UBC student Kyle Warwick, Liberal candidate for Skeena-Bulkley Valley. (Photo by Geoff Lister/The Ubyssey)

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VANCOUVER (CUP) — Three young Liberals at the University of British Columbia will have more on their plates this April than studying for finals.

Students Kyle Warwick, Sangeeta Lalli and Stewart McGillivray will be running in the Liberal ridings both close to and far from home — Warwick in Skeena-Bulkley Valley, Lalli in Cariboo-Prince George and McGillivray in Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam.

The Liberals finished a distant third in all three ridings in 2008.

All three received word they had received the party’s nomination earlier this month. For Warwick, the news came as a bit of a surprise.

“I heard there was the opportunity, so I approached people and I was told that this was a riding where there might be an opportunity. After some time I was told I was a candidate. So I don’t really know what the whole process is,” he said.

Warwick, a political science student and long-time students’ union councillor at UBC, has been volunteering for the Liberals since he was 15 and has been a card-carrying member since 19.

“[Running as a candidate] seemed like an extension of some of the things I’ve already done,” said Warwick. “I’ve always believed in the values of the Liberal party so this seemed like a way to help that.”

He faces a tough race; in 2008, only 5.5 per cent of the riding’s 34,000 voters turned out in support of the Liberals. NDP candidate Nathan Cullen has held the riding since 2004.

Warwick has also never resided in the riding, which encompasses a large portion of B.C.’s northwestern territory, and will only be able to begin on-the-ground campaigning on April 20 when his exams finish.

“I’ve done a lot of reading about the key issues there, but I shouldn’t overstate it in any way. I still have a lot to learn still.”

While Warwick was the first UBC student nominated, two more joined him this week.

Lalli, a 21-year-old political science student, was nominated on April 5, while McGillivray, a second-year student and the head of UBC’s Young Liberals, was nominated April 6. Both declined comment for this story.

Lalli will be hoping to unseat veteran Conservative MP Dick Harris in Cariboo-Prince George. Harris has represented the traditionally Conservative riding since 1993.

But she’ll also be running against a very similar candidate to herself. Jon Van Barneveld is a 22-year-old University of Northern British Columbia student who is running for the NDP and a protégé of Cullen, the MP holding the seat Warwick is going after.

“I have seven years of political experience behind me. I worked for Cullen on all of his campaigns [and] the HST initiative, single transferrable vote referendums as well as local riding associations and campus clubs at UNBC,” said Van Barneveld. “And so I don’t feel by being a youth I’m inexperienced.”

Unlike Warwick and Lalli, Van Barneveld has lived in his riding, which UNBC is a part of. He said the response to his candidacy has been very positive.

“New Democrats have always been really supportive of their youth candidates, more so than most parties,” he said. “And I think even from the public media we’ve been getting really good reception from them.”

He argued that while his youth gives him a fresh perspective on the issues, he is well acquainted with problems in Northern B.C.

“The north has been economically depressed for the last 15 years. Most of the recession has happened in the last two years, but the north has been living in it for [much longer],” he said, adding that his background in the resource sectors gives him a heightened understanding.

While Van Barneveld said he was glad to see more young people such as Warwick and Lalli running for office, he was critical of how the Liberals chose their candidates.

“It’s good to see more youth coming out of the woodworks, but I have a sneaking feeling that lots of these Liberal candidates are thrown into the mix just so that they can say they ran a full set of candidates,” he said.

Warwick, however, said he plans on putting up a fight.

“I think that people will see that I’m not here to tell them that I know what’s best, but I’m here to listen to what their concerns are and I’m going to put in as much of a campaign as I can.”

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