For me, as a youth, having youth engagement is very critical. Also, because I'm a teacher, I think the way we engage youth right now is almost symbolic. We'll just say, “We'll add a youth to be at the table to talk about youth issues”, and that's it. It's almost tokenism but for young people, whereas if we really want to engage youth, we need to start from the beginning. We need to incorporate them in all the decisions and not just say, “We'll make all of these and then you just show up at this event and you'll help out and you'll volunteer”, and that's it.
For me, if I were a bit younger and starting off, to have more of that direct engagement in policies, in issues at stake, and to feel that I'm more proud of the process from beginning to when I decide to run would be a way to push me. Then I would feel that this party is actually devoted to helping youth and bringing on change and I'm included in this conversation.