More than a dozen school board, councillor, and mayoral candidates from Maple Ridge gathered together at Thomas Haney Secondary School on Oct. 12 for an informal meet and greet with some local students.
This meeting of candidates was organized by Roz Golshani, Eric Wang, and several other Thomas Haney students as a way to hopefully establish a connection between the community representatives and the students, most of whom will be of voting age by the 2026 municipal election.
“Knowing what’s going on in your community is really important,” said Golshani. “We want to get youth involved and get them thinking ‘if I have a connection to these candidates, I can more easily reach out to them.’”
Golshani identified SOGI and diversity issues as some of the biggest concerns amongst the student body.
“Unfortunately, there were some anti-diversity people on our federal election panel that we did last year,” she said.
RELATED: Maple Ridge student raises voice at anti-racism youth conference
Normally, Golshani explained that she tries to distance herself from politics because it makes her sad. But as a member of the student council and former member of the model UN, she felt like she needed to help organize this event for her fellow students and community members.
“Silence is doing nothing.”
Many Maple Ridge candidates attended the event, including:
School board candidates - Mike Murray, Elaine Yamamoto, Kim Dumore, Pascale Shaw, Brian Dominick, Gabe Liosis, Johnnie Day, Karen Redkwich, and Yvonne Desabrais
Councillor candidates - Korleen Carreras, Onyeka Dozie, Leah Pillet, and Jenny Tan
Mayor candidates - Dan Ruimy, Jacques Blackstone, and Corisa Bell
RELATED: Maple Ridge council hopefuls offer their opinions
The event started by splitting the candidates into two groups and giving them a tour of various areas of the school. They then got a chance to pop into some classrooms, introduce themselves to the students, and field some questions.
One of these questions came from a student who asked the candidates about the extent to which they want youth involved in local government.
Bell was the first to answer, saying that she is interested in hearing what students of every age have to say, but is most focused on engaging with high school students.
“Previously, I was successful in creating a board table where school district trustees and council would sit together and communicate and discuss important things that were coming up and designing of what’s necessary and needed in the future of the community,” said Bell.
“But that was a short-lived board and wasn’t very supported. I thought it was such a loss and such a disappointment. That’s why I really want to make it happen and make it successful as the mayor. Because I don’t think there’s anything more important in this world than our children.”
Dumore was quick to jump in, saying that Maple Ridge already had a youth planning table.
“There’s about 25 youths from 12 to 24 that are working items on new strategy,” said Dumore. “It’s open to anybody, anytime. You’re welcome to join. But maybe there’s an expansion to that program that can be discussed with the new mayor and council.”
“I want to definitely compliment the work that the school district is doing,” said Bell. “What I’m saying is having a working table for council for everybody to be together in creating a vision.”
Carreras cited her eight years of experience as a school board trustee and said that recent years have seen youth represented even less in the community.
“Two councils ago, there used to be a dedicated space on every advisory committee to council where a youth voice was on there, but the current mayor and council removed that,” said Carreras. “It is no longer a dedicated space. We need to bring that back, and we need to make sure that we’re actively working with community and youth.”
Longtime trustee Mike Murray spoke next, mentioning the previous efforts that the school board went through to better connect with local students.
“I just love the workshops where we would go into a high school as individual trustees and sit with maybe six or seven students,” said Murray. “The things we heard about the successes that they had, and the things they were grousing about and thought weren’t cool in the system, that was like gold to me as a trustee to hear that directly. So we got to get back to that.”
“I know there’s a plan to do another big forum,” he added. “I think we should be doing more workshops in school where we actually sit down with a table. Gabe [Liosis] was actually a member of some of the tables that I remember sitting at.”
Liosis spoke about his perspective as a student not so long ago speaking to many of the same school board candidates who are running for re-election.
“This is one of the reasons why I decided to run in the first place,” said Liosis. “As someone in high school who tried to use my voice multiple times on issues that were important to me and my peers, for a school district that values student voice, I did often encounter barriers to trying to use my voice and having my voice heard.”
“There has been a lot of progress by this board over the last few years, and I think there’s a lot of work to do,” he continued. “As someone who still feels really close to the school system, having graduated not long ago, I feel well-positioned to try and take on some of those issues.”
Ruimy followed that up by mentioning a special youth event he organized as a former MP.
“During my term, I actually had a constituency youth council that was made up of about 20 kids from all the high schools,” said Ruimy. “We gave them their voice.”
“One of the best things I saw them accomplish was when they held a town hall, with about 150 people that showed up, on mental health. What’s important is that it wasn’t me standing up there. We coached them and they ran the whole thing. They got up on the stage, they told their own personal stories, which was gut-wrenching at times. We knew that adults tend to talk down to children, and we didn’t want that. So we did the opposite.”
READ MORE: Mental health a taboo word in school
By giving these candidates the opportunity to speak directly with youth, Golshani and her peers have joined the long list of B.C. schools that are actively trying to get youth more involved in local politics.
VIDEO: Students at Maple Ridge high school hear from mayoral candidates before mock vote
As part of this effort, CIVIX, a non-partisan Canadian charity, is running the Student Vote program across B.C. On Thursday and Friday (Oct. 13-14), students from 736 B.C. schools will submit ballots for mayor, councillor, and school board positions.
The results of these ballots will then be added up and released on Saturday, Oct. 15.
Amongst the hundreds of schools participating are 21 School District 42 locations, including:
• Kanaka Creek Elementary
• Blue Mountain Elementary
• Yennadon Elementary
• Pitt Meadows Elementary
• Garibaldi Secondary School
• Samuel Robertson Technical Secondary
• Golden Ears Elementary
• Alexander Robinson Elementary
• Fairview Elementary
• Albion Elementary
• c’usqunela Elementary
• Highland Park Elementary
• Maple Ridge Elementary School
• Hammond Elementary
• Pitt Meadows Secondary
• Davie Jones Elementary
• Westview Secondary School
• Maple Ridge Secondary
• Harry Hooge Elementary
• Alouette Elementary School
• Laity View Elementary
The next opportunity to see the Maple Ridge councillor candidates gathered together before the Oct. 15 election is on Thursday, Oct. 13 at the Whonnock Lake Centre from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
READ MORE: Two more chances to hear candidates speak publicly before Oct. 15 vote
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