Brain Storms Continue Every Saturday at Neechi Commons

The Brain Storms continue…

The AYO Politix Brain Storms that we held weekly in 2014 will return in 2015! Join us every Saturday at 12 noon at Neechi Commons – 865 Main Street to participate in casual discussions, sharing of ideas and respectful debate. We will also be routinely discussing the Politix Strategy for the upcoming provincial and Federal elections – as well as continuing our work on engaging with the municipal system more.

• Inter-Civics Cafes – these events happen twice weekly at GRACE CAFE at 510 Main Street (City Hall). Join young Winnipeggers as they discuss how we can build political literacy about the many inter-dependant components of our municipal government. Check out the Facebook page here.
• Trustee Tuesday – In 2015, we will work with several motivated community leaders to build a greater understanding in students and inner city people about the Winnipeg School Division. We will be organizing outings to WSD public meetings, exploring the concept of an Anishinabe/Cree Immersion school, Aboriginal Education for teachers and more! Our first Trustee Tuesday is on Tuesday January 13, 2015 at the Indigenous Family Centre – 470 Selkirk Ave at 6:00pm.

Anyone interested in getting involved in any of these initiatives, is encourages to send us an email at info [at] ayomovement [dot] com – or simply show up at one of the public events listed on our Facebook page!

Ross Eadie Brain Storm Notes – August 9, 2014

 

On Saturday August 9, 2014 our Politix crew sat down with Mynarski Incumbent City Councillor Ross Eadie to kick off our MYNARSKI BRAIN STORM sessions. Ross and his constituency assistant AJ chatted with us and shared some campaign promises as well as some proud moments from the past 4 years as City Councillor.

Our conversations began casually and revolved around some of the current issues, namely transparency, community safety and political literacy. We were also excited to meet with Ross again – as in 2010 we met with Ross as our Politix initiative was just beginning.

Campaign Song: Vote for Mr Rhythm by Ella Fitzgerald

Politix Role Model: Judy Wasylycia-Leis

Do you believe Council should begin with a clean slate after the election?

No. Ross believes that new leadership is needed, but not a totally clean slate. There have been many examples of current councillors who have done great work in the last four years. He pointed to the many collaborations he has had with residents in the ward. Ross was fundamental in moving the Selkirk Avenue Banners Project in 2011/2012 to become a reality utilizing dollars from his Councillor Representation Allowance to make that project a success. Leadership means leading by example, and Ross believes he has set a good example the last 4 years on council.

Labour Council Endorsement

MC has had an ongoing concern about Labour Council endorsement and asked Ross to elaborate. Essentially, it was explained that the labour council is made up of membership from unions. Ultimately it is the members of those unions who undertake a process (within their union) to determine and select candidates that reflect their values. Participation in that process is determined by your membership in one of those unions, if you aren’t a member, you likely won’t be priivy to that info/process. He also emphasized that candidates who want WLC endorsement must reach out to that organization as well. Ross did agree though, that since the WLC makes its decisions public, it could be a good thing to make the process equally as public too.

Safety

Ross has an acronym called the 3 Ps that he uses to explain his position on keeping our community safe

• Prevention – means we must address root causes like addictions, also means we support community centres to get youth involved in proacitve and positive activities
• Policing – Winnipeg Police Board is going to be involved in changing WPS for the better, more police on foot can build face to face relationships with residents
• Punishment –  restorative justice when possible works best, must collaborate with different levels of courts

DID YOU KNOW? 56% of the City’s Annual Budget is dedicated to Emergency Medical Services (Police, Paramedic, FIre)

How will you engage youth in your campaign?

He will continue to meet with youth as they ask (as he was doing when answering this question lol). He also mentioned that he is taking time on the campaign to attend resident associations and other community meetings to engage with residents.

Participatory Budgeting – Do you support it?

Ross does support PB in principle, but wonders HOW we can make it work. For true engagement, Ross’ office would need more dollars and more assurance from residents that they would attend and bring forward their concerns around budget issues when they are or are not addressed. Perhaps what we need is a series of community meetings that educate the public about budgets and the budget process so we can look at this more in the future.

