Green teen Kate O’Connor seeks to make history as B.C.’s youngest MLA

Kate O’Connor isn’t old enough to vote yet, but she wants to earn yours.

The BC Green candidate for Saanich South will turn 18 just two weeks before the election, and if she’s able to unseat incumbent and former agriculture minister Lanha Popham she’ll become the youngest MLA ever elected to the B.C. legislature.

“I represent a generation that’s tired of having our voices ignored. Now we’re standing up and demanding that our future is protected,” O’Connor told Global News on Friday.

The recent grad’s political experience is so far limited to founding a politics club at her high school and a few as a part of party chief Sonia Furstenau’s leadership team.

But the teen argues that gives her advantages her opponents lack: urgency, fresh perspectives and a chance to bring inter-generational representation to the legislature.

The youngest MLA in the legislature at dissolution was 35.

“Which means no one under 35 has a say in the future of this province,” said O’Connor. “That’s ridiculous and that’s part of the reason I decided to run.”

O’Connor isn’t the only teen competing in the election.

The Greens have nominated 18-year-old Adam Bremner Akins in Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, while the NDP have nominated at least two teens: Jaeden Dela Torre, 19, in Richmond North Centre and Justin Kulik, 19, in Kelowna-Lake Country.

Adriana Thom, the current premier of the B.C. Youth Parliament, says that young people deserve a bigger say in politics.

“I think there’s kind of a stereotype that young people are apathetic or disinterested, but I think there is such a strong interest in politics,” she said.

“People are pretty quick to dismiss young people and young voices in all fields. Just because we might not have the same number of years doesn’t mean we don’t have an opinion and we don’t have a view.

B.C. has elected young MLAs before. In 2001, Karn Mahhas made history as the youngest-ever representative elected to B.C.’s riding, winning in the old Port Coquitlam-Burke Mountain riding. The NDP’s Spencer Chandra-Herbert was 27 when he was first elected in Vancouver-West End in a 2008 byelection.

O’Connor’s main campaign issue is climate change, but she argues the file is intertwined with other key priorities such as Indigenous rights, food security and mental health.

While today’s youth have the most at stake in the climate issue, she argued that it remains something that affects all voters.

“It’s a message that appeals to everyone and its a message everyone can understand. Grandparents are worried about their grandchildren, parents are worried about their kids, youth are worried about their future.”

While O’Connor is looking to make history, she’ll have her work cut out for her. Popham won the riding in 2017 with 42 per cent of the vote, while the Greens came a distant third.

This year, the BC Liberals have nominated Rishi Sharma, a project manager for construction workforce equity project the Builder’s Code.

The B.C. election is Oc.t 24.

— With files from Nadia Stewart

2:07 Decision BC election debate set for October 13