With over 81% of Canadians now living in urban centres, our major cities are the economic engines of this country.

With only a few weeks left in the 2015 Federal election, cities need to be front and centre as a defining part of this campaign.  We need to see major investments in infrastructure and social programs to continue to support cities as the major economic centres of 21st century Canada.

Hosted by Councillor Raymond Louie (who also serves as President of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities), Vision Vancouver invites you to an open town hall discussion on the importance of Federal investments in our city, and to share your thoughts on what we should continue to be advocating for from our federal government.

Joining Councillor Louie will be a panel of local youth, who will provide their perspectives on why these issues are not just important to them this election, but why these issues are important for the future they want to see for their city.

Guest panellists:

Tesicca Truong Tesicca Truong is a community builder and an engagement innovator. Her passions lie at the intersection of urban sustainability, civic engagement and youth empowerment. She brings a wealth of experience from her work on the Mayor’s Engaged City Task Force, chairing the Board of Sustainable SFU and launching the inaugural Vancouver School Board’s Sustainability Conference. For her work, she has been awarded Vancouver’s Greenest City Leadership Award of Excellence. She is currently working at the Game Changers Campaign with the Council of Canadians to get more youth voting this election and planning SFU Public Square’s fourth annual community summit, We the City!

Jude Crasta is Vice-President, External Affairs of the AMS Student Society of UBC Vancouver. In addition to being a fifth year student in the Faculty of Science at UBC, he serves to represent the 52,000 students at the University’s Vancouver campus on wide ranging issues like transit and transportation, post-secondary affordability and access, affordable housing, inter-university relations, government advocacy, civic engagement, etc. Jude currently heads the AMS’s Federal Elections Youth Voter Engagement campaign entitled “Champion the Vote” out of his office and has spent much of his career in student representation working to get youth more involved in the civic process. This year, his aim is to expand the focus of local issues nationally and globally by working with student representatives from across Canada, and the planet, on matters of similar concern.

Katelyn McDougall is completing a Master degree in Urban Studies at Simon Fraser University. Her academic research focuses on issues of transportation financing and governance in Metro Vancouver.Outside of school Katelyn works with municipalities and non-profit organizations managing research projects and community engagement initiatives. She is currently working on Active School Travel Planning in the City of Vancouver and the City of Richmond.