ROSS SPEED ROUND:

Check out the Ross Eadie Speed Round (part 1) below [Click here for Part 2]

Final thoughts

Ross is looking forward to working with a council that leads by example. He supported recent increases to office allowances in the wards because can use it at his discretion (ie. for community grant programs like the Selkirk Banners, or Bus tickets for North Point Douglas Womens Centre, etc). Ross wants the people of Winnipeg to know he loves his job and wants to be your councillor for the next four years!

Decoding the Headlines – This Saturday! #PolitixBS

Every Saturday for the last few Months, AYO Politix has met at Neechi Commons to Brain Storm about politics. We have met with 5 mayoral candidates, begun meeting with city council candidates and will be meeting with school trustees as well. However, due to the inability for us to get real information, or understand biasses that are present within media, We have invited guests from newspaper, tv and radio to come help us understand the way news is reported. Join us as we try to improve our critical thinking and media literacy! We will brain storm ways we can build critical thinking skills when reading and also when talking to the media. MC will also share his “main stream media strategy” with the AYO Leadership model as the example.

SPECIAL GUESTS:

– MELISSA MARTIN –
Melissa has written for the Wpg Free Press for a number of years and has experience in many types of media. Her artistic style resonates with young audiences, and her honest and raw way of explaining media have supported such initiatives in the past such as The FWD North End Youth Newspaper. (follow her on twitter @DoubleEmMartin)

-TAMARA FORLANKSKI-

Sharing another person’s story is one of the most fulfilling feelings for Tamara. It’s that desire to discover what makes a person unique that led her to broadcasting and working in Winnipeg as a reporter/anchor with Global News. Tamara holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Winnipeg as well as a Creative Communications diploma from Red River College. The lifelong Manitoba girl is also a proud Ukrainian and has been sharing her culture through Ukrainian dance for more than 20 years. (On Twitter @TamaraOnGlobal)

***OTHER SPECIAL GUESTS TBA***

More info can be found at http://www.Facebook.com/AYOpolitix/events

Robert Falcon-Oulette Politix Brain Storm Notes – July 26th 2014

This Saturday July 26, 2014 AYO Politix had a Brain Storm with Mayoral Candidate Robert Falcon-Oulette at Neechi Commons. It was by far our largest crowd, with close to 50 individuals coming to listen. He opened with a prayer and included stories in most of his responses. He also took the ‘unusual’ step of inviting many of his facebook friends to the event we created on our facebook page. I say unusual, only because it didn’t seem as if the other candidates went to those lengths, or at least were not successful, in engaging people outside of our AYO group. We also attracted a local videographer Paul Graham who has put together some cool video of the event, and it was also interesting because there were not many youth there – mostly adults and seniors.

Campaign Song: coming soon

Favourite Mayor: coming soon

Campaign Colour: Purple – because of the grandmother teachings

What is your vision for change? Robert has been studying the city for 5 years, and truly believes that we need long term city planning based on facts and science is the way to go. Robert’s vision is not hierarchical and believes ideas should be coming from the bottom

Executive Policy Committee: Rob says ‘it depends’ on EPC – if the council that comes in in October is cooperative with Robert’s vision he won’t need an EPC. But if the climate is divided, then EPC may be necessary to move some policies forward.

Golf Courses: We currently have 18 City owned Golf Courses and Robert says he is “in favour of green space”. In terms of accessibility, Robert thinks that we should always look at our city through “the lens of a child” since they are 20% of our City’s population.

Kapyong Barracks: This is an opportunity to create brand new neighbourhoods. We have to overcome racism and perceptions that people have of one another. It is an opportunity for housing, development, tourism and economic development for Winnipeg and First Nations.

Overcoming Racism: Our biggest mission has to be to overcome the PERCEPTIONS and it is the role of government to provide TOOLS for people to learn. As mayor he would champion the following initiatives (with an obvious youth focus):

• More youth engaged in Council and Committees
• Mayor’s Youth Council
• Including children as young as  8 years old
• LOWERING THE VOTING AGE!

