org, isn’t directly involved with the climate strike, but Shannon said the group looks at it as “a real moment of mobilization, for youth in particular.”
Our Time, which is an advocacy group pushing for adoption of the so-called Green New Deal set of actions on climate change, hasn’t backed any one party, but has endorsed a list of 29 individual candidates from the Greens and NDP as best embodying its aims.
“But we also know young people are the least likely to vote,” Shannon said, so they are hopeful that by taking ownership of events such as the climate strike, young people will be motivated to cast ballots.
Candidates from all of the major parties will be attending the climate strike to lend their support to the cause, but won’t be approaching the line between that and actually campaigning.
“When you go to these things, a march about a cause, either you support it or you don’t support the cause,” said Vancouver Centre Liberal candidate, and long-serving MP Hedy Fry. “To be trolling for votes, I don’t think is appropriate.”
Green party leader Elizabeth May planned to attend the climate strike in Montreal, said her press secretary Rosie Emery, but otherwise candidates would be respecting the non-partisan nature of the strikes and not canvas them.
Chris Corsetti, the Conservative Party of Canada candidate for Vancouver East, said he is also attending because “I believe in the issue and support what the kids are doing in that youth are getting involved and wanting to do something.”
Jenny Kwan is is the NPD candidate for Vancouver East
The NDP’s Jenny Kwan, the incumbent and front-runner in the Vancouver East riding will also be there, “to show solidarity,” without campaigning. She is also one of five B.C. candidates to have the endorsement of Our Time.
“Young people most certainly have gotten the attention of elected officials,” Kwan said. “They’re demanding accountability, they’re demanding action. Pretty words are not good enough.”
However, whether the climate strike translates into stronger political influence depends on other factors, said David Tindall, a sociologist at the University of B.C. who studies social movements.
“As academics, we always say ‘it depends,’” Tindall said.
In this federal election, Tindall said one of the factors is how close the polling is and the potential for a minority government.
“If it were completely obvious that either the Liberals or Conservatives were going to win a majority government, then it would not be so significant,” Tindall said.
However, there is also the factor that over the decades, younger voters don’t vote in the same proportion as older voters, said Bill Tieleman, a political consultant and former NDP strategist, so he is skeptical about that changing in this election.
“Chasing the youth vote is a political Holy Grail nobody has ever found,” Tieleman said, and he hasn’t seen an upswell of youth involvement in political parties in this campaign.
However, if the youth influence can turn responding to the climate issue into a “grandparent issue, the future of humanity, that could have a much more significant impact than the youth vote,” Tieleman said.