Democratic Renewal

Issue 2, March 2004

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The Interns Tackle the Deficit

The 2003-04 Parliamentary Interns are collaborating to produce a guide to the democratic deficit. The guide - which the Interns hope to publish - is intended to serve as a primer that should be of interest to first and second year university students in Canadian politics.

Parliamentary Interns are in an excellent position to carry out a project of this kind. Each of the ten Interns will spend nine months working in the offices of MPs, half of that time with a government MP and the other half with an opposition MP. They see parliament from both sides of the political divide as well and receive a close-up view of the job of an MP. Another dimension of the project that is especially valuable is that it is being undertaken by a group of interested, well-informed young Canadians. This could make the project especially valuable in addressing issues that relate to the low level of voting among young Canadians.

Young Women Vote 2004

Three of the Parliamentary Interns – Chi Nguyen of Toronto, Crystal Graber of Delta BC and Cloe Rowbotham of Surrey BC have undertaken a project to address the gender aspect of the democratic deficit – the under-representation of women in Canadian politics. They have undertaken an initiative to get 20,000 women aged 18-30 to sign a petition pledging to cast a vote in the next federal election.