Austin Connelly
October. 16th 2019
Edmonton’s economic future in the Edmonton-City Centre district is at the top of the platform policies for the upcoming Federal Election, but how much weight does that issue have with young voters? Since millennials make up the largest portion of voters for the upcoming Federal election, do the young people of Edmonton actually believe that they can make real change for their respective district? I talked to the young people of Edmonton to get voters perspective on how much the future of the economy matters when they’re deciding who to vote for.
“Slightly, it is not a major factor but it is not trivial either,” says Michael Chute a 24-year-old lab researcher who lives in the City-Centre district. David Readman, a 25-year-old accountant who works and lives in the City-Centre district had this to say, “Well a lot, if this is where you want to live you want a strong economy that provides you some stability and growth potential for your future.” Sam Bendortitis a 22-year-old nurse in the City-Centre District didn’t feel the same way. “To be completely honest the future of the economy doesn’t sway my vote. I’m more interested in the future of Edmonton’s actions towards improvement in climate change, social programs and health care,” says Sam.
The importance of millennial voters cannot be understated and this Twitter thread goes into more detail of how important that demographic will be in the upcoming election.
If young voters feel the economy is the utmost importance, James Cumming the Conservative Party candidate has an experienced economic background that could give him an advantage to win over voters. He’ll be in tough again against incumbent Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault who nearly edged out James last time election in 2015. Although, James has years of experience in the business sector as the President and CEO of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce and non-profit organizations, which could give an edge in that field of the election process. His main platform is directly associated to economic growth in the district and he shared this sentiment on his website’s main page: “In many ways, Edmonton Centre is a prime example of Canadians’ entrepreneurial spirit as our riding is home to so many amazing creators and small business people. These folks are ready to thrive and create economic prosperity for generations to come, but they need and deserve a government that will create the conditions they need to succeed, then get out of the way.”
The Conservative Party has been door knocking to gain support and talk to voters for this upcoming election and the same goes for James Cumming who’s been busy everyday going door-to-door in his campaign. In fact, James has said they’ve been to over 60,000 homes during this campaign.
(Flyer for James Cumming with a signed message and contact information)
Talking with Mr. Cummings about his door knocking experiences during this election campaign he had this to say about millennial voters and how much importance they seemed to have placed on Edmonton’s economic future: “The common theme is that people want opportunities, whether it’s working for someone else or being an entrepreneur people want to grow and they want to prosper.”
It’s also worth noting that in an interview with CBC, Edmonton’s Chief Economist John Rose predicted that “What we’re going to see this year is a very sluggish economy, and quite honestly, I don’t know if Mr. Kenney or anyone else could do very much about it at this point.”
The future of Edmonton’s economy will revolve around which party gets in on October 21st but whoever gets in will be facing an uphill battle to set it on a better course.
Edmonton Centre Politics 