Student Power - Will this be the fix for Canada?

I was moved yesterday as I watched the YouTube video of students at Memorial University celebrating Democracy and promising to be a real part of it going forward.

If you too are not moved by what you see - you have become too partisan and are putting party ahead of our children and their future.

The Vote Mob going on in the Country spurred on by Newfoundland and Labrador's own Rick Mercer is engaging youth for the first time.

It is not there to patronize them under something called a "youth wing". These young people are the future - they are the present and perhaps we should have a "middle-age wing" instead of the same old same old running the political parties in Canada.

Our federation is broken and the only fix may be the youth of our Country. The untarnished, un-lobbied, un-purchased, with thinking heads not nodding heads are the only solution to the regeneration of Canada and all Provinces and Territories.

In Newfoundland and Labrador recycling politicians is the only "green" program effectively in practice and the same old tired voices with failed policies are once again at the political trough seeking more of our tax dollars to employ them.

The sad reality is - that despite the brains and energy available to us - embodied in universities, colleges, and low-paying jobs - we simply ignore them in an attempt for the establishment to gain and retain power.

Yesterday - I watched a candidates "debate" on our local cable station. One of them - Jerry Byrne - Conservative St. John's East campaigns on the slogan of bringing renewal to Ottawa. Renewal? I think not as he read prepared statement after prepared statement - nervously and certainly without much passion. Why? Because it was the same old Conservative rhetoric - need a majority for security and stability - crime - guns - tax blah blah blah. Nothing from his own mouth and barely competent in repeating the mantra.

Hard to think renewal when one turns on the TV or looks at signs on the highway and sees Vote Ottenheimer, Manning, or Sullivan.

Maybe the youth have finally had enough - particularly when the decisions we make today - they pay for tomorrow. Maybe they see what many of us don't - that if real renewal does not occur this Country will fall apart. Harper scare mongers the public with Quebec sovereignty. That is not the real fear Mr. Harper - the real fear is present in all regions - the federation no longer works. Duceppe and Quebec just get it.

Another persistent annoyance the Canadian youth can eliminate - is the sight of middle-aged men - with chests puffed out excited like a child at Christmas - why? Because Stephen Harper is standing next to them - or mentions their name - or shakes their hand in front of a camera. The site of grown women - old enough to know the difference - in reverence of a leader (Harper) - who lies and cheats for power and a vote. A man who punishes a woman (Guergis) by association.

I - for one -will promote the takeover of Canada by youth - now! Go students Go - and don't stop until the job is done. Eliminate the failure, the prostitution of public policy, the back slapping ignorant candidates who offer nothing more than partisan tripe. These adults who have failed you in the past and believe they are the only ones with a brain in a population full of underutilized young people.

In this election - give the politicians, media, and pundits everything they do not expect. Use twitter and facebook to fool the pollsters and make them take notice.

I surrender to youth happily and anticipate the return of democracy to our Country.

Go Students Go