Millennials disenchanted with the Liberal/PC flip flop, says first-time NDP volunteer
Samantha Craggs | CBC News | Posted: June 6, 2018 8:03 AM | Last Updated: June 6, 2018
Third story in a series of profiles of campaign volunteers and what inspires their activism
CBC Hamilton interviewed first-time campaign volunteers from major political parties and asked what motivated them to get involved, and what's important to them in the June 7 election. This is the third and final story in that series.
Hilary Zorgdrager didn't pay much attention to politics growing up, but that's understandable. The Liberals have been in power since Zorgdrager was in kindergarten.
The 15-year government is the only government Zorgdrager, 21, can even remember. Every election, talk in the family's Kitchener neighbourhood flip flopped between the Liberal and PC candidate. Zorgdrager didn't even know there was an alternative.
"I remember when I first made a Facebook, it asked me my political affiliation and I said Conservative," said Zorgdrager, who uses the pronoun they instead of he or she.
"I didn't even know what that meant. It just seemed like the normal thing to do. 'I live in the suburbs. I guess I'm a Conservative.'"
I was in way over my head. I was the deputy minister of finance for Newfoundland and Labrador. - Hilary Zorgdrager
That's changed pretty drastically now. Zorgdrager is volunteering for NDP candidate Sandy Shaw in Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas.
Zorgdrager's shirt is adorned with white and orange buttons. As a queer person with a disability, Zorgdrager said the NDP speaks their language. Of particular interest: the NDP's promise of universal pharmacare by 2020.
Read the other stories:
- Inspired by a candidate's visit, first-time volunteer campaigns in 4 languages
- Fear of Ontario's deficit drives recent university grad to campaign for the PC party
"The NDP makes me feel optimistic and hopeful about my future in a way that I don't feel about the Conservative or Liberal platforms, or lack thereof," Zorgdrager said. "I see them playing the long game."
Zorgdrager is a McMaster University political sciences student now, but hasn't always been interested.
In Grade 9, Zorgdrager participated in Fed-Prov, a two-day mock simulation event.
"I signed up because I was told there would be cake, and there was."
"I was in way over my head. I was the deputy minister of finance for Newfoundland and Labrador. I remember going home at the end of the day and saying 'Dad, what's fiscal mean?'"
Zorgdrager was supposed to meet with a friend and showed up early in January. The friend was still talking to someone from the NDP. Zorgdrager ended up fundraising and canvassing for Shaw's campaign.
The McMaster student points to the NDP as the only party with a costed platform. "They've taken the time to think where this money is going to come from versus just assuming we'll find it."
Some Liberal changes have brought good news, like the OHIP+: Children and Youth Pharmacare plan, but that won't help after age 25. With Zorgdrager's physical and mental disabilities, medications are an issue.
"There's a certain sense of stability and comfort I feel from the potential of an NDP government," Zorgdrager said.
"The Liberals have been in power my entire life, essentially, or my entire life that I can distinctly remember.
"My peers are largely disenchanted with politics. There is potential for us to have a government that works and a government that cares about issues that impact youth and marginalized groups."