Youth UNB student wins a seat on Fredericton council

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FREDERICTON - Young people in Fredericton will have a voice on city council for the next four years.

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James West/canadaeast news service

Jordan Graham, a 21-year-old student at the University of New Brunswick, talks on his cellphone in front of Fredericton City Hall on Queen Street Tuesday afternoon. Graham won the Ward 11 seat with more than 50 per cent of the vote Monday.

Jordan Graham, a fourth-year University of New Brunswick student, won the Ward 11 seat during the municipal election with more than 50 per cent of the vote.

Graham, a political science and economics major, said he's in shock.

"I'm still on cloud nine," he said. "When I woke up this morning, I had to check to make sure it was all real."

Though Elections New Brunswick doesn't keep statistics on the age of candidates, at 21, Graham is believed to be one of the youngest elected officials in Fredericton's history.

Paul Howe, a professor of political science at UNB, said there's a general lack of representation and engagement of young people within politics.

"People don't look that often at the age distribution of elected people, but it does tend to be older people," he said. "The percentage of people between the ages of 25 and 35 in our elected bodies is much lower than the percentage they represent in the population."

Graham said young voters are apathetic because they don't feel as though they're being represented.

"I hope that students and young people, young families and young professionals, will be able to feel like they have a representative that's taking care of their needs," Graham said.

Howe said one way to encourage young people to vote is to have more young candidates run in elections.

"I think people are more likely to participate when they see themselves as being represented," he said.

The ward is a mix of students and long-term residents. Tension between the two groups is well-known. Over a weekend in September, police laid 50-60 liquor violation charges. There were more than 20 garbage fires in the College Hill area in 2007.

"This is about students on Graham Avenue. That may not be popular to say, but this is about students," Fredericton police Chief Barry MacKnight said in September.

Graham said that the first step towards a resolution is changing the dialogue.

"We have to adjust our rhetoric so it's not students versus long-term residents," he said. "The real solution is not segregating along superficial lines like that. We have people who want to belong in the community and we have people who are problems. We have to isolate those individuals and stop painting with broad strokes."

Graham said it was this approach, and a lot of hard work, that won him votes among young and old alike.

"I door-knocked every day for three full weeks"¦ We did some fundraising. We put a lot of work into our materials. We networked really strongly. I think that showed," he said.

Graham said that he tried to look older when canvassing, but it backfired.

"We had a few people who admitted they weren't going to come to the door because they thought we were religious marketers," he said. "We ended up dressing down and people still accepted it. I'm young, so I should embrace it really."

- with files from Candaeast News Service