3 Q’s with a 14-year-old Green Party volunteer
“Next, I turn the blog over to Aayushman Acharya for an enlightening Q&A. Aayush was one of my first campaign volunteers, and certainly among the youngest! Early on, he wrote to me with some excellent suggestions about how the Green Party might be able to appeal to younger voters. So, it is an honour to give him the space to share his story and perspectives here.” - Nick
In his own words, Aayushman Acharya tells us how he came to be a volunteer, and what students his age are thinking about when it comes to politics.
Hi Aayush! Thanks for agreeing to share your perspective with us. How did you end up as a volunteer for Nick Rollick and the Green Party?
This is an interesting story. I first learned about the Green Party in grade six, when our class was studying different political parties and our teacher mentioned the Green Party. While we didn’t spend much time talking about the Green Party, at least I got to know they exist! From here I gained a slight interest in politics, specifically Canadian politics, and explored different party values and goals. Almost two years later, I met Mike Morrice (MP for Kitchener Centre) at a Remembrance Day Legion dinner while I was volunteering as a Sea Cadet. Around this time I was also looking for somewhere to start volunteering often, so meeting him gave me the idea to try and volunteer for a political party. The Greens were one of the only parties with a minimum age under 14, so I applied to volunteer at the Green Party. I wasn’t expecting that quick of a response, but Nick reached out to me only a few days after I applied. He told me about his role as a nomination candidate and what he hopes to do in Waterloo. Some of his ideas really resonated with me, so I decided to join the canvassing team. Even though I only canvassed a few times, a lot of the responses I heard from people went something along the lines of; “We really need to do something about the environment, while continuing to build on Canada’s economy.” Volunteering with the Greens has really given me an insight into how campaign building works, and how to manage a successful campaign. It has also given me the opportunity to weigh in with some of my ideas for how to further improve the campaign.
When you and your friends talk about the future, what are your biggest concerns?
My friends and I have many concerns about the future, with one of those being the environment. Our generation and past generations have seen some of the worst environmental decay in history, right in front of our eyes. Without a stable environment, we won’t have anywhere to live! We find it unfortunate that the issue of preserving the environment always gets so politicised, even though it's pretty straightforward… If we don't protect our environment right now, we’re going to regret it in the future. While the environment is one issue, we are also a bit worried about the rising cost of living, and rise in home prices compared to the past few years. Everything seems to get more and more expensive than it used to be. So, we are concerned about whether the rise is going to continue by the time we will need to provide for ourselves. So I would say that the environment and economy are the two big concerns we have right now.
What do you think the Green Party needs to do to effectively reach youth?
Youth are very important when it comes to political campaigns, as they effectively reach out to younger voters with energy and enthusiasm. They can also relate to issues and problems younger Canadians face. They can provide input to party campaign leaders as to how to modernise their party campaign to attract younger voters. These are only a few of the reasons why it is extremely important for youth to be involved in any party campaign. The Green Party can launch campaigns fostering and promoting environmental protection, and events advertised to youth, telling them about how youth can make a positive difference on our environment. Get the youth excited about how they can make even the slightest change in trying to improve the status of the current environment. Back this up with a strong social media campaign to try to reach out to people digitally. Most youth have some form of social media, and a lot of political parties have jumped on this rise in social media many years ago by making successful social media campaigns to support their party and party leader(s). The Greens can do much better on social media, as a lot of young people would be interested in supporting the Green Party because of various Green Party values that resonate with them. I find that the Green Party struggles to get these values out sometimes, as sometimes they are seen as “fringe”. With a strong social media campaign, pushing their values to people, they would definitely attract more youth. It’s more of getting your values out there and strengthening your values that will attract youth.
Aayush in front of The Button Factory in Uptown Waterloo.
