President Gallaway Addresses the Canada’s Liberal Party Convention
I’m in Montreal for Canada’s Liberal Party Convention, where the Liberal Party is pulling together after losing power their 2005 loss to the Conservative Party. Energy is building as recent polls have the Liberal Party and Conservative Party in a dead heat.
It’s very similar to the Democratic National Convention—there are signs, balloons and of course some fun slaps at their “George Bush” Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The Young Liberal Party members are passing out their version of Brokeback Conservatism that carries the tagline: “A story about two friends who share ideas, ideologies, and long walks on the beach … .”
But there’s one BIG difference between the Democratic Party and the Liberal Party of Canada: Young People are represented in Canada.
This morning when I addressed the Young Liberals of Canada I had to highlight this key difference in our parties:
I was amazed to learn that you have previously had 33% of the delegates for the convention reserved for young people. That is unbelievable to me because in the United States, only about 20 members of the 430 members of the Democratic National Committee are under the age of 35, and only about 15% of the delegates to the national convention are under 35. Even though we represent close to 25% of the electorate for the Democratic Party in the United States, we have been ignored, we have been marginalized.
Chairman Dean addressed the convention last night and I told the Young Liberal’s that Dean is 100% right: we need to rebuild the Party in every city and in every town across the country—we just need to make sure young people are included. And who knows, maybe Dean did notice how many young people were there in Montreal.
Oh, I guess I should mention the one SMALL difference between our groups—the Young Liberals of Canada put legalization of marijuana in their platform.
See the Liberal Party Press Release
