The NDYA has been in the process of developing a revival of their former publication “The Catalyst” for some time now. Well, today we are proud to announce the inaugural issue of our redesigned publication, created to express the views and actions of our membership. For more information on how to purchase, please visit our page “Catalyst“.
Thank you to all of our membership who made this possible.
The Alberta NDP annual convention was held over the last weekend, and it could not have gone better. NDP members and Social Democrats from across the province gathered in Edmonton to celebrate our gains and lay the groundwork for our future success.
Additionally, the amount of youth members who attended our Annual General Meeting more than doubled from the amount the amount of attendees at our last annual convention. The NDYA is growing dramatically in both size and in its dedication to organizing and promoting youth engagement in the NDP, both Federally and Provincially.
Of course, as is customary at our AGM we held executive elections, and we want to give our heartfelt thanks to all of our outgoing executive members, and a warm welcome to those new executive members who are getting involved in our organization for the first time.
We will build a strong youth activist presence in the province, and we are so excited to have you being a part of it.
It’s that wonderful time of year once again where New Democrats form across Alberta gather in Edmonton for our annual convention. Its a time when young NDP activists come together to celebrate our past, as well as work to build the foundations of our future.
I hope to see all of you there!
Tristan Turner, Federal Youth Liaison
(for information on dates, times and registration information, review this email sent by our Co-Chairs Heather Fernhout and Bradley Lafortune.)
After Thursday’s executive meeting, it was decided that Evan MacDonald and Tristan Turner (executive members) are to be the Co-Developers of the NDYA Catalyst. After deliberations, it was decided that we will create a portion of our website dedicated exclusively to publishing an online version of our Catalyst, and after it has been released for sometime online, we will publish a printed version.
However, before we are able to do any of this, first we must accumulate content for our publication. That’s where our members, and other ANDP Activists come in. If you have an article you would like published, please send submissions to ndyacatalyst@gmail.com. Your articles can be about almost anything in relation to your experience with the NDYA, political activism, or anything you feel would be appropriate. We have Editors and general Assistants on hand to edit your articles for grammar and spelling, however, we will always send you revised versions of your submission for your approval before publishing.
Photo and multimedia submissions would also be greatly appreciated.
Please, share this with anyone who may be interested. You can contact our email address if you have any questions, or you can call Tristan at 587-986-1890.
At 8:10 AM on Thursday, June 14th, two members of our NDYA executive – Tristan Turner (Federal Youth Liaison) and Evan MacDonald (Morinville Caucus President) – were welcomed to a live interview with Global TV Edmonton’s Co-Anchor Jennifer Crosby. This is very exciting for our organization, and we hope that this will help to engage Albertan’s in the grassroots fight against the disastrous piece of legislation that is Bill C-38.
Evan MacDonald appeared on Global National in a story about his fight to engage Albertan’s to rally against C-38 as well.
Stay tuned for more interesting news coverage, as I’m sure many of our organizations members have interesting and relevant arguments to be made against our Provincial and Federal governments failure to represent Canadians effectively.
On June 9th, we want to show our pride like never before! So make sure to come down and march in the parade with your fellow New Democrats and progressives at this year’s Edmonton Pride parade. We will be meeting at 108th street and 102nd Avenue at 11:30am and marching together in solidarity, love, and respect with all our fellow Edmontonians! All you need to do is come on down and be prepared to have a ton of fun. Pride is always one of the highlights of the summer and this year will be no different. Oh, and be sure to wear ORANGE if you’ve got it!
If you have any questions or would like to confirm your attendance, please feel free to email Garett Spelliscy at Garett.Spelliscy@gmail.com or give me a call at 780-999-9884. He or I will be happy to answer any questions regarding directions or otherwise.
Looking forward to seeing you all for a fun, exciting, and politically important day of togetherness!
In Sol,
Brad Lafortune
Co-Chair of the NDYA
Chair@ndya.ca
Over the last few weeks, the NDYA has made significant progress in involving high school students in the democratic process by uniting them under the progressive banner of the NDYA. Involving youth in politics at a young age is so important to the future of healthy democracy in this province and it is an honor for our party to be on the forefront of youth recruitment and engagement. Recently a group of engaged progressive high school students in Morinville have formed the NDYA Morinville Caucus and elected their Caucus President and our newest member of the NDYA executive, Evan MacDonald. This is only the beginning. The NDYA executive and the Morinville Caucus have begun planning to expand our high school member base into more schools and more communities across this province. By talking to youth about policy, politics and the future of this province, we can forgo apathy towards politics before it becomes permanent.
