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Concordians in Politics

Pictured left to right: Sam Miriello, Fabiola Ngamaleu Teumeni

 

As the federal and city elections draw near many current and past Concordians are finding their voice

With the 2021 federal election well under way, a number of current and former Concordians are taking their first steps into the political spotlight. This year Concordia has produced candidates in a variety of positions and parties. Some have joined the NDP, or the Liberal and Conservative parties, while others are involved in municipal politics running for city council here in Montreal.

 

Samuel Miriello graduated from Concordia in 2021. He’s worked in PR for the past five years but recently became involved with Mouvement Montréal. The party was founded in 2021 and is placing a large focus on community action and getting people involved in political decisions. Miriello had been involved in politics at Concordia when he was CSU councillor, but this is his first time running in a government election. “As a Concordia student there is a lot of opportunity to get involved in politics.”

Miriello is running in the Ville-Marie, Sainte-Marie riding which puts him in direct competition with Montreal’s current mayor Valérie Plante.

“I really like being in competition with Plante … I want to see her held responsible for some of the things that she’s done.”  Miriello says.

Going to Concordia has certainly shaped Miriello’s views and involvement in politics. “Part of that is there is such an activist community here, we played an essential role in the 2012 student strikes, we have a history of becoming involved in national and international issues. Like in 2002 when we protested a visit from the Israeli prime minister.”

Miriello says it has been really inspiring to see students come together. Working in politics isn’t something he always imagined he would be doing though. “I was actually kind of against politics for a while but then I realized … we can also progress and participate in reform, while advocating for systemic change.”

His current campaign places a lot of focus on community involvement by creating a community action plan and creating a clear outline of exactly what students want. He also wants to focus on reducing rent costs and improving community gardens.

Regardless of the result of the election Miriello will continue to be involved in his community.

“Voting every four years is not how you make progress; you have to continue the pressure the entire time. If I were to be elected or not elected, I will continue to apply pressure on the government.  But it would be more ideal if I was in the government, facilitating that pressure. 

 

At just 20 years old, Fabiola Ngamaleu Teumeni has an impressive resume. After being confirmed as the NDP’s nominee for the Dorval—Lachine—LaSalle riding on June 14 she has likely spent more time campaigning than she has at Concordia. A first year student in Concordia’s psychology program, an immigrant and proud Quebecer, Ngamaleu Teumeni is excited to make a change in her community.

“I’ve been very, very involved in community engagement and civic engagement in my riding, but also in Montreal and in Quebec. I think that it’s very important to be an active member of our society, and to contribute to it in order to make it better. So that’s sort of one of the reasons why I wanted to get into politics at such an early time,” she said.

As a young woman engaged in her community Ngamaleu Teumeni had never met her riding MP and never seen her at any events. “I thought that was very odd because she’s representing us in Parliament, and she’s voting on issues that touch us and she wasn’t always voting in line with what the constituents want.”

Its the NDP’s policies on the environmental and social justice issues that first drew her to the party.

“I feel as though there’s a very huge lack of representation when it comes to young Black women.” she said.

“We’re present in the society. Minorities are here and minorities need to be heard. I’ve decided to do this in the name of representation so that we can have more folks in Parliament that are speaking for visible minorities.”

When it comes to inspiration, Ngamaleu Teumeni doesn’t have to look further than her own parents.

Ngamaleu Teumeni moved to Quebec from Germany with her family at 4 years old, her family is originally from Cameroon. Her parents both went back to school while raising her and her brother, after first moving to Quebec. “The fact that I can say today that because of them, because of everything that they’ve given me I’m able to run for a federal election and even have a possible chance to win. That’s really great, and I’m very grateful for that.”

Some issues that Ngamaleu Teumeni has focused on during her campaign are controlling housing prices, making public transport cheaper and more accessible, and providing greater protection for the environment as well as creating greenspaces.

Ngamaleu Teumeni has been able to communicate more with her community through this campaign, something which she loves.

“Being able to present resolutions and solutions to those folks, has been a very big highlight.” she said.

Mathew Kaminski completed his undergraduate degree with a bachelor of commerce and is now working on his CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant) diploma as a graduate student at Concordia. He is currently a Conservative MP candidate in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount riding.

At 23 years old, Kaminski has been involved in politics for a long time. During his undergraduate studies he represented the JMSB faculty in the CSU. He was also the president of Conservative Concordia.

“I’ve been involved the whole way through since I was 17 and it took me years to develop the knowledge and the confidence to be able to run federally.”

Kaminski’s time in university made a huge impact on shaping his political aspirations.

“Concordia shaped me the most in terms of politics, in really recognizing the social issues that are relevant to students,” he said. “and what solutions are needed.”

“One of my first meetings I ever had with the CSU, they acknowledged that we were seated on Indigenous lands. And that really stood out to me.”

