How Layton attracted young votes: a former student reflects
Posted August 24, 2011 11:21 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – As Jack Layton lies in state on Parliament Hill, one of his supporters is reflecting on how he was able to attract young voters.
Matt Shepherd was a student at Ryerson University during the 1993 federal election. “One day, somebody came around soliciting votes for the NDP and I was kind of a jerk… I was 19 or 20-years-old and I decided to put the person on the spot and ask them a number of incredibly difficult questions about politics and finance.”
The NDP campaigner was stumped:
“He said hang on, I’ll go get Jack and a few minutes later there was a knock on my door and there’s Jack Layton,” says Shepherd. “He introduced himself and I asked him to sit down. I’m just a kid but he treated me as seriously as anyone else on the planet.”
After they chatted, Layton gave Shepherd a tea towel with his face on it, explaining he thought posters were wasteful so he wanted to give consituents something they would hold on to.
It worked. Shepherd voted NDP in that election and he’s voted NDP ever since.
He still has the tea towel.
