http://www.vancouversun.com/tech ... /4721668/story.html
'You're so young': five McGill students elected as NDP MPs
By Marian Scott, Postmedia News May 3, 2011
MONTREAL — Mylene Freeman has been studying political theory at McGill University for the past four years, but nothing in her textbooks prepared her for the shock of winning in a riding where she didn't even set foot during the election campaign.
"It is very surreal," said Freeman, 22, who trounced former Bloc Quebecois powerhouse Mario Laframboise by 8,000 votes in the Quebec riding of Argenteuil-Papineau-Mirabel in Monday's NDP landslide.
No one was more surprised than Freeman, a fluently bilingual native of Stouffville, Ont., who expected to finish second, despite polls showing surging support for the NDP during the last two weeks of the campaign.
"I still haven't quite realized it," said Freeman, a past co-president of NDP McGill who graduates this term. "It's just shocking in that respect."
Freeman is one of five McGill students heading to Parliament among a raft of political newbies swept to power under the orange banner.
Four of the five spent most of the campaign volunteering for Outremont incumbent NDP MP Thomas Mulcair rather than campaigning in their own ridings because they entered the race not expecting to win.
"I was putting my effort in the Montreal area because that's where I thought I would be the most useful to the party," said Freeman.
But while the NDP's sweep was unexpected, all say they will repay constituents' confidence by working hard in the House of Commons.
Charmaine Borg, 20, the new NDP MP for Terrebonne-Blainville, vowed that what she lacks in experience, she will make up in effort.
"I think the biggest challenge right now is proving to people that a 20-year-old can do a good job and that youth actually can have power and create change," said Borg, a first-year student in political science and Latin American studies.
When she knocked on doors in the riding late in the campaign, Borg said, "the reaction was, 'You're so young!'"
But the fluently bilingual native of Keswick, Ont., is confident that she'll make her mark in the new job.
"I think that it doesn't necessarily mean anything that you're young," said Borg, who is co-president of NDP McGill and a former organizer with a union representing casual workers at the university.
"We're just as motivated, just as driven," she said.
Borg had planned to spend her next academic term in Mexico as a foreign-exchange student but instead she will embark on a four-year term in Ottawa.
"I'm much more excited about this," she said.
She hopes to complete her degree eventually but isn't focusing on that at this point. "Right now I have a lot on my plate," she said.
Laurin Liu, 20, the newly elected member for Riviere-des-Mille-Iles, is in her second year of a joint-honours program in history and cultural studies.
She was working in a polling station in Mulcair's Outremont riding on election day when a friend sent her a text message saying she was leading, followed by lots of exclamation marks.
"I feel a little shell-shocked but I mostly feel a lot of pride because I know a lot of my peers worked really hard to get the vote out in Quebec," said Liu, a graduate of Royal West Academy and College Jean de Brebeuf.
Fluent in Cantonese as well as English and French, Liu is a contributor and director at McGill's community radio station.
Liu, who doesn't have a driver's licence or a car, doesn't know how she will commute to the riding from her home. She is hoping to continue her studies part-time.
Despite her youth, Freeman already has years of political involvement under her belt. She ran for Projet Montreal in Outremont in 2009, worked on Mulcair's 2008 campaign and is co-ordinator of McGill's Women in House program, which encourages young women to get involved in politics by shadowing female MPs. Now she will be one of those MPs.
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發表於 2011-5-4 08:46
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