Young Liberals of Canada

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Young Liberals of Canada

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Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion with Young Liberals on Parliament Hill

The Young Liberals of Canada (YLC) is the national youth wing of the Liberal Party of Canada.. All members of the Liberal Party, who are aged 25 and under, are members of the Commission of the Young Liberals. The Young Liberals of Canada are the largest political youth organization in Canada. It has been estimated that the YLC has nearly 60,000-80,000 members at various periods, and has a presence in nearly all of Canada?s 308 ridings. The current President of the YLC is Cory Pike.

Policy
Post Secondary Clubs
Relationship To The Party
Recent Campaigns
International
See also
External links

Policy

In many policy areas, the Young Liberals has been more progressive than the party as a whole, taking a pro-same sex marriage position as early as 1994. The Long-Term Commitment to Africa Policy, the Commitment to the Kyoto Accord Policy, the Protection of Sex Trade Workers Policy , Canada Post-Secondary Education Transfer Policy, and the Same-Sex Marriage Rights Policy planks of the Liberal Party of Canada all originated as YLC policy. At the most recent Liberal convention, policies espoused by the YLC include a commitment to a activist foreign policy, focusing on conflict resolution and the promotion of peacekeeping, combating global poverty, the creation of an international convention regulating the global trade in small arms and light weapons and munitions, a commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and promotion of low emissions vehicles, the implementation of a refugee appeal board, the Legalization of Marijuana, the creation of a Ministry of Post-Secondary Education, the elimination of post-secondary tuition fees for second official language courses, promoting and protecting safe-injection sites, and the creation of a National Volunteer and Work Experience Program. The 2005 decision of the Paul Martin Liberal government to not enter into the American missile defence program was in part credited to opposition in the Young Liberals to the program.

Post Secondary Clubs

The Young Liberals of Canada have dozens of Post-Secondary Institution Young Liberal clubs throughout the country. Post-secondary school clubs are organized and run by provincial or territorial organizations and must be accredited by the National Executive of the YLC. Each accredited club may send delegates, with voting rights, to provincial, territorial, and/or national conventions and conferences for both the YLC and the Liberal Party of Canada.

Relationship To The Party

The Commission of the Young Liberal of Canada, therefore, promotes the perspectives, policies, and ideas of Liberal members who have not yet celebrated their 26th birthday. It is not a separate entity from the Liberal Party, but is rather a part of it. The YLC mirrors the structure of the Liberal Party of Canada. There are Provincial and Territorial Organizations, which administer themselves according to their own bylaws. There is also a National Executive that runs the affairs of the entire YLC. The organization binds together provincial and territorial Liberal Youth organizations. The YLC does not always agree with the Liberal Party of Canada. In fact, the YLC often pushes the larger membership of the Liberal Party to adopt new policies that may be viewed as too radical or challenging. In order for the YLC to promote and push a policy for the entire Liberal Party to adopt, it must be an official YLC policy, properly adopted at a Policy Convention. Therefore, The YLC and Liberal Party of Canada often do not agree, or have not passed the same resolutions, at any given time.

Recent Campaigns

The Young Liberals of Canada, in response to Conservative TV and radio attack ads, ran the Hi.im.a.liberal.ca internet video campaign, a spoof of the Mac/PC ads, which garnered media attention for its novelty, as well as the Red Revolution campaign, focusing on the ?taking Canada back? by improving youth involvement in politics and the Liberal Party. The Young Liberal "Explain the Tape" event in downtown Ottawa gained national attention, being featured in national media such as CBC Newsworld and Macleans magazine. The Young Liberals are currently running the Go Green, Vote Red initiative, reaching out to environmentalist voters and promoting the Green Shift proposed by the party.