Green roofs/roof-top gardens: Create an incentive tax for businesses to convert their roofs into gardens and food. We could also reuse the CO2 that is generated from these gardens and green roofs. It also helps with coolness in the summer and heating/insulation in the winter. We also discussed possibilities of using hydroponics or other non-soil methods of growing food as well.

+++WATER – SEPERATE POST COMING SOON+++

Stoney Mountain & Child Family Services: While both of these are federal and provincial in jurisdiction, the mayor must build political literacy in citizens so they understand those things and help apply pressure. As mayor he would advocate for increased communication among levels of government to address systemic problems like indigenous people in jail, the influx of kids in the child welfare system and the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women. Because Robert is not politically affiliated he would be able to talk across all parties. professional development of the Winnipeg Police Service to change the culture in the police force.

Housing for Students and Seniors? If we increase taxes for parking lots, as some cities have, we can discourage individuals from holding on to property in downtown or needy areas by charging them the same tax as they would for a 4 story building. We would need to work with the province and federal government because as the city we do not have the resources to address the housing and homelessness issue alone.

Will you develop a City Wide Energy Plan? He would like to look to other cities and hear from citizens like us on what they would recommend. The process would be citizens create a proposal, the city does a consultation and then council will vote on it.

AYO POLITIX SPEED ROUND: We asked Robert the same series of Qs we have asked every candidate so far. He has clocked in with the longest time, over 8 minutes. Listen to all the candidates and let us know what you think!

– Now on VIDEO! (thanks to Paul Graham for coming out!!) –

Brian Bowman Politix Brain Storm Notes July 5th 2014

On Saturday July 5th 2014, the AYO Politix group held a BRAIN STORM with mayoral candidate Brian Bowman at the Come N’ Eat Restaraunt on the second floor of Neechi Commons.  We were met there initially by 2 kookums and Joelle, the person on Brian’s campaign in charge of youth engagement. We began introducing each other, Brian going last, discussing living in Winnipeg his whole life, mostly Charleswood and has been disappointed in the tone/output of city hall is why he is running. Wants to focus his campaign on engagement. We were also happy to have Mynarski City Council candidate Greg Littlejohn also attended.

Campaign/Favourite Song: “You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” Judas Priest

Meeting with Youth: BB has been meeting with youth the entire campaign – in colleges, backyards and kitchen tables. He also plans to draw on his experiences with the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce’s High School BOLD initiative where high school students shared their ideas for the city in business and non-profit.

How can our next mayor address geographically specific issues without alienating other areas of the City? “Winnipeggers are looking for political principle” if we are open and honest with Winnipeggers they will understand we want all citizens in our city to be happy and healthy. Issues such as race, poverty and environment are not talked about enough.

Do you believe in the Housing First model? He championed the concept as chair of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce and believes the city must endorse the Winnipeg Poverty Reduction Council’s Plan to End Homelessness by 2024.

“Long Term Vision”, what does that mean? That means he will lead his days in office with the Office of Public Engagement, including the development of a youth strategy. Brian believes our city can be a “modern, inclusive, growing” city.

How will you improve Education: That is a provincial jurisdiction, but he can still show leadership and advocate for the education of citizens. Brian will visit every school if elected mayor to introduce the concept of service in higher office to students.

What is your desired relationship between Mayor/Council/School Trustees if elected? the mayor is a member of council, they should all be working collaboritaviely ith one another to further Winnipeggers. He wants to improve the relationship between school divisions and city council.

Winnipeg is a Winter City: The city’s primary winter focus is snow clearing. He believes we can plan around winter coming every year. Cpprdoinate tourism initatives and deliver improved services in parks and recreation. A good example of innovation is the RAW ALMOND restaraunt on the river – he would ease red tape for businesses like that that improve tourism He also mentioned homelessness needed to be addressed especially in winter times. 

Community Centres and the GCWCC: The GCWCC is lacking accountability. Each neighbourhoood must be healthy especially in provision of recreational opportunities. There will be an upcoming announcement related to improving community centres.

