Rock the Vote (as long as you vote our way) RIGHT HOOK (a McCullough, OP Columnist nless you happen to have gone | | blind in the last few weeks, you’ve probably noticed that our campus is currently plastered with “Rock the Vote” posters. The damned things are everywhere, on every bulletin board and public space. To a lesser extent, our cam- pus has been targeted by the “Get Your Vote On” movement as well, which has also gone to town putting their posters and stickers on and around student hang- outs. Judging from my recent travels, SFU and UBC have not been spared either. Clearly, someone out there really wants us youngsters to get out and vote, and they are apparently prepared to invest large sums of money convincing us to do so. Thankfully, these fine people all have websites, so the mysterious motivations of “Get Your Vote On” (GYVO) and “Rock The Vote BC” (RTV) didn’t stay mysteri- ous for long. Both GYVO and RTV describe themselves as “non-partisan” movements founded for the sole purpose of motivating young people to “get out and vote” in the provincial election on May 18. In between flashy graphics and slogans about how hip and cool voting is, these sites claim to exist merely as motiva- tors to get us young people out and involved in all the rad political decisions that affect our lives. It’s nice to think that the people behind these organizations are indeed motivated simply by an altruistic desire to get young people to the polls. After all, teens and twenty-somethings do tend to be one of the most apathetic voting blocks in the country, and certainly a strong case can be made that we do need to get far more actively involved in the political discourse than we are now. . Unfortunately, despite all their lofty rhetoric about being “non-partisan” and strictly educational, GYVO and RTV are anything but. In reality, both movements exist as little more than shadow organiza- 10 | www.theotherpress.ca tions indirectly backed by the NDP as part of the party’s desperate attempts to shore up some support for their fledgling crusade against Gordon Campbell. Youths and students may be a big poten- tial voting block, but, more importantly, we also tend to be fairly left wing in our political views, or at the very least can be easily influenced by leftist arguments. The NDP has never won a majority of the popular vote in this province, but appar- ently the latest theory is that by energizing the youth vote in their favour, they can at least narrow the race. Don’t believe me? The evidence is all over the websites. The key to finding the hidden agenda of any supposedly “non- partisan” group is to follow the money and see who provides the financial fuel for the movement. Rock the Vote BC is sponsored by The Canadian Federation of Students, The Federation of Post Secondary Educators of BC, and a host of local student unions. Get Your Vote On is funded by the BC Teachers’ Federation, the Hospital Employees’ Union, and the Canadian Labour Congress. Have you noticed a theme yet? It’s no secret that BC’s unions are among the largest and wealthiest special- interest groups in the youth-voter movements goes beyond their hyper-partisan financial backers, however. Both websites contain other numerous not-so-subtle attempts to push young voters in the NDP direction. GYVO’s site proudly lists the hosts of their various past and present sponsored events. From neo-Marxist musician Matthew Good to former friggin? NDP leader Stephen Lewis, every single GYVO special event is in some way structured to glorify the accomplishments of this or that prominent left-wing “activist.” On March 31 they’re even hosting a contest in which you can win a copy of the Campbell-bashing book “Liberalized” published by The Tyee, a left-wing BC online newspaper. Subtle. The Rock the Vote people aren’t much better. Their site features a helpful “fact bank” that allows us ignorant kids to learn up about the issues that will “influence our future forever.” According to RT'V, there are specifically only four issues that will affect our futures forever, namely tuition fees, rent, minimum wage, and the environment. By an astonishing co-inci- dence, the only four issues that matter also happen to be four of the NDP’s main partisan talking points! Apparently we young people don’t care about taxes, employment, the economy, healthcare, or political reform. I'll try to keep that in mind. If, say, the Fraser Institute or the Business Council of BC were funding a “non-partisan” youth event the left- wingers would tear it apart, and rightly so. It is deceptive and wrong for any organi- zation to profess political neutrality when they owe their very existence to the sup- port of groups that are deeply invested, financially and emotionally, in a certain political party. The deception being peddled by RTV and GYVO is shameful and manipulative. Young voters of British Columbia deserve to be treated seriously as mature voters, and not jerked around by the NDP and its union backers with patronizing slogans and phony non-partisan groups. We can make up our own minds, though apparently leftist forces in this province have decided we’re too stupid to be trust- ed. The NDP will not be elected on May 18. If this is their secret weapon, I suggest they try harder. province. It’s equally well known that they are among the New Democratic Party’s most loyal backers, and the Campbell Liberals’ most outspoken critics. Read any press release, newslet- ter, or brochure produced by any of the above unions and you're likely to find a document literally dripping with vitriolic hatred for Premier Campbell and his govern- ment. Likewise, almost all of them have in the past thrown their name and support behind dozens of other overtly left-wing causes, from anti-Bush protests to pro-choice ral- lies. The idea that any organization backed by these unabashedly politi- cal groups can profess to be “non-partisan” is absurdity of the highest order. The underlying left- wing bias of BC's Editorial Cartoon March 16/2005