Not only does involving high school students in our party enable future gains in our party it also enables us to have an intelligent youth voice in forming party policy now, and over the coming weeks the NDYA will do all in its power to engage youth in politics and social issues in our province. On June 11th an executive will be held where many of the ideas on how to foster high school involvement in the NDYA will be discussed, and we are already preparing an impressive portfolio on this issue. Youth within and outside of the NDYA have expressed many insightful ideas on how the NDYA can work to get high school students involved in our party, and we would always love to get feedback from all Canadians. If you have ideas, questions or comments on this issue, you can contact our Federal Youth Liaison Tristan Turner (federal.liaison@ndya.ca), the President of NDYA Morinville Evan MacDonald (evanmacd01@gmail.com), or our Co-Chair Bradley Lafortune (chair@ndya.ca).
We are on the precipice of a massive shift in Alberta’s politics; A shift that will result in Albertans leaving corporate interests and old-style politics behind and finally adopting a government that cares for the people it governs. Friends, that government will be an NDP government. The New Democratic Youth of Alberta have been working diligently canvassing and appealing to every day Albertans in key ridings. Speaking on behalf of the NDYA, I can say that it has been an honor to contribute to a better future for our province.
On April 23rd, we are confident that Albertans will make a change and choose an NDP government, but we need youth to be a part of this exciting change. Although the youth of the Alberta NDP have been already very active in campaigning for the progressive changes we all wish to see; In these twilight days before the April election, we need to do all that we can to ensure that the future of this province lies with its citizens, and not corporate interests. In order to bring the change we desperately need in this province, we need to stay positive and work together.
This is our future, and we want you to be apart of it.
So, how can you help? Submit as a canvassing volunteer on the ANDP website, join Alberta’s NDP (if you haven’t already!), donate generously to the party here, or order a sign and have friendly conversation with your neighbors and family about why you think we need a progressive change in our province.
With the election of our new federal party leader, as progressives we need to show Albertans that we are united, energetic and optimistic in the face of an opportunity for a more inclusive province and a more progressive Canada. If we as Albertans want the same type of mass progressive political change that occurred in Quebec on May 2nd, the NDYA need to roll up our sleeves and get to work.
Let’s show the world that when a group of brilliant young minds work together for a common purpose, there is nothing that can’t be done.
The New Democratic Youth of Alberta in conjunction with the University of Alberta Campus NDP is excited to be hosting a federal NDP Leadership Debate in Edmonton on February 8 from 7-9. The debate will take place in Room 150 of the TELUS Centre on the University of Alberta campus. Following the debate there will be a reception in the atrium so that everyone has a chance to mingle and ask follow up questions of all the candidates.
Confirmed attendees are Nathan Cullen, Paul Dewar, Peggy Nash, and Brian Topp.
The topic for the debate is Energy, Environment, Education: Building the West. If you would like to submit a question please leave it in the comments section. If you would like to ask that question leave some contact information.
We look forward to seeing you at the debate!
Update
Peggy Nash has backed out of the debate so as a result we are changing the format from a full debate to more of a forum where candidates will each be asked questions. We have increased the amount of time spent in the reception and decreased the time asking formal questions.
We are still looking for questions to ask the candidates so please send us yours.
We’re looking for folks who want to be involved with the NDYA and the NDP movement here in Alberta. We’ll be planning ways for you to be involved in the upcoming election and also after the election to keep spreading the word about the NDP.
One of the big things that we are planning is the creation of youth canvassing teams. We want to have large groups of youth join a candidate as they go door-to-door meeting voters. This is an activity that is essential to winning elections and is also a lot of fun. You get to meet lots of people and have some fantastic discussion about what it is exactly that makes the NDP so great. We don’t want this to just be all work, though, so after we have done some door knocking we will take the team out for food and drinks with the candidate for a social event in the evening. It will be a fun opportunity to get to know other young New Democrats. You can bring friends and get them informed about the party as well.
We’ll also let activists know about any other volunteer activity that comes up: painting the office, helping with data entry, joining the executive. From time-to-time there are also paid positions involved with election campaigns and we will send these out to the activist list as well.
Sign up with the form below and we’ll add you to our list of NDYA Activists!
