Advice for youth entering politics
Politics is a game best left to the aggressive, enthusiastic, personable, and experienced. It is not for the faint of heart. But it seems that, so often, we associate those traits with age. And though it may not necessarily be true, that belief is what builds such a strong barrier against youth entering into politics.
As a gross generalization, “things” are changing very quickly in our world these days. Our population has exploded, our resources are ever-shrinking, and it seems as though our world gets smaller and smaller by the minute. The effects of a single event, or even the actions of a single person, now have the ability to reach so much farther, and affect so many more than ever before.
To cope with that change, we need to begin selecting our politicians not just for their experience, but also for their ability to adapt to change, comprehend vast and complicated systems, and absorb and distill large quantities of information down to only what is important to those they represent.
It’s that requirement that separates the wheat from the chaff in politics. To hold such a responsibility in your hands, you need a level of maturity exhibited by a rare few. If you talk to 21-year-old University of Guelph student Sergio Morales, maturity is the key to succeeding as a young person in politics.
Morales was recently elected councillor for Ward 9 in Barrie, a community not unaccustomed to young politicians. Morales acknowledges that his position has been held by many young people before, and that one of his mentors was in his twenties when he first entered Barrie politics.
That’s not to say that being young hasn’t been a challenge for Morales. He freely admits that it took some very serious effort to ensure he was seen as a political hopeful first, and a young person a distant second. It was a concept that originally made him nervous, and gave him reason to pause at the thought of walking onto the political stage.
At the end of the day, though, it was Morales’s maturity and respect for the system, his fellow councillors, and his community that saw him through to victory. Age and maturity are two very different things, and though the former typically begets the latter, one can subvert that. Morales is an extremely competent, mature individual, who organized his campaign like the most seasoned of politicians. His opponents gave him great praise, saying he “ran a big city campaign,” which means a lot coming from a community that still views themselves as a small town.
Morales spent many tireless hours researching, building his platform, meeting his constituents, and putting to rest any unease they may have had because of his age. He went to great lengths to ensure the media didn’t latch onto the fact he was a student, instead letting his personality and his campaign speak for themselves – which is precisely how politics was meant to work. He hired a campaign manager, graphic designer, and had people consulting on marketing and managing his volunteers. When pressed for any advice for young people looking to enter politics, Morales implores that they not view age as a barrier, suggesting that they don’t run as a student, but a politician instead. If you’re not going to play the game like everyone else, don’t bother showing up. It’s tough love, but its advice that rings true across almost every aspect of our lives. Always try your best, give yourself completely over to whatever it is you’re trying to do, and tackle it with maturity well beyond your years.
Morales’s story is a heart-warming one, but it isn’t as common as it should be. We still need more young people like him to take up that advice, and give themselves fully over to the game of politics. Young people will not get taken seriously if we ourselves do not take the system seriously, and do our part to make it work properly.
So, if you think you know someone who would be good in politics – someone you would trust to represent you and the issues you care about in our political system – encourage them to explore it as an option. Warn them, however, that if they don’t take it seriously and approach it with as much resolve as they would any professional position, they won’t get your vote. That’s the strong and mature attitude that Morales went in with, and it’s what got him his victory.