Going to Ottawa with a message

Ottawa bound: Maggie Lovette, Caitlin Oliver, Will Horne. (Nick Pearce Photo)

More than 1,000 young people from across Canada are converging on Ottawa with a call for action on the environment.

Power Shift 2009, a youth summit on climate change, will take place from October 23 to 26 for the first time in Canada. The movement started in 2007 in the United States, and this year, Australia and the United Kingdom also held their first Power Shift summits, with thousands of young people attending.

Participants will spend their time training, listening to speeches, planning and lobbying on Parliament Hill.

“This is the most critical issue of our time,” says Will Horne, a Dalhousie music student and regional recruiter for Power Shift. “We have to put pressure on our government to take bold action on climate change.”

One of the goals at the conference will be to pressure the Canadian government—“an international laggard”—to stop sitting on its hands and follow through on commitments as the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen approaches. The conference is set for December.

Mr. Horne says he’s disappointed with the Canadian government’s inaction in the past and hopes Copenhagen will be a step forward in creating new plans and agreements.

“A lot of Canadians don’t realize just how poor of a reputation we have on the international front,” he says. “Copenhagen is a really big deal; (it) will determine where we’re going in terms of climate change for the next decade or so.”

Caitlin Oliver, another Dalhousie student planning to attend Power Shift, says the conference is also about raising awareness about climate change particularly among young people.

“A lot of people say, ‘oh, that’s terrible,’ but they don’t take the initiative. If you want change, you can’t be passive, you have to make a stand,” she says.

Power Shift should serve to remind the government that young people want change and are watching for initiative “(We want) to make an impression on the government that we are completely aware of how inactive they’ve been for the past decade and they need to change,” says Mr. Horne.

LINK: Power Shift