Nineteen-year-old Morgan Baskin is running for mayor because she believes that young people need to build a future for Toronto — or there won’t be one.
Baskin spoke at Ryerson last Wednesday in a Q-and-A event organized by the Ryerson Students’ Union and the Mobilizing Active Political Students (MAPS).
The mayoral candidate said she does campus events to “make a direct connection” between the lives of young people and city politics. Baskin says young people aren’t apathetic, and they should be included in conversations about Toronto, not simply mentioned.
Baskin said it’s not that young people don’t care about politics, rather that, “electoral politics don’t show care for young people, so young people don’t show care for it.”
Being a teenager without a political background is what makes Baskin the ideal candidate, she said, because she comes without bias and without political baggage. She said she’s operating on pure passion.
Baskin wants to improve the environment by supporting organizations already working to do so. Youth unemployment is another focus of her campaign. She says that it will be the present generation’s children who will be affected by decisions politicians make today.
TTC upgrades, for example, will benefit youth going into the future, Baskin said, so why isn’t anyone talking to them about it? She stressed that the youth of Toronto need to be involved in such discussions.
“We’re the ones who are going to be paying for these changes,” she said.
“It’s not really an option. I feel like if I want a future, I need to help build it.”
By Keiandra Watkins and Beth Bowers
This story was first published in The Ryersonian, a weekly newspaper produced by the Ryerson School of Journalism, on Sept. 24, 2014.
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