The Next Generation of Politics

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致力于青少年公益创新促进教育公益组织交流

From the editor

Global Youth Philanthropy (GYP) is a non-profit organization that supports the youth by building a youth-friendly environment for those who have passions, initiatives, and motivations in making the world a better place. In partnership with GYP, Business Link Media helps to promote aspiring young writers by publishing their written works in the magazine.

Recently, students David Qiao, Mia Liu, Tiffany Li, and Karen Li had the opportunity to interview The Hon Mike Lake, a Conservative Member of Parliament for the Edmonton-Wetaskiwin riding.

Earlier this year, Global Youth Philanthropy recruited its first group of journalists – middle school and high school students from different countries and areas. Our chapter opens with extensive training with individuals from the media industry and college students and instructors where they developed important skills in journalism, communication, and writing. Through our public platform, our dispatched journalists then go on to invite notable individuals in different fields and backgrounds and engage in in-depth interviews with them, where they learn and share different life stories and experiences from all walks of life. We are extremely excited that our young reporters will have such opportunities to grow and practice their skillsets, and we look forward to hearing more about what they have to say!

First, let's meet the member of parliament Mike Lake!

To learn more about Hon. Mike Lake, visit

https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/mike-1ake(35857)

GYP’s young Journalists interviewed members of parliament through online meeting

INTERVIEW WITH MIKE LAKE:

There are many kids that want to be involved in politics. What do you think is one of the best ways for them to get involved at a young age? Do you have any suggestions on things to do?

For sure. We have lots of young volunteers for our campaigns and every party runs campaigns in every part of the country, so there are a lot of candidates to choose from. Regardless of what party you support, do your research to best understand what you truly believe in. At any point of time, you can get involved with the party that most reflects your views. During campaigns, candidates do things such as phone calls, knocking on doors, handing out literature, and more. Every party needs volunteers, so the best way to get involved right at the start is to just get engaged in a campaign, whether it’s a federal-provincial or a local campaign.

How would you describe the responsibilities of the position? And how do you deal with those responsibilities?

The core responsibility of a Member of Parliament is to represent constituents, so before anything else that I do, I have to make sure that I hear from the constituents of Edmonton Wetaskiwin. I also need to have a broad understanding of what people are thinking. Obviously, everybody has different views, but it’s my job to really try to understand what the consensus of those views is so that when I’m in the House of Commons, I can best reflect them when I’m speaking or placing my vote.

This is why it’s really important to stay connected to people. As you may or may not know, Edmonton Wetaskiwin is the biggest constituency by population in the country, so it’s a lot of work to ensure myself and my staff are hearing from as many people as we can. We’ve got 209,000 constituents in Edmonton Wetaskiwin and the average constituency size is probably about 110,000.

Could you tell us about a significant experience you had during your campaign or your career and how it has affected you?

There were many significant experiences in my career, so I’ll split this question into two parts. Firstly, an important moment of my career was during an election. As a politician, I’ve attended 6 elections, and have had 3 nominations. In the 2019 election, the Conservatives (which is my party) had the second-highest vote total and the highest vote total in the last 2 elections. That was quite memorable. Secondly, when serving in the cabinet, I once worked to get a balanced budget, which was hard work but worth it once our efforts paid off. I’ve also helped to raise funding for Canadian Autism which has been very rewarding.

Due to the twenty-first century’s immense development, what do you aim to achieve in the younger generation?

There are many things that we aim to achieve to help younger generations, and it’s all about balance.

Firstly, it is very important to protect the environment for younger generations. It’s also critical to ensure that young people have the same or better opportunities that we have now. We have a fantastic quality of life in Canada, but I’m worried it will be broken soon. Home ownership and the price of houses in the country are rising, which brings the concern on whether young people will be able to live in the same types of houses that my generation lived in when we were growing up. Houses are getting incredibly expensive, especially in the GTA and Ontario, along with Vancouver and Montreal. Thankfully, this issue hasn’t reached Alberta yet, but I believe that it is coming soon.

