A Government Fearful Of Its Young

I don't know how else to say it other than that all the candidates participating in the debate at a local high school yesterday felt some kind of line had been crossed. So did the students. As with other debates in the riding, the Conservative candidate didn't show up. First she was a no-show at a debate in a London mosque last week. Then she was absent again at a community forum event at a local library. But when she didn't arrive today for the debate at the high school gathering there was the sense that something was amiss. These were students, of voting age, and the generation that all political parties say is essential if democracy is to function effectively. They were all present, ready to question the rest of the candidates that did show about their policies and intentions. This was my fourth election debate at that school in four years and it was the first time a government candidate didn't materialize.Apparently this is a pattern being repeated across the country: numerous government candidates, especially if they aren't incumbents, are being discouraged from attending debates by party central. Students are right to ask if they are so important, as everyone says, why their government won't face them. It's not as though they were a hostile audience. Their questions were mature and well-presented. But in the end, they were dissed by their own government.Are we surprised? Why? This has been the recurring pattern of the present campaign. Along with their usual attack features and taking quotes and interviews out of context, the Harperites have chosen to turn their animosities and their ammunition on the future of this country.The campaign started with the opening gambit on the young when a number of students were refused admission to a number of venues where the PM was speaking. In fact, owing to the Conservative penchant for refusing to admit mistakes, what should have been a one-day story became fodder for almost a week. The youth fought back with vote mobs, social media research, and a smart assault on the Harper phalanx of secrecy. They're wanting in; the Conservatives want them out. But, sadly, in many ways these same young minds that want to be involved are struggling against young Conservative idealogues of virtually the same age. The government is successfully turning the young on themselves.What do we get when a government known for hiding from Parliament, from the Speaker of the House, from committees, top-level civil servants, and the media, eventually hides itself from the young. I don't know the full answer but I can tell you this: it's about as far from democracy as you can get in an advanced nation. American political observer James Carville, casting his experienced eye over the political wasteland that is polluting the American landscape, could only conclude:

This is not class warfare, this is generational warfare. This administration and old wealthy people have declared war on young people. That is the real war that is going on here. And that is the war we've got to talk about."

That's right - let's talk about it because it concerns our future. Yet how is that possible when a government won't even attend debates that engage keen young minds? The Conservatives won't permit students to attend their rallies, and now they won't move into the venues where those same young minds live and learn. For the first time perhaps ever, a Canadian government is fearful of its young and their impact on the voting process, and so it seeks to exclude them. It is youth balkanization with a purpose, and it's occurring during a national election. It's voter suppression with a generational twist. There can only be one result. Someday, sometime, the youth will rise up against an authoritarian regime that pushed them to the margins just as they were trying to get in. It can't last forever, but the Conservatives are betting that it will go on long enough to get them government once more. The fate of this country, in ways we perhaps never comprehended before, lies effectively in the hands of our youth. Older generations built and died to pass that torch to them and now as they reach out to grasp it, their own government yanks it away. It's their time to come forward and fight for it. If they do, Canada will prevail.