(Supplied)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

red deer-mountain view

Meet the candidate: Logan Garbanewski, New Democratic Party

Oct 12, 2019 | 2:00 PM

Logan Garbanewski is only 21. And while he fully admits he has an enormous mountain to climb in Red Deer-Mountain View on election day, he’s still confident he can make a difference.

“I’m just out here trying to do my best. But I’m probably not going to win this election here, let’s be honest,” the second-year RDC education student remarks.

“Maybe I can get people talking about some progressive ideas so the next time around I’ll have a better chance.”

Garbanewski, who moved to Red Deer about a year ago, says expanding health care and ensuring services are available to all Canadians are two of the most important issues for him.

“We would do our best to fund and support access to mental health care so people aren’t waiting two weeks at at a time just to see a counsellor. Especially as a student, we’re always under stress, particularly with the crippling debt hanging over our heads just to get a degree and a good job,” he says.

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“We’d like to stop taking interest on student loans, and eventually make post-secondary part of the public education system, so there are no barriers from kindergarten to career.”

Garbanewski also touches on tackling rural crime at its source, increasing social services, and finding more options to engage youth in healthy activities.

“It’s exciting that the younger generation, myself included, finally has an opportunity to steer this ship where we feel like it needs to go instead of just watching the world pass us by,” he says of a recent report which shows millennials will comprise the largest voting bloc for the first time.

“I’m pretty hopeful that a lot of the youth and millennials especially have a lot of the same progressive ideals that I do.”

While not quite a millennial at 40 years of age, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, Garbanewski feels, has been striking the right chord with many Canadians, youth included, after a recent run-in with a man in Quebec who told him he’d do better if he removed his turban.

“A week before that happened, I was at the Red Deer Market when a gentleman came up to me, told me he was a supporter of the NDP, but that he believes for Jagmeet to win, he needs to take off his turban,” he recalls. “I didn’t know how to respond to that. When I saw Jagmeet’s response, it was inspiring and showed me how to respond if I’m ever facing that again.”

Garbanewski notes that he is Métis and openly bisexual, facts he says have nothing to do with his credentials but offer representation to demographics that don’t always get any.