A new team of inspired young Greens has developed in Alberta, Canada to support the Canadian prairie province’s fight for green action. The Green Party of Alberta (GPA) has established a new Alberta Greens Youth Caucus to help represent the growing demographic of young Canadian Greens
The development of this team followed the GPA’s 2020 convention in which the party changed their age limit to include a younger demographic, allowing members as young as 14 to join. This change created the possibility to develop the youth caucus and ensure that all voices can be heard.
During a short interview the co-chairs of this new Youth Caucus, Nakita Danyluk and Lucas Bevan identified that the main goals of this initiative are,
“To promote the values and politics of the Green Party of Alberta and encourage young people in the province to swing their support toward a truly progressive party, with legitimate environmental policies, eco-socialist economic policies and a plan to tackle inequality”
Nakita Danyluk and Lucas Bevan, co-chairs of the Alberta Greens youth caucus
Alberta currently runs a conservative government (United Conservative Party) that holds a majority over other provincial parties (50 of the 87 seats).
Currently the GPA does not hold a seat. With the introduction of this new caucus, the party looks to expand its influence over the province but faces strong opposition. We asked the co-chairs Nakita and Lucas what barriers have been identified when facing this uphill battle:
“The main barriers we’ll have to face is encouraging people to swing towards us as opposed to the NDP. Many more leftist individuals don’t necessarily love the NDP but due to the two party system we’ve found ourselves engulfed in the incoherent and disturbing governance of the UCP, many individuals have very much been split two ways.
”Trying to help people understand that voting third party isn’t wasting your vote,…”
Nakita Danyluk and Lucas Bevan
”…wasting your vote is voting for someone you don’t truly believe in is going to be a massive hurdle.”
The previous Premier of Alberta was NDP (2015-2019) which was a large shock to the province who had operated under the UCP since the 70’s. This change shows that there is a growing demographic of people who have opposing views from the traditional UCP, and gives hope to greens that their policy has a growing population of like minded individuals.
With the evolving perspectives of the Albertan public and the GPA’s push for youth inclusion, Nakita, Lucas and the rest of the Green Youth Caucus have a unique opportunity in Alberta to help youth get involved and learn about their local politics.
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