Indigenous affairs are something that remain important to Kaminski as one of the main highlights of his campaign, as he hopes to restore some Indigenous faith in the government.

Another issue Kaminski is passionate about is climate change. “Concordia also made me recognize how much that’s an issue, not only for our generation, but for generations to come.”

While he admits the Conservative climate change plan did not receive the best grade he thinks it will be more effective than the Liberals’.

“What we did is we released a plan that we know we can achieve that will actually have a tangible impact on the environment.”

As he continues his studies while beginning his journey into politics, he is up against some stiff competition — NDG-Westmount has long been a Liberal riding. But this does not seem to have shaken Kaminski’s confidence.

“My mentality has been that I will be an MP one day, I am not going to shy away from that. I will work hard, even if I have to run three, four times and chip away slowly at the support in the riding, I will become an MP. As a childhood dream of mine, it was always to become prime minister of Canada, and so although I’m still very far away from that goal, at least it’s one step forward.”

Chelsea Craig graduated from Concordia in 2016 with a bachelor’s in political science and government, and at 29 years old she is a co-campaign manager for Liberal MP and Mount

Royal candidate Anthony Housefather, who is running for re-election.

A visit from Justin Trudeau to Concordia is a big part of what spurred Craig’s interest in politics

“Ever since then I became very involved with the party. I was the president of the Liberal Concordia during the 2015 campaign … Once I found a way to be involved in partisan politics I found that it was really something that was super enriching and I’ve made a lot of friends and it just is something that always gives me a new challenge.”

The life of a campaign manager can be unpredictable one. Every day is something different. Sometimes Craig is going door to door, or working on the vote strategy, or managing volunteers.

Like many other alumni involved in politics, Concordia played a huge role in Craig’s political development.

“I honestly have nothing but positive things to say about Concordia. I feel like Concordia allowed me to network. Concordia introduced me to the Liberal Party and through Concordia I really got to springboard my career,” Craig said.

The thing that drew her most to the Liberal Party was the official languages.

“I think the Liberal Party has the best ideas on ensuring whether it’d be the francophone minority outside of Quebec or the English-speaking minority inside of Quebec that they keep their rights and that we work with those communities, to see exactly what is needed and how we can better ourselves.”

Politics are an important issue to Craig and something that she wants everyone to embrace.

“There’s a space for everyone in politics. Sometimes I hear people being cynical about it and saying ‘Oh, it’s never going to make a difference’ or ‘You go out and vote and then nobody cares anymore’ and that’s just really not true. There’s so many different ways that you can voice those issues and we are so lucky to live in a country that asks for our opinion.”

While these are not all the candidates or politically involved people Concordia has produced in current or past elections,  it is certain that they will not be the last, as we continue to foster individuals ready to make a difference.

 

Feature photograph by Catherine Reynolds

Photography courtesy of Mathew Kaminski

Photography courtesy of Chelsea Craig

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Opinions

The mighty emperor wears no clothes

Why the media focuses more on Trudeau’s image rather than politics

In the eyes of the international media, Canada has always been considered America’s dorky, progressive neighbour to the north and relegated to obscurity as a result. The image of a barren cultural wasteland, populated by hockey enthusiasts drinking Molson has dominated Canada’s foreign reputation.

Until 2015, that is. Canada went through a complete cultural makeover. Suddenly, Canadian musicians were everywhere. Artists like The Weeknd, Drake and Justin Bieber released new music and dominated the Billboard charts, pleasing their legions of loyal fans. Quebec-based director Xavier Dolan emerged as new icon in the film industry, winning the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival as well as directing Adele’s spectacular Hello video.

The height of this phenomenon came with the election of Justin Trudeau in October, 2015. The young, good-looking, progressive prime minister was the antithesis of the arduous Harper Decade and breathed a sense of life and excitement into Canadian politics. Something that has not been seen since the election of his father into office some 47 years prior.

The Guardian newspaper in the UK even dubbed this moment in time as Canada’s very own “cool Britannia,” harping back to the “British Invasion” of the 1960s. By some anomaly, for once when the word ‘cool’ was used to describe Canada, it was not in reference to its climate.

Photo by Andrej Ivanov.
With the international media fawning over our sparkling new hunky PM, or ‘PMILF’ (Prime Minister I’d Like to Fuck) as he has been dubbed by social media, national media soon followed suit. According to a report by Quebec-based media monitoring firm Influence Communication, generally after a PM is elected in Canada, media coverage typically drops off. Harper’s fell off by 79 per cent and Brian Mulroney’s by 69 per cent one month after they won their election.

Since 2015 however, the coverage of Justin Trudeau in the national media has increased by 40 per cent, according to the same report. And, unlike his predecessors, the coverage has been overwhelmingly positive.

The reason for this increase in positive coverage is mainly due to “the [tabloid] magazine style reporting” of Justin Trudeau, said Jean-Francois Dumas, president of Influence Communication, as quoted in Maclean’s magazine.

