The Next Great Prime Minister of Canada
byIf you could nominate anyone, who would you want to lead our country? Earlier this year, CBC re-launched its contest to seek out and find, The Next Great Prime Minister.
According to Pat Zaph, local blogger, SFU student, profiled blogger, and contestant, the contest was created, “to generate interest in political participation among Canadian youth.”
He wanted to put his hat in the ring because he, “felt it important that the ideas of young Canadians actually be brought into the public eye.”
Pat’s explanation of the process: Entrants need to send in their video entry, participate in forum discussions, have an advocate send CBC a letter saying why they’d made a good PM, hold a community campaign event, and answer three video questions posted by the CBC.
If entrants complete all these challenges, semi finalists are selected through voting and judging. Semi finalists then go to Toronto for a ‘Boot Camp’ to see who has the best debating, speaking, and politicking abilities. Four finalists are chosen who will then be made to stand in front of a live broadcast and try to get the country to see it their way.
There’s more than experience and bragging rights up for grabs as the finalists will gain some pretty lucrative recognition. The winner will receive $50,000 and an internship, while the remaining finalists will each receive $5,000 and an internship. The winner will be announced March 16th, 2009 on a one-hour broadcast on CBC television.
The deadline to enter is November 15th and the deadline to respond to all three video questions is December 20, 2008. This year there is also a “Web Winner” that can be voted on by the public, buying the candidate a spot as a finalist. So far there are only eleven contestants, four of which are from BC (Coquitlam, Vancouver, and Lac La Hache).
Pat’s campaign seems to be going strong, and you can lend your support by signing up for his Facebook group.
Pat Zaph’s entry video
“This competition offered an excellent forum for the development of these ideas, and like any entrant, I feel as though my ideas are the right ones to lead the country forward,” Pat noted. “And if that fails, I can always sit around discussing politics while wearing a rad sweater vest.”
4 Comments — Comments Are Closed
Awesome! Thanks so much!
I wanted to be prime minister growing up.
This will be fun if he makes it through. My friend Omeasoo was a final four contestant the first year it was on and the internship was a great oppurtunity for her. I wish him the best!
This is a great idea. The low turn out last month definitely was due to the uninspiring choices for PM. All the contestants should really watch an Obama speech before they make their video though. Unfortunately all the best ideas in the world won’t get you elected (and definitely won’t lead to being considered “great”)if you can’t get people excited with a great speech. Hopefully we will hear a great one tonight from Obama.