i i ee Sexy Democracy By Tyler Morency, Intercamp (Grant MacEwan College) hew on thi: EDMONTON (CUP)—Johnny Cash is standing behind his guitar, pointing his mid- dle finger. Smoke from a rolled cigarette circles around Bob Marley’s head. A shirtless Sid Vicious and his girl, Nancy, are strung out, both in leather pants. Bottles of Stoli and Ballantine’s sit behind the bar. This isn’t where musicians go when they die. These are the pieces of ambience detailing the walls of a dimly lit, granite-floored pub in downtown Edmonton. Federal candidates and young voters talk over pints of Sleeman’s and Guinness like old friends. Few would imagine that federal politics looks like this, but Democracy Is Sexy, an Edmonton-based voter advocacy campaign, seeks to change that. Democracy is Sexy is a non-partisan campaign that aims to increase political awareness in young voters. The campaign has included door-knocking, distributing free condoms, and this Candidates’ Forum in Red Star, a small pub that seems more at home with live bands than politics. The campaign has also been going to places that are considered by some to be “the wrong side of the tracks,” places that typically have the lowest voter turnouts. Most mainstream party politicians don’t campaign in these areas. They didn’t bring condoms but they did bring a pamphlet printed in 22 different languages that includes election information, namely how to register to vote. Volunteer Alistair King says many people they spoke to may not be eligible as voters as many are recent immigrants. “Tt’s about getting them introduced in the process early,’ he says. Democracy is Sexy campaign organizer, Rachel Bocock, agrees. She points across the bar. “Over there I see a candidate chatting with an undecided voter,” she says. “For FEATURES 10) young people, a formal style Q&A may not appeal to them. But coming out to a pub and sitting and chatting and trading ideas—we’re hoping will appeal to them.” Eligible voters aged 18 to 25 have a terrible reputation for showing up to the polls on election day. An oft-quoted Stats Canada fact says only 30 percent of eligible vot- ers from that demographic cast their ballot in 2004. “Young people just aren’t getting out to vote and if we let older generations make those decisions they are going to make decisions based on their own values and their own view of the world,” says Bocock. “There isn’t anything wrong with that, but it’s important that young people bring their perspective to politics.” This can be writing your MP or even getting involved with your favourite political party. It may be surprising how quickly things move. “Two weeks after I joined the Liberal Party, I was asking Paul Martin about demo- cratic reform,” says former MacEwan SA executive of operations and finance Jason Morris. Morris met Paul Martin at a fundraiser in Sherwood Park. Martin was the country’s finance minister at the time. “There’s an ivory tower feeling about backroom politics people, but really, that’s not true,” Morris says. “The truth is that the difference between the average person and the person who’s involved in politics is that the person [in politics] was motivated to do it.” “The thing that surprised me the most was that the people organizing our political parties don’t know anything more than anyone else does,” he says. “It’s not a deep hierarchy. It’s not long before you can talk to people with real decision-making power.” Morris started into politics late. While working as, in his words, “a computer geek,” he says he spent his spare time reading about politics on the Internet. “This is about the time I saw some really stupid things happening in the US as a result of 9/11,” Morris said. “I think that had something to do with it,” He now studies political science at the University of Alberta. For Morris, going to school is a part of the political process because he says he wants to learn how to affect change properly as part of the system. Recently, Morris won the Hyndman Scholarship for student leadership. Only two people win it a year and it’s worth $12,500. Mortis says he’s proud of what he’s done as a student leader, but working in poli- tics wasn’t for his own satisfaction. “T kind of just worried what society was going to turn into. I started looking at what it is to actually get involved,” he says. Becoming involved is an important part of a young person’s life says, David Cournoyer, of the Universit of Alberta Student Union, executive policy and informa- tion officer. “There are a lot of students, they go into school, especially college or university, and they concentrate on getting that 4.0 GPA and all they want to do is study. They think that just having great marks is enough; they will be fine in the world after- wards,” he says. “They graduate and they think, ‘what do I do now?” Cournoyer says he advocates young people to join an NGO or campus service in order to get valuable life experiences that can’t be bought from a department store. He helped a local charity deliver Christmas hampers to needy families over the holi- day season. “It’s so easy to get involved,” he says. “The best thing about volunteering is you can choose to do as little or as much as you want.” He remembers wandering up to voters’ doors for federal candidates when he was nine years old. He is now 22. “They got me early,” he says about his parents. “They encouraged me and my sis- ter to be very politically aware. They encouraged involvement in the political system.” Back in the Red Star, four of Edmonton’s youngest federal candidates answer questions from the young audience about the military, arts funding, and gun violence. A young voter asks about an Ontario MP who tried to have 50 Cent banned from playing in Toronto. Shortly after he asks, “Boxer, brief, full-seater, thong, or bikini?” “Well, it depends on what you are wearing but sometimes you got to wear a thong,” says Liberal Nicole Martel. The young crowds laughs and whistles. Neal Gray, an Edmonton Strathcona candidate cracks a joke about bikini briefs. “T need another beer by the way,” says Edmonton Strathcona incumbent, Rahim Jaffer, as he raises an empty glass.