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Your democratic duty is to cast a ballot at an election, but those who choose to get involved in politics before candidates are named — like now — will have more power to decide who your next MLA is.

All provincial political parties are energized right now preparing for a provincial election. Constituency associations are fielding nominees, potential candidates whose names you may see on your next ballot. Only local party members — including provincial leadership — will decide who will represent the NDP or BC United Party, the BC Greens or the BC Conservatives.

Provincial elections aren’t for another year, but now is the time to get involved in the political process.

There is a multitude of ways one can get involved in politics, from becoming a party member to getting involved in a riding association to joining a social organization, democracy depends on citizen involvement.

“The common saying is that 'if you don’t take care of politics, politics will take care of you', that’s the first reason to get involved,” says Maxime Héroux-Legault, professor of political science at UBC Okanagan.

The more people involved, the more democratic politics becomes.

“People have to get involved if they care about something and because they can have a real effect on policies,” Héroux-Legault says. “Getting involved in social organizations or politics in general can be time-consuming and may require a lot of work, but over time it works. Take environmental organizations that started in the 80s — today we live in a country that has a carbon tax.”

And yet statistics show a growing number of people — especially young people — simply let others make their decisions for them. In the last provincial election, voter turnout was barely above 50% (53.86%) in Kelowna ridings. Those aged 55+ accounted for 63% of the votes while representing only 56.7% of the population.

Cade Desjarlais, president of the Student Union of UBC Okanagan, says political parties could do a lot more to court younger voters.

“What I think is really critical for politicians, parties and leaders is to reverse the onus. It’s not necessarily on the youth to take the initiative to get involved, it’s that there needs to be better engagement from the political parties in seeking out people, voices, and perspectives and creating platforms and policies that the youth can get excited about. That said, it’s really critical for future issues, and the future of young people in general to be involved now, because decisions that are being made today are going to affect us 10, 20 years down the road.”

Norm Letnick, current MLA for Kelowna-Lake Country, agrees that politicians have to get their citizens involved.

“I’ve had a career in politics my whole life… the only way to ensure a career like this is to connect with your constituents and work hard to represent their aspirations, so you have to build those relationships, but the more citizens get involved the easier it is to do that,” he says. “Politics is about people, there is no politics without people, this is why politicians need to encourage all citizens to get involved, this is the best thing for democracy.”

The most direct way is to join a party and that party's riding association.

Riding associations support political parties or individuals in their constituencies. Though party leaders have been known to ‘parachute’ star candidates into strategic ridings, the riding associations typically decide who the candidates are.

Joining a party is easy. For BC NDP the minimum age requirement is 12 years old, and for other parties, it is 14. A payment of $10 or $5 must be made and the person joining must be a citizen or a permanent resident of Canada. This can be done online, and once that is done, citizens can contact the riding association via social media or by contacting candidates directly.

While this is the most direct way to get involved, the best way to get started in politics is to get informed and educated on the issues one holds at heart.

“One of the key things is staying informed, and ensuring that you’re getting an objective source that can really help you understand where everyone stands on an issue that you are interested in,” says Desjarlais.

Next, find the party that most closely matches your point-of-view and if no party represents those issues there’s another way to get involved.

“There’s the opportunity to be involved in the party before election time, but there’s also the opportunity to be involved in social organizations or interest groups that are not necessarily aligned with the party but that may reflect the priorities of individual citizens,” Héroux-Legault says.

Héroux-Legault recommends going online to find the right organization and contacting them to get involved.

So while the provincial elections are to take place on Oct. 19, 2024, or before, the time to get involved is now, and the reason to do so is to make the most out of democracy.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Gabrielle Adams or call (250) 863-7592 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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