THUNDER BAY – A virtual town hall promoting the concerns of Thunder Bay-area youth drew a who’s-who of local political leaders earlier this week. The politicians faced questions on racial justice, climate change, and mental health from a number of young participants.
Organizers with the Future Majority town hall, broadcast over Zoom and Facebook Live Thursday evening, told leaders youth want to see the country emerge as a more just, healthier “Canada 2.0” from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizer Shaius Marshall pointed to the growing impact younger voters are expected to have in upcoming elections, saying for the first time, millennials and members of generation Z had the potential to form the largest voting bloc by age.
The event saw participation from MPs Patty Hajdu and Michael Powlowski, MPPs Michael Gravelle and Judith Monteith-Farrell, and Mayor Bill Mauro.
Riley Fredrickson, a Future Majority volunteer, kicked off the night’s questions speaking about the importance of normalizing public conversations on mental health.
“Mental health has long been a taboo subject in our society, but we’re actively looking to change that by speaking openly about it,” she said. “The simple act of talking about the subject is a huge step in the right direction.”
MPP Michael Gravelle came in for praise from his colleagues for speaking openly in the past about his own mental health challenges, while MP Patty Hajdu said she'd frequently used supportive services in her journey as a single mother – adding Canadians she speaks with are increasingly eager to discuss issues of mental health and substance abuse.
Fredrickson asked the leaders whether they supported universal mental health care.
“Absolutely,” Hajdu responded, while arguing Canada already has a universal system of sorts – some services, like treatment from a psychiatrist or general practitioner, and crisis mental health services in hospital, are covered. But it’s a system riddled with gaps, she acknowledged.
“Mental health services are universally covered,” she said. “The problem is they’re sparse, difficult to access, not equitable across the country, and depending on what types of services you’re looking for, they may not be in existence at all.”
Powlowski likewise said he supported expanding mental health services, while tacitly acknowledging the existing system’s inadequacy.
“We do have [universal mental health care], supposedly,” he said. “[Mental health] is part of the WHO definition of health care, and there ought to be adequate mental health services.”
Monteith-Farrell said it was good to see greater public discourse around the issue, but rhetoric from those in government needed to be matched with action – specifically, a loosening of purse strings.
“We have the slogans now, but we don’t really have the resources behind it to make sure those programs are in place,” she said.
Those in the north faced particularly acute challenges like long wait times, she added, or having to send children thousands of kilometres away for treatment.
Mauro cited a major initiative supported by the city, a proposed mental health and addictions crisis centre – an idea championed by a network of regional service agencies.
The mayor is hopeful the province will step up with funding for the initiative.
Future Majority volunteer Kelsey Agnew addressed racial justice, a topic she said defined Thunder Bay to the rest of Canada.
“We’re a small, isolated city much of Canada hasn’t even heard of,” she said. “However, we’ve received a lot of media attention and gained notoriety not for our amazing outdoor recreation opportunities, but for our culture of racism.”
Agnew shared an anecdote about witnessing a shop keeper attack a group of Indigenous people, saying it was an extreme example of the racism Indigenous people face every day. She asked the mayor what the city could do to make local businesses aware of ways in which they marginalize people of colour and Indigenous people.
In answer, Mauro pointed to the Wake the Giant initiative, of which he said the city had been an early supporter.
“There are hundreds of businesses in Thunder Bay that now have in their window the Wake the Giant sticker, which expresses to the Indigenous population, we are welcoming of you,” he said. “There are a lot of people trying to do good work in the city, but it’s difficult for that good news to find its way to the surface, where the bad news tends to dominate – certainly on a national level.”
Monteith-Farrell expressed frustration that the current provincial government didn’t seem ready to take the issue of systemic racism seriously, adding that many people were still struggling to understand and acknowledge that racism infects our institutions. True change would come about only through a large amount of public pressure, she warned.
The Ford government came under fire from all directions during a segment on climate change. Moves to cancel green energy projects and roll back the previous cap-and-trade program were criticized by numerous politicians.
Despite polls showing Canadians are increasingly concerned about climate change, the political leaders said strong climate action remains a drag at the ballot box.
Mauro took pride in the green policies passed by the provincial Liberals in his time as an MPP and minister, but argued they’d hurt the party’s prospects.
“We showed incredible leadership on it, at tremendous cost – because they were not popular policies,” he said. “Those policies hurt us greatly at the voting booth, but we plowed forward and did it anyway.”
For Hajdu, the pitched political battle over her government’s carbon price policy showed that major action on climate change was indeed an uphill battle.
“I will agree it’s going to take everybody demanding we do things differently,” she said. “I can’t believe what a heated conversation we had on the carbon tax – people got [it] back before they even spent it, and yet it was mobilized to be a weapon against us in the last election. This was in fact a very conservative measure to put a price on pollution.”
“It’s extremely heartbreaking as a politician to see how hard it is to push a ball forward,” she said.
That could change if more members of his generation show up to the polls, Adam Daniele closed the event by saying. He encouraged youth to get involved with the Future Majority group, which is supported by the David Suzuki Foundation and Environmental Defence Canada.
“We have the power to change the political landscape in Canada,” he said. “When our generation consistently shows up, speaks out, and votes for change, then all politicians will have to reflect our priorities.”
