With the 2019 federal election happening on October 21, we want to take this opportunity to speak to you about why this is such a significant event, and why your voice matters.
UBC embraces its responsibility to nurture civic engagement across our community and to strive to make a better world from the local to the global level. Universities are not “ivory towers” isolated from the world and its problems. We live, work and engage in our communities and we have a shared investment in our future.
UBC aims to be a model public institution, fostering discourse, knowledge exchange, and engagement. This requires that we work to foster discourse within and beyond our community on the important questions of our time; promote the power of ideas, knowledge, and evidence; reinforce the importance of civic participation; and stand up for the values of a free and democratic society.
As many of you know, between now and October 21, there is one concrete and important action all eligible members of the UBC community can take to contribute to civic engagement in Canada and strengthen our system of representative democracy: vote in the federal election!
During this time, Canadians from coast to coast to coast will collectively choose a direction for our country. If you haven’t voted already, we encourage you to take part.
To our students in particular, there are those who view Canada’s young people as disengaged from politics and do not vote. Now is the time to prove them wrong and to define the future yourselves.
Voting is easier and quicker than you may think. For more on when, where and how to vote, visit UBC’s page on Voting in the 2019 Federal Election.
Don’t let others speak for you. Engage in the democratic process, educate yourself, and have your say!
Santa J. Ono
President and Vice-Chancellor
Ainsley Carry
Vice-President, Students