Getting the economic situation under control right now will be crucial. Looking at our history when this issue had previously shown up in the 70s and 80s, Canada had to cut spending on health care, social services, and education by the late 90s. I do not want to go down that road again because it is the youth that would be hurt the most.

What are some of the actions you have taken to improve community safety in the areas you are responsible for?

Community safety is a tricky subject because public safety isn’t a factor I’ve been tasked with. Right now, I am the shadow minister of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. However, I think mental health affects everything and everything affects mental health. We are trying our best to keep kids safe and healthy and to help people who have made some bad decisions in the past. I believe we should invest more into mental health and make sure people get help when they need it because community safety is so intertwined with our collective mental health.

What were some things that inspired you to get into politics? More specifically, what was the tipping point for you that incentivized you to take the first step towards your career in politics?

Before I became a politician, he worked for the Albertan Hockey Organization for 16 years. During an election, while I was still in the sports industry, 24 out of 26 seats taken were by the Conservative party. However, the seat that I have now was held by a different party.

One day, some of my friends were visiting me, hanging out by the fireplace, simply talking, when they encouraged me to start a political career. Those conversations got me thinking and the more I thought about it, the more inspired I became.

Could you tell us about any of your recent or future projects that aim to better the community you serve as a government official?

One of the things that have really struck our society is how people are politically communicating on social media platforms – not only in Canada but also in the United States and other parts of the world. There has always been a lot of friction in elections and politics, and it is really a tough place to go. Many good people aren’t wanting to get involved because they’re seeing what is happening, and I am hoping to change that.

One of the things that I have started to do, is something we call “Zoom Happy Hours”, with a ‘no harm’ rule that allows only friendly discussion and conversation. About three times a week, I’ll invite approximately ten people who are doing great things to just discuss how we can make the world better. We’ve talked to presidents and CEOs of organizations including; Save The Children, Unicef, World Vision, and Jack.org. We’ve had reporters and broadcasters attend to discuss things and try to bring civility to the conversation, which is something I believe is especially crucial at this time.

Politics is definitely a place where you’re going to have passionate debates, but I believe that debates shouldn’t get overly personal. I hope that one day they can be fair, relevant, and respectful without diffusing their passion. It’s okay to be angry, but the line is being crossed way too often these days, and that needs to be resolved.

In a diverse country with different opinions, what do you think is the best way to engage in political discussion and exchange of ideas on controversial topics?

That is a great question, and it kind of goes with what I was saying before about the way we talk to each other on social media.

One of the things that I’ve noticed is that everybody is quick to weigh in on a subject, and people aren’t as ready to wait and listen to other people. What I’ve found helpful in my life is to listen to people who I might instinctively disagree with. It doesn’t mean when I listen to someone I’m going to change my mind. It just means I’m going to hear them out and be open to new information. So if I can take that approach, by listening to someone articulate what it is that they believe, and even if I don’t come around to their way of thinking, if I can understand why they think the way they do, that’s the most effective way to have respectful conversations, especially about divisive subjects.

What I find almost invariably happens is that, if I take that approach, after I’ve walked away and had time to think about it, I sometimes start to process my thoughts differently. Maybe I become open to a different way of thinking. It doesn’t mean I have to completely agree with everything, but in some cases, what I’ve found is that it helps me think differently, even if it’s about something unrelated to what we were specifically discussing.

In a world where there’s a cacophony of noise and distractions coming at us all of the time, sometimes it’s just good to stop, ask some questions, and listen. Try to build your understanding a little bit and learn something that will help you move forward.

Social media has become the number one way people communicate, especially during COVID. What is your opinion on the shift to more social media usage?

I think it’s a huge opportunity. Social media has made it easier to connect to people, but we do have some issues.

At first, everyone thought what social media would do was enhance our democracy because everyone could weigh in on the situation and participate in the debate. What we discovered, though, is that social media companies have algorithms, and the algorithms tend to connect people with similar interests – and sometimes we don't even know we are being ‘manipulated’.

