Lesson 22 — Activity 1:

Political Party Agenda

What issues do you think are important in your community? What issues do you think are important in the province of Alberta? What issues do you think are important to Canadians? These are things that you should think about before you vote.

So why is voting important, and how can your one vote make a difference? Voting chooses the leaders of your community, your province, and your country, and it is important to vote for someone who shares your views. The simple act of marking a ballot tells our leaders what we think about decisions that affect our lives, such as how much taxation we think is fair or what issues (such as health care or the environment) we think are most important. By agreeing or disagreeing with our leaders, we show that the political system can accept differing points of view and can resolve them.

@pexels

There are three main elections that you should take part in. They are the municipal, provincial, and federal elections. You learned about each of these three types of governments in the first theme in this course. In order to make educated political decisions, you need to learn as much as you can about important political issues.

@creativecommons

In each election, you vote for a person (or their party) who will represent you and, hopefully, the issues that are important to you. For example, when it comes time to vote in a provincial election, most Albertans will have watched the election coverage, and they will know which party will best represent them. It may be that they would like to see something done about the environment, the education system, or the health care system. However, if there are issues that are important to you, it is crucial that you learn about the party's agenda or platform before you cast your ballot. You will learn more about how you can find out about the different parties and what they stand for in the next activities.

Self-check!