Bylaws against the homeless – there are some bylaws that fine and criminalize people for being homeless: He has experience with organizations like Kani Kanichihk and the CEO Sleepout and will repeal those bylaws. Brian wants to humanize homeless Winnipeggers and believes efforsts should be coordinated so individuals do not fall through the cracks. There is currently no mechanism that makes any one in theses systems accountable to that homeless individual. Brian WILL:

• support the WPRC’s new report on homelessness for the City
• Commit to helping end homelessness by 2024

Ending homelessness by 2024? He believes our city can end homelessness by 2024 and has been a participant along with MC for the last few years as part of the CEO Sleepout 

Transit – what is up? He wants a comprehensive transit plan (inclusive of Bikes, cars,busses) to determine the most logical next steps. He is a supporter of rapid transit. We asked if he was open to the idea of FREE FARE for all transit users and he said it ‘would be nice’ but we must look closer at what the would mean for the city.

Bicycled Police – will you implement more of them to improve safety? He would love to see more Police on Bicycles, he cycles regularly himself. He also believes that there may be situations where the use of the helicopter justify our use of it as a city.

Should Winnipeg become a “City of Reconciliation”? He s interested in the concept but needs to learn more.

SPEED ROUND: We shared with Brian 18 topics and asked him to respond honestly as a mayor. It took him 6:20 seconds, which is the shortest one so far (by 10 seconds).

Final 3 Qs from Markus

1. Will you revamp the winnipeg.ca website, its hard to navigate?
   Brian: YES!
2. Will you enhance city services by developing shared/measurable outcomes across departments?
   Brian: Yes, that’s why he led the campaign with a campaign promise related to public engagement.
3. What are your thoughts on OPEN CONTRACTING considering the challenges with transparency we are currently seeing? 
   Brian: He wants to examine and open up the process we are currently using for contracting in the city now. He also believes the procurement and request for proposals processesmust be redone – there is a campaign announcement lurking around the corner he will be releasing soon.

Judy Wasylycia-Leis Politix Brain Storm Notes July 5th 2014

On Saturday July 5th 2014, the AYO Politix group held a BRAIN STORM with mayoral candidate Judy Wasylycia-Leis at Neechi Commons. We asked her a series of questions, talked about some ideas that could work in our city and brain stormed several things. She came alone and stayed for 2 hours answering our questions and participating ion our speed round.  She referenced her experience as a North Ender and her role as one of the helpers starting the AYO Politix initiative back in 2010.  Find below the notes of our conversation (special shout out to Amanda for taking notes and Grace for taking this photo):

Favourite/Campaign Song: Happy – Pharell Williams

Political Literacy: How do we make citizens in our city understand how the political systems and other systems work and interact with each other? Judy said more young people getting involved and elected will help that. She agreed with us that life experience can be valuable, not formal education alone, as what you would need to be in politics. As to how she would do this, she said “hear from the Voices that are excluded from the system, women, young people, visible minorities etc”, not assuming what you know and actually hearing what they know

Youth Engagement: Judy has committed as she did in 2010’s election to establishing an on-going youth council for the city and the mayor’s office. She mentioned Calgary has a great model – one that helps begin to understand the wishes, dreams of the youth for the city. We also BS’s about a possible ‘Internship program’ at city hall – where youth could be learning hands on, travelling to the local neighborhoods and learning from youth across the city. She will consult with young people, youth forums, using the richness of the ideas and directions from the youth to shape policy.

Lowering the Voter Age: Bigger project from all levels of government.  She has learned from many many models all over the world including Afghanistan, Jordan, Washington, Quebec, London. Changing it cannot be done in isolation for only one level of government, that may create a 2-tier voter system. She mentioned this has a lot to do with EDUCATION in high schools. Judy believes economics should be taught in the high school system, with perhaps even a curriculum specifically on the political process.

Housing & Transit: Judy would like to see National transit & housing plans. She has also committed to working towards ending homelessness in our city by 2024.

Access to the mayor: We believe it is the mayor’s role to be updating the public, consistently and humanly as possible. We recommended a whole suit of ideas including Webcasting, Twitter, Skype, Radio, Television, Reddit or even best, in person.