Throughout Trudeau’s time in office, national news outlets including the The Toronto Star, Vice Canada, and La Presse have opted to publish an abundant amount of fluff pieces about the Prime Minister. His many summer shirtless sightings, photo-ops with pandas, and his luscious locks has reduced many of Canada’s most prestigious publications to the same level as menial celebrity gossip mags.

It would seem as though “Trudeaumania” part II has firmly rooted itself in Canadian media’s prime-ministerial commentary, baring resemblance to a communist state’s media coverage of their glorious leader.

Graphic by Thom Bell.

Many could argue that this harmless ‘fluff’ is exactly that, and I would tend to agree, so long as this ‘fluff’ does not inhibit the process of meaningful conversation in the media. Since his election, it seems as though the Trudeau administration has been covered with a cloak of invincibility and has been seemingly impervious to any scandal.

Take the 2016 “Three Amigos Summit” for example. It is the annual meeting of the heads of government of Canada, Mexico and the United States, which took place in Ottawa in June. The important issues discussed during this year’s summit included national security, human rights and the environment.

However, much of the coverage centered around a fan fiction-like narrative of the bromance between three relatively good looking leaders, with many articles—such as Vice—reporting on the awkward three-way handshake between the commanders. This is particularly shocking considering the fact that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto was accused of ordering the execution of eight peaceful protesting teachers’ union members and that Barack Obama had criticized Canada’s involvement in NATO, according to Reuters. Both of these issues did not receive a lot of coverage on a national level.

Canadian news outlets are severely failing their audiences. The job of the media is to be critical and journalists play a crucial role in the democratic process by holding politicians accountable and keeping them honest. Recently, however, it seems that news outlets are more concerned with sharing the latest shirtless Trudeau meme than offering a meaningful, in-depth analysis of this government’s policies and actions.

While we may all be enjoying Canada’s fleeting moment in the sun, it is my hope that we don’t wake up burned because of it.

Categories
Opinions

Second generation of Trudeaumania

This past week, Justin Trudeau announced he had changed his mind and would throw in his hat for the Liberal leadership race.

Hundreds of Liberal supporters leapt to their feet and cried, “Arise! For our time has come to vanquish our foes from of old! The reincarnated man lives in on in the image of his son!”

I clearly exaggerate, but the rhetoric often bandied about by Liberal supporters of the young Trudeau is often sweeter and more dangerous than high-fructose corn syrup, and I say this as a Liberal member myself.

Don’t get me wrong; Trudeau is an exemplary Canadian. His work with Katimavik, a registered charity that educates Canadian youth through volunteer work, is indicative of that. He chaired the program from 2002 to 2006. Then add his work with relief efforts in Haiti in 2010, his previous work with Canada Reads, and you’ve got an exemplary citizen.

But does that make a great leader? Potentially, a great prime minister?

The biggest issue with Trudeau’s candidacy is his lack of a track record within the political realm.

“He studied this and that at university,” said writer Dan Gardner in a column for the Ottawa Citizen. “He spent a little time as a high-school teacher. He sat on the boards of various good causes, as those born with wealth and connections often do. He tried his hand at a various opportunities — acting in a miniseries, host of the Giller Prize — which were offered to him because he’s famous and nice to look at.”

And that’s the problem. Simply being famous and “nice to look at” does not equate to great leadership. This isn’t American Idol or a Twitter popularity contest. This is our country.

People seem to be overcome with a second-generation of Trudeaumania when speaking about Trudeau. However, the parallels between generations are limited the familial bond, and don’t actually mean anything more than that.

Former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau had experience prior to throwing his hat in the ring. He earned a law degree at the Université de Montréal, studied at both Harvard and the London School of Economics, and had a brief session at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris.

He also worked in the Privy Council Office of Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent and, later on, became minister of justice. All of these are indicative of a great education, intellectual policy-making, and leadership potential.

When Trudeau spoke, people cared because he did it with a vigor and charisma that could only have stemmed from knowledge, experience and passion. When his son speaks, the passion is present, but the message is meaningless, due to the overuse of cliches and lack of real experience.

The truth is that people want something to believe in. The economy is in dire straits; people are generally unhappy with Ottawa’s administration, and they want to see some radical change. At the end of the day, you need someone who can make tough decisions, not someone who will try to appease you with empty promises.

The truth is that the answer doesn’t lie in making Trudeau a leader. It comes with fundamentally changing the very essence of the Liberal party, to rediscover the policies that worked for them, the new policies that the future needs, and engaging voters of every age by finding the commonality that makes us proud to be Canadians.

Could Trudeau be the answer in a few years, if he took on more responsibilities than being the party’s critic for Post Secondary Education, Youth and Amateur Sport? Definitely. But the first priority for him should be to become a contender.

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