Get 'em while they're young

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Adam Daifallah
National Post

In the run-up to this weekend's Conservative party national convention, the media's focus has been on the party's many social policy divisions. But one of the most important debates awaiting the delegates has nothing to do with abortion or same-sex marriage: It's the decision on whether or not to create a formal youth wing.

On this front, convention delegates have three options. One would create a formal, national youth organization with its own elected executive, as the old federal Tory party had. Another would create a loose network of campus clubs; and the third would preserve the status quo of no youth organization at all, as was the case in the Reform party and Canadian Alliance. The party would be wise to pick the first option.

If the Conservatives are to form a national government and create a winning coalition for the long-term, it is imperative that they professionalize their party structure. A formalized national youth movement is a key part of this project.

Aside from the federal Conservatives, every serious political party at the provincial and federal level in Canada has a youth organization. And for good reason. These organizations help identify and recruit new talent. They give young people a venue where they can fraternize with political junkies their own age. They teach young people how to play hardball politics (something the Liberals are currently much better at than the Tories). A youth wing would also help the Conservatives develop a younger image -- something the party badly needs.

Youth organizations have played important roles in political parties all over the Western world. In Britain, Conservative Future is key in recruiting young people to the Tories; in the United States, the College Republican National Committee has produced some of that party's most influential members, including Bush advisor Karl Rove (chairman, 1974-77) and prominent GOP activists Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist.

Closer to home, the youth wing of the defunct Progressive Conservative Party played an important role in grooming future leaders and acting as a conscience of the party. People like Ted Rogers of Rogers Communications, former prime minister Brian Mulroney and Tom Long, the architect of Mike Harris's Common Sense Revolution, got their start in the Tory youth.

On the policy front, young Conservatives succeeded in keeping the party true to its conservative principles. In 1996, the PC Youth Federation of Canada championed a set of policy declarations known as the Tory Top Ten, the first of which was a 10% tax cut. Thanks largely to the efforts of the youth wing and its then-president, Tasha Kheiriddin, the resolution was endorsed by the party as a whole, and the Tories took what was then the bold step of including tax cuts in their platform.

Those who oppose the creation of a youth association generally focus on two main arguments. The first is that a youth association would relegate young Conservatives to a "sandbox," and thus diminish their influence in the wider party.

History shows this to be false, particularly when it comes to choosing the party's leader. Youth often proved to be a powerful force during PC leadership reviews, accounting for the dumping of two leaders -- John Diefenbaker in 1967 and Joe Clark in 1983 -- and the victory of Brian Mulroney.

The second argument advanced against a youth association goes like this: The Tories currently have a large number of young MPs in their caucus, so obviously more young people get elected to Parliament when there's no youth wing to sidetrack them.

Don't believe it. Scores of young MPs have been elected from political parties with youth organizations. In the federal PC party, Sean O'Sullivan (elected at 20), Perrin Beatty (elected at 22) and Jean Charest (elected at 26) are but a few examples. Many more may be found at the provincial Conservative level. Who's to say that, with a youth organization, the federal party wouldn't elect even more young parliamentarians than it has now?

Party youth clubs are about more than just practicing politics. They encourage young people to educate themselves on policy issues, and learn about how large organizations work. In the words of one former young Tory activist, "It was nice to put our feet up and just talk about the issues that affect your lives. We sure had some lively discussion!"

Those words were written in 1985 by Stephen Harper, then the president of the Calgary West PC Youth Association. They still ring true today.

Adam Daifallah was the PC Youth Federation's policy director from 1998-2000, and is co-author, with Tasha Kheiriddin, of Rescuing Canada's Right, to be published in early 2006.