Wpg vs Toronto: What are your thoughts on the current state of TO politics, how are you going to make sure that it doesn’t happen here?  Judy says it’s worse here, our mayor is not a good role model involved in conflict of interest situations similair to Montreal. Judy wants a “clean slate at city hall”

Why should voters trust you? Judy has spent 30 years in public life and believers her track record proves she is trust worthy and responsible. She has experiences with finance, social issues, close connection with the community, experience, and starts at the grass roots. Judy points to the current ‘train wreck’ and mentioned that city politics will be a long process to repair. Judy will:

• Start fresh
• Follow through 1^st 100 days
• Expand audit office
• Good ethics, academics, activists – get us back on track
• Make it more open, cheques, accounting available to public

JUDY SPEED ROUND: We shared with Judy 18 topics (we thought it was 15 in the recording) and asked her to answer them as quickly as she could. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE 6 MINUTES OF JUDY-NESS.

Winnipeg Labour Council Endorsement: MC brought up that some of the impressions of the current endorsements reinforce a myth that there are back room deals going on – since the endorsement, especially of city councillors occurred before councillors could even declare their intention. Judy responded with saying last time she didn’t accept it, Sam and others used it against her in the campaign.Her aim is to build a big tent, labour, mobilization is important and helps candidates to be ahead of the game. She emphasized the process was coming from strictly a movement for union members and that many of  us were not members so were not a part of the process but it was open and transparent for their members and they have a right to participate in the election, as AYO currently is as well. She said she will not get involved or endorse other council hopefuls.

Do you have a Mayor you admire? Charlotte Whitton & Megan Mot

Racism in Winnipeg: She said racism is a problem and she would work with citizens to develop something similair to the Thompson Accord.  “We can’t rebuild relationships unless we understand the whole and identity of the person” Judy said.

Website and Web Presence: overall the Facebook is the best, her personal Facebook profile, but the website is not up to date and also isn’t linked to the feeds of her Facebook and Twitter accounts. Also, her Facebook page was not responding to messages, she said she would get this all fixed up.

Final thoughts: Arts and culture are a part of the change our city needs to see  according to Judy – music, arts impact that change – she will be a mayor who will support the arts. Empower people with music and art.  Our Mayor should be an ambassador for the city, and our mayor should “be everywhere”. Check out her website here.

Thanks Judy for being such a great sport! Stay tuned for our next BS with Brian Bowman this Saturday!

-MC

Update on #Wpg14 Mayor Candidates – June 29, 2014

So we have had a great time getting our stuff organized with BRAIN STORMS at Neechi Commons for candidates for mayor. We began this past Saturday with Paula Havixbeck (click here for a link to info on her visit with us) and have dates upcoming with Judy, Brian and Robert. We are following up with the other candidates to see if they can commit to an upcoming event. In other news the Winnipeg Labour Council has endorsed Judy, Mark Chipman has endorsed Brian for mayor. The WLC has also interestingly endorsed the 10 candidates for city council…which is wierd since candidates cannot even begin to declare this until tomorrow! There have been a few announcements and we are working on getting these organized in an easy to access way for everyone.

We did a check on the internet engagement of these particular candidates. Brian Bowman seems to be the most active on his social media accounts, his website is a great place to get that information. Paula Havixbeck is doing better in recent days, though we gave her a gentle nudge at our BS seeing a 5 day gap in her campaign twitter account, you can see her new purple website here, its is very nice on the eyes. Judy Wasylycia-Leis does have a website (click here), but at the time of this article has a 3 day twitter dormancy period – over a weekend, potentially a long weekend and the latest news on her site was June 18th. We cannot find any information on candidate Michel Fillon, not even a really recent photograph. Candidate Michael Vogiatzakis has come alive on social media with twitter and an official website now available. Robert Falcon Oulette who wins the award for coolest website URL (falcon2014.com) and is very active, being the only candidate so far to to a reddit AMA. Finally, Gord Steeves’ website is now finished its construction period and is live, and he also tweeted 11 hours before the time this article was written.

