Are the Liberals Losing This Generation?

I'm coming to the realiztion that this Liberal leadership race is probably about the most important in the history of the party.

A heavy statement, I know, but here's something even weightier :

This leader will decide whether the Liberal Party lives on past the next 5-10 years, or whether it fades into obscurity.

The reason I say these things is that I don't see anyone in this generation really grabbing onto them as an opposing force to the right wing, which is galvanized behind one party, as opposed to left, which is fragmented among three. The salvation of young people right now, whether they actually vote or not, seems to lie with the NDP, or to a lesser extent, the Greens.

Everyone I spoke to, and almost everything I read over the course of the campaign from those under 30 seemed to be pulling for Jack and the orange crew, followed by May and the Greens. Dion and the Grits as a whole were almost nowhere to be found.

The next leader will have to be somewhat generational, someone able to bridge the gap between old and young as Martin Cauchon promised to be when he bandied around throwing his name into the ring, as they will need to stem the tide of under-30s over to the other two left-wing parties, or the left will simple get more fragmented as younger folk mark their ballots for the NDP and Greens and older left-leaners continuing marking theirs Grit.

We need to pull the left together if we ever hope to be in government again, and a generational fragmentation is the complete opposite direction of that.

Now, while I think age is a concern this time, as no other really has been, it doesn't disqualify in any way those that are somewhat advanced in that category, such as Rae, Ignatieff or McKenna. Experience does not equal an inability to reach out to the youth. It may make it harder, but all that really matters is the substance of your words and actions, not what year it says on a birth certificate.

There needs to be a significant youth outreach, aside from the Young Liberals or any other group already existing. This needs to be a central plank of not just the party, but of the leadership contest itself as well.

We are going to be witnessing a pseudo-election campaign over the next 6 months, and there needs to be a heavy emphasis on pulling youth into the process. An e-campaign, if you will.

Look at Barack Obama. The man has pulled in millions, hundreds of millions in fact, due to his advanced web presence. That presence, along with his 3 million-plus email list, are one of the many reasons why he won the primary and is now pulling away with the general election.

Elections have largely been taken to the 'net, and away from the more traditional sources such as TV, Radio and mailers.

The beauty of the e-campaign too is that it is largely cost-free. Things like Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, etc, cost little to nothing, and make a significant impact on the younger people of this country, as we are all over these services pretty much every day.

Fundraising is also a big concern for the Liberals after being dominated by the Tories, and the e-campaign takes care of that in two ways. As I said above, it's relatively cheap so this kind of outreach won't hurt the overall bottom line that much, if at all, and also, they can raise money online, through the grassroots, while getting them connected and into the party and its leaders.

There is no drawback to a heavy Internet presence, and only leaps and bounds to gain.

People that already identify as Liberals and are not web-savvy are not going to be affected, as they'll likely keep on the same news sources they have their entire lives, which are those traditional ones that Liberals already market to.

Basically, the gist of this argument is pulling the Liberals into the 21st century, and making them seem like they actually can empathize with the issues of the youth voters in this country.

Sure, people in my demo don't vote as much as they should, but that's not a permanent problem, and it is something that is easily fixable. The youth vote is powerful, and if a party can actually go out there and harvest those immense numbers, we are looking at a redesign of the electoral maps from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

It is not simply the 'net though, as there needs to be campus outreaches, people at concerts handing out flyers and buttons, and other activities of the like to get those under-30s thinking about the future of their country, where it is headed, and instilling the belief that they can play a role in that future too, because up until now, I don't think people really have felt all that included in the process.

This whole youth-based outreach business obviously needs to be in tandem with actual policies that help people get in school, get jobs, and lead our country forward, especially as Baby Boomers are moving into their sunset years, and we will all need to pick up that slack left behind in their wake.

The under-30s are going to be the engine of the economy very soon, and if we lose them to the Conservatives, we'll be shut out of power for decades.