By Matt Kelly

Saskatchewan NDP banking on youth movement

Feb 8, 2016 | 6:13 AM

The Saskatchewan NDP are taking pride in their youth contingent ahead of the April 4 election.

The annual Saskatchewan Young New Democrats council meeting was held Saturday, Feb. 6, in North Battleford, where around 30 youth delegates from all across the province met to discuss issues and resolutions for the party.

Young New Democrat co-vice president of leadership development Lia Storey-Gamble said youth are able to do the grunt work in an aging riding or party.

“You need the young people because they have the young knees, the young hips, the young backs that can go door to door, knocking, introducing the candidate and working with them on the ground.”

Vice president of communications Rylee Schuhmacher said she feels the NDP promotes young members well.

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“Young people present a widely different perspective than people who are older. We as a party have been very good at allowing young people to take leadership positions.”

Schuhmacher added NDP leader Cam Broten has commented on how great of a problem it is to have so many active youth in the party.

Battlefords candidate Rob Feist spoke during the meeting and said politics isn’t the “greying business” it appears to be.

“I’m a 34 year-old candidate. People who are working on my campaign are in their late teens and mid-twenties so we have a lot of that youthful enthusiasm.”

Former Premier Lorne Calvert appeared as a guest speaker, saying youth are important to politics and are able to shape their own future.

“They are inheriting some of the world we’ve crafted as some of the elders now in the party…but the world in front of them is their world,” he mused. “They should take this wonderful opportunity that democracy gives us to shape the world they want.”

Calvert added he is encouraged by the state of the party, by leader Cam Broten and by the new generation of candidates who have come together for the election.

mkelly@jpbg.ca