Following the Lethbridge civic election was a thrill for everyone who took time to get involved. I say this because as a young person from another city all together, it would be easy for me to fall into the stereotypical thought pattern of, ‘I’m too young to care and no one expects me to vote anyways.”

This statement could not be more true to the mindset of our society and to many of our young people.

Lethbridge has an extremely high student per capita ratio; in fact it is one of the highest in Canada. That being said, we cannot afford to lose such a large group in our city to political apathy.

My question is, why is this not being corrected effectively?

Why is it that it takes an actual academic issue to lobby or special interest for individual students to rise above the rest and get excited about their government? When they do, how come the rest of the politically savvy population seems to see it as a gimmick; something cute rather than something to be taken seriously?

Almost as if there is some sort of incentive in keeping young minds out of the ‘adult issues.’

Perhaps this is something to think about and, of course, since this is a relative subject I can only speak of my own experience and observations during my involvement in this election.

I will be honest; the motivation for me to sit down and actually research election material began entirely out of my duties as a journalist for The Endeavour newspaper. Not to say I was ever opposed to be informed, it just did not top of my list of to-does.

 I was assigned to follow mayoral candidate Cheryl Meheden and our other five writers were assigned the rest of the mayoral candidates. We were asked to contact our politician, research basic government and election information and be present with them when the election results were released on Monday.

I had no idea what to expect and my first impression of one candidate did not help.

A fellow Endeavour reporter was assigned to eventual winner Rajko Dodic.

My colleague approached Dodic in an empty college hallway to make an initial introduction. Dodic remained fully engaged in thumbing his blackberry and made little attempt to respond.

This was not encouraging.

I moved on to make contact with Meheden who, to my surprise, was highly responsive. We met the very next day in the middle of her busy campaign schedule to go for coffee.

Meheden apologized as she munched on a piece of banana bread in the midst of our conversation. She was starving after being on her feet for what I am sure was most of the day. She answered all my questions wholeheartedly and even took the time to ask me about myself.

When I asked her about homelessness in Lethbridge, she responded by saying she would like to take the entire city council to the bottom of the bridge near the Lethbridge shelter and soup kitchen. She wanted to see and hear from the people she would represent, first hand, if elected.

From this my involvement went from a mandatory duty to a passionate curiosity.

I realized that when we elect a government, we are essentially electing an attitude, a set of priorities and a representation of who we aspire to be; all in one small council.

I saw a little bit of my ideal self in Meheden and it made me fervently want other people my age to have a similar revelation.

So what happens, as young people, when we remain silent as the untargeted majority?

I heard a fair share of grumbling when news of our new mayor came in. In the same breath, I found out that a lot of the grumblers had not voted.

We need to support the people in Lethbridge who are making efforts to raise the volume of the young demographics voice in politics.

Not being informed and voting means a silence in that crowd of yells.

You do not have to lead a rally to make a difference.

You just have to cast one thoughtful ballot.