BRAIN STORM SCHEDULE – Saturdays @ 12 noon @ Neechi Commons

July 5th: Judy Wasylycia-Leis
July 12th: Brian Bowman
July 26th: Robert Falcon-Oulette

If you are interested in getting involved simply come on down to Neechi Commons, or check this link about becoming a contributor for this blog!

Paula Havixbeck Politix Brain Storm Notes – June 28, 2014 #PolitixBS

On Saturday June 28th 2014, the AYO Politix group held a BRAIN STORM with mayoral candidate Paula Havixbeck at Neechi Commons. We asked her a series of questions and brain stormed several things. She brought her campaign assistant who was only 25 years old, and Paula shared her commitment to listening to Winnipeg’s young people.  Find below the notes of our conversation

Favourite/Campaign Song: “Don’t Stop Believing” Journey

Solution Based: Paula committed to campaigning on SOLUTIONS as opposed to ISSUES which was a refreshing change of pace. She highlighted that as a councillor, she has been able to move quickly from recieving information into action, demonstrating her capacity to move to action quickly.

Endorsed Candidates: We discussed transparency, backroom deals in the form of endorsed candidates. It is interesting that some people have been able to recieve endorsements from different places, such as the Winnipeg Labour Council and certain executives in the business community. Paula was endorsed by the Winnipeg Fire & Police Service last time, partially due to her agreement with them that Police should have access to protected parking. Her main question is “What are endorsed candidates beholden to?” – meaning, when someone is endorsed, what is the exchange that happens, or is expected to happen as a reward. Individuals often release criteria about why they endorse candidates, but timing is everything – how can you endorse candidates, I am talking specifically about city councillors, without knowing who the other contenders even are.

Winnipeg Year of Reconciliation: She talked about how important it is for Winnipeggers to reconcile with the First Nation & Metis peoples of our region. She talked about a whole year of activities, that have happened in Edmonton with 3 planks to the year

1.) Urban Aboriginal youth leadership initiative

2.) develop education for all City employees on residential school and the history of Canada

3.) commitment to work with the Aboriginal community to work towards permanence of traditional venues used for spirit, culture & ceremony

GET REAL YOUTH FORUM: We asked if she would come if we organized one, and she said YES!

Urban Reserves: She researched and even travelled to Westbank SK to dig deeper and undersatand the benefits of urban reserves. She also shared that “Winnipeg is very racist” and has a long way to go to recieve reconciliation. She believes urban reserves can be a WIN/WIN/WIN situation for First Nations on reserve, First Nations in the city and a win for the City of Winnipeg.

Missing & Murdered Women: She agreed the mayor needs to be more vocal around issues of missing and murdered indigenous women. She emphasized that human trafficking needs to be addressed in our city and shared a two prong plan of action on this issue: addressing cold case files 7 working on prevention initiatives for Aboriginal women and girls.

Homelessness: Paula agreed to work to end homelessness in our city by 2024. She reminded us that she recently supported a motion at city hall that called to create a policy for lower rent in the city. She will work with groups like the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ, United Way of Winnipeg. She hopes to take after some cities in BC and drastically reduce homelessness in the next 5 years. It was shared at the meeting it costs $1,000 per night per person to stay at a homeless shelter, with the most frequent residents attending 77 times per year, meaning $77,000 per person per year for those who need our system the most. Would it be cheaper to house these people instead?

Aboriginal Youth Strategy & Eagle’s Nest: Paula agreed to continue to support the Aboriginal Youth Strategy – Oshki Anishinabe Nigaaniwaak, and emphasized her plans for a year of reconciliation (see above).

SPEED ROUND
We asked a speed round of 15 questions and will upload the audio, 6 minutes of Paula the Paula-tician!
-CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE CLIP!

#1 Issue in this Election: there are many, she noted that her last 4 years demonstrates that she is not happy with the status quo. She wants youth and Winnipeggers to be educated and to make sure that your mayor truly represents your beliefs.

