Posts Tagged ‘youth’

ICLEI Day 4: Youth, Hope, and BBQ

Jun
18
2009

Yesterday a number of younger delegates assembled at ICLEI’s request to scope out a possible Youth/Next Gen initiative for young leaders. (Daveberta has written a great synopsis.) A few of us put together a resolution today and we’ll see what the reception at the main meeting is like tomorrow.

R to L: ICLEI Secretary General Konrad Otto-Zimmermann; Cllr. Cathy Oke from Melbourne, Aus.; Ald. Dominic Mishio from Leduc, AB; Cllr. Sebastian Müller from Freiburg, Germany; Eero Vainio from Lahti, Norway; yours truly; and Vancouver Cllr. David, who is also President of ICLEI.

At Fort Edmonton (from left): ICLEI Secretary General Konrad Otto-Zimmermann; Cllr. Cathy Oke from Melbourne, Aus.; Ald. Dominic Mishio from Leduc, AB; Cllr. Sebastian Müller from Freiburg, Germany; Eero Vainio from Lahti, Norway; yours truly; and Vancouver Cllr. David Cadman, who is also President of ICLEI.

Many delegates were impressed with our Youth Council and Next Gen initiatives. At least a few dozen attended Pecha Kucha Night IV last night and were very complimentary today. I thoroughly enjoyed it too, particularly Trevor Anderson’s That’s Edmonton For You presentation and Stephani Carter’s inspired rhyme about sustainability.

Conference sessions today were focused on solutions, new technology, and propelling change. Peter Neuman, who is giving a public talk on Thursday, spoke enticingly about integrating TODs, PODs and GODs – meaning Transit Oriented Development, Pedestrian OD and Green OD.

The day was capped with a wonderful BBQ down at ol’ reliable Fort Edmonton. A spontaneous conga line broke out at Kelly’s Saloon on 1885 street. Seeing 200 or more ICLEI Delegates take line dancing lessons was pretty entertaining too.

A highlight for me was a conversation with a young delegate from Iowa who said, “I’d move here. It’s great!” She meant Edmonton, not Fort Edmonton, so that was nice. She went on to talk about the people, the river valley, the infrastructure, the various environmental initiatives, and more.

Positive feedback like this gives me hope that we’re doing some things right.

I think our city really is on the cusp of something compelling, something positive, and hopefully something greener than we have seen so far. This ICLEI event could propel a lot of change. Lots of conversation with locals about how we capture this energy and put it to work at home in a lasting way. Lots of bright eyes and hope, starting with our mayor and stretching to all the volunteers who’ve rallied to make this event so very special.

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Posted in 2007-2010 Term, Environment | No Comments »

Forum + Jr. Edmontonians

Oct
10
2007

Today was a splendid day. It started out with a trip out to Earl Buxton elementary in Riverbend to visit a pair of grade six classes.

Among the numerous school visits I’ve made during the campaign I’ve enjoyed the grade six visits most as they offer the hardest questions—perhaps because they study municipal elections and local government.

As usual, these young Edmontonians peppered me questions as good as their parents offer at the door. This group was a little different though: by now I’ve been to some of their doorsteps and spoken to them or a family member, so some already knew me!

This is great since they’ll be conducting a vote on the 15th themselves, and they’ll compare it to the real outcome. I told them that I’d rather win their poll than the real one since winning theirs meant good things for our city in six to nine years when they begin to vote for real. (I’ve asked their teacher to let me know how it turns out.) Ideally, of course, I’d like to win both.

Meanwhile, in the evening we chartered an ETS bus to get some folks out to the forum, also in Riverbend. It was truly inspiring to see the bus full of supporters and friends, and we had a great ride over. It not only made for a good photo op, but it created a good opportunity to talk about building better transit.

The forum itself, I should note, was tremendous fun. Great questions and good contrasting viewpoints. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I have the feeling that I picked up some votes.

Most rewarding, though, was finding out later from one of my volunteers that there were a couple of Earl Buxton students in attendance too, one in particular who insisted to her father that they should come out so he could also hear me.

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Posted in 2007 Campaign | No Comments »

Young People Do Care

Sep
23
2007

The last week has been full of inspiration. Meetings with community leaders have been encouraging, certainly, but I get a real lift out of meeting everyday citizens.

I make a point of speaking to everyone I meet at the doors with respect, just as Councillor Linda Sloan did to me when she was running for MLA back in 1997, a few months before I turned 18. Even though I told her I wasn’t able to vote for her in that election she spoke to me earnestly and answered my questions.

It was full circle for me last weekend as I met a young man in Falconer Heights who wasn’t yet 18, but we spoke at length about building a more sustainable Edmonton. After talking he asked when the election was and realized his 18th birthday is between now and October 15th. I had the impression that voting in this election wasn’t on his mind before I came to his door, but I think he’s excited about voting now, and I think I earned his vote.

It’s after doors like this that it really hits me that politics is (or at least should be) all about connecting with people, respecting them, listening to them, and engaging them.

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Posted in 2007 Campaign | No Comments »