Trudeaumania hit Prince George Thursday, as Justin Trudeau made a visit to UNBC to garner support for his Liberal leadership bid.
Delighted squeals from excited co-eds who posed for pictures with the politician echoed through the university's student centre following a half-hour speech and question-and-answer session Wednesday morning.
One of the most well-known candidates in the field of nine vying to lead the federal Liberal party, Trudeau took the opportunity to lay out a youth-centric message to the more than 100 people gathered in the event space.
"So the fact that this generation doesn't pay much attention to politics - doesn't vote any greater than 30, 35 per cent when our seniors turn out to about 80 per cent - for me is never a reflection of this generation but a condemnation of the way politics is done," said the Montreal MP.
The culture of division, political posturing and empty promises is something Trudeau said he would work to change as Liberal party leader.
One of the ways he would do that is to push his party's endorsement of changing to a preferential ballot during general elections, allowing voters to rank their choices.
By forcing parties and candidates to have to reach out to people who don't traditional support them, it will change the tone in politics, according to Trudeau.
"You have to be their second choice and that can value people's voices and will make a huge difference in the extreme partisanship that we're going through right now without requiring any massive upheaval to our structures around elections and democracy," he said.
The Liberal leadership race will be decided at the party convention April 14.
Republished from the Prince George Citizen