Firstly, what social media has done is unconsciously create these echo chambers, and we only talk to people that believe what we believe. If what we believe is wrong, we are just reinforcing that within these echo chambers. After all, we aren't even challenged by the opposition, and therefore we won’t see the world differently because not everything is painted in black and white. We will also start to believe that everyone else thinks the same way as we do because that's all we’ll ever see or hear. So if you meet someone that has a different worldview they might come off as shocking or radical.

Secondly, another problem with social media is its toxicity. If someone posts a mean comment, now that doesn’t always feel good, but most of the time these accounts are anonymous. There's no name or geographical information attached, so anyone can just comment whatever they want without me even knowing if they live in Canada. We need to work on improving transparency on social media. It's a tough balance because we also want free speech and privacy, but complete anonymity also has its problems. We need to strike the right balance.

Q10

What is your ending message to everyone watching this interview?

First of all, get involved. When I say get involved, I mean more than just posting your opinions on social media or throwing tweets at people. A meaningful debate on social media is important, so start there. Very few people actually participate in a campaign and go out door knocking with a candidate. That needs to happen during campaigns. No matter what party it is that you affiliate with, it’s that act of getting involved that matters.

Secondly, inform yourself, read information from credible sources, and listen to different points of view. And don’t just read the same newspaper, website, or social media feed all the time. Try and find people who say things in a thoughtful way, even when their message might not resonate with you.

I love following thoughtful people, even people who give my party a hard time on social media. When I read their criticism I actually think a little bit about our position. It might not change our stance, but if they make me think about our position on a particular issue, that’s a good thing.

As a member of Parliament, I will actually try to engage with people. And I’ve had situations – I have a very specific one in mind where a writer (who comes from the more left part of the political spectrum) sent me a public tweet. But rather than throwing a snarky tweet back at him, I responded, “Hey, you don’t really know me, why don’t we grab a cup of coffee?” So we went and had a chat over a cup of coffee and now he’s a friend of mine. We bonded over hockey, and we disagreed over politics, but we also found out we even agreed on a few things. I think we need to have those kinds of constructive conversations.

The last thing I’ll leave you with is to be passionate, but also be respectful. It is so important that we up our respect for one another as Canadians.

The bottom line is, whatever it is we’re advocating for (or whatever party we get involved with), our mission always has to be “country first”. Our collective mandate must be to create a better world, a better life, and better opportunities for our fellow Canadians, and I would say people beyond Canada as well. That should be our goal, first and foremost, regardless of our political labels.

GYP’s young Journalists benefited a lot from the message given to them by Mike Lake

INTERVIEWED BY：MIA LIU,KAREN LI,DAVID QIAO,TIFFANY LI

WRITTEN BY: MIA LIU

Mentor：MARILYN TIAN, FIONA MU

The interview was published in the magazine《BUSINESS LINK MAGAZINE》

Global Youth Philanthropy

Here at Global Youth Philanthropy (GYP), we help youths turn their passion and ideas into innovative philanthropy projects through coaching and connecting them to the needed resources.

We believe that in every youth, there is a gift of making a big impact and changing the world for the better. The philanthropy projects of their own will help them become better leaders, learning about their roles in this society and finding their true purpose.

GYP is a not-for-profit organization registered in Canada and the United States. GYP was funded in 2020 by a group of volunteers who are passionate about philanthropy and educational advancement for youths worldwide.

Our Vision

A global platform supporting youths' social innovation with profound impact

Our Mission

We support youth around the world with their own social innovation projects through project coaching and connecting them to needed resources

Our Values

One World, Collaboration, Support, Respect, Equality, Service

Please check below the brief introduction and the articles to know more about GYP——《有斯助力青少年公益》、《青少年公益创新的无限可能》、《有斯公益一对一公益辅导进行中，好评多多！》

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Business Partners

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