PAULA’S COMMITMENT: Paula has committed to meeting with youth groups like AYO every week if elected – she says she cannot promise she will always agree, but that our voices will be heard.

—————————–

YOU’RE INVITED! The Downtown Winnipeg BIZ wants to invite you to their downtown mayoral candidates forum at the MB Hydro Building, 5-7pm on September 10th 2014.

Politix Brain Storms With Winnipeg’s Next Mayor!

Aboriginal Youth Opportunities’ Politix Brain Storm initiative is inviting young Winnipeggers to get involved in this year’s municipal election! Founded in 2010 by Rocky King & Judy Wasylycia-Leis, Politix is an ongoing, non-partisan, youth focussed, capacity building political enlightenment initiative. The ideas of young people are expressed & developed until we create opportunities for those young people to connect directly with elected officials or political hopefuls. In October 2014 Winnipeg will select its next mayor, city council and school trustees. With recent controversies around how city hall operates in Winnipeg and other cities, AYO & Winnipeg’s youth have questions that need answers. With that in mind, you are invited to join us as we get to know the mayoral candidates, and ask them some tough questions. Beginning in March, we’ve held monthly brain storms to put together our #wpg14 election campaign strategies. Keep your eyes on the hashtag and blog to keep up to date ways you(th) can get involved!
Brain Storm With Mayoral Candidates @ Neechi Commons

After a recent Brain Storm, we took to Twitter to engage directly with candidates to test their willingness to agree to meet with us using the @AYOmovement account. All 6 of 7 candidates who are active on social media responded within 48 hours, all expressing a desire to sit with Aboriginal Youth and answer the questions of wpg’s young ppl. In the 4 brain storms we had before June, candidates Judy and Robert Falcon Oulette both attended AYO Politix events and answered questions directly. Paula Havixbeck was also engaged and sent regrets but wasn’t able to attend. We also had connections with Brian Bowman through the CEO Sleep out as well as connecting Ralph Brown/North End Opportunity Network (NEON) with Pitblado Law for our 2013 Back 2 School Bash ). We have had no contact with Gord Steeves, Michel F or Mike V.

PolitixBS Blog Posts

Our blog and social media strategy are a deliberate attempt to provide a platform where youth and young people can have their voices heard on political issues. The blog gives us a place for announcements, updates and opinion posts. Examples of opinion posts have explored the possibilities city hall can explore to fix the city, to updates on who has entered the election race or the effects that high profile politicians can have on young people. If you or a youth who you know is interested in writing please send us an email at info at ayomovement dot com with your idea!

Get Real Candidates Forum

Imagine asking a candidate a yes or no question, and receiving a yes or no answer. This is the spirit and the logic behind our Get Real Candidates Forums. We host an info session (called Get Informed), familiarize young people with candidates, platforms promises and details on how the political process works. They are also taught how to pose yes/no questions and prepare one to be launched at the forum. Next is the actual Get Real forum where candidates line up, intro themselves and answer questions. Youth ask, and instead of answering with  talking points or canned responses,  Candidates answer by holding up a sign that says simply “YES” on one side, and “NO” on the other. It provides a great opportunity for our young people to have the power and to get real answers – not rhetoric. It also gives the audience a chance to differentiate between candidates visually – you can literally see who is a yes or no. At the end of the forum each candidate is allowed 5 minutes to explain their responses and justify anything they feel needs more explanation than yes or no.

What Next?

We have already scheduled 3 opportunities for us young voters to speak directy to Winnipeg’s next mayor (maybe) with more to come in the summer. Saturday’s at noon @ Neechi Commons – 865 Main St,  join Politix as we meet one on one with candidates, ask them why they are running for mayor & get to know their platforms.

Our 5 confirmed candidates (so far) are:

June 28th: Paula Havixbeck
July 5th: Judy Wasylycia-Leis
July 12th: Brian Bowman
July 19th: Mike Vogiatzakis
July 26th: Robert Falcon Oulette

More info can be found on upcoming events by clicking here: www.facebook.com/AYOPolitix/events

Stay tuned for more details and more dates with the remaining two mayoral candidates!