Maybe one reason why so many young people have not been engaged in politics much is that adults have wanted to protect them from what had become a rather hopeless and unproductive process. But maybe all that can change.

Briony Penn once said of this riding that it has a "peculiar ability to mimic future national political trends". If this assessment is correct, maybe we can allow ourselves to feel hopeful. Not really because a certain party has elected its first MP here, but because politics has become something we can wish for our children to be involved in. The night Briony conceded victory to Gary Lunn, she urged him to work towards a more civil parliament, respect for democracy and its institutions. When she stepped down from the stage at that Conservative victory party, a woman who was friends with her parents came up to her, to tell her that her parents would have been proud of her that night.

Almost three years later we did something in this riding that almost no one believed we could do: we elected Elizabeth May, a woman who has dedicated her life to protecting the things that are under vicious assault from the consumption-growth cancer of our current economic system.

There is certainly something special about our community, with its hig levels of volunteer involvement, citizens willing to set aside partisanship for the greater good, the highest level of voter participation in all of Canada - and it is being noticed. For intance, read film-maker/activist Damien Gillis' article on "Bottling that magic salt spring formula".

I feel so lucky to live here! What is wonderful about this place was epitomized when I went into the midwifery clinic where the Green party office was on election day. To me, if felt a bit like entering a sacred space. Here were these people I love, who had put their lives on hold to do this amazing thing. They were working to make sure everyone who wanted to, even if they did not have an address to call home or other trappings of "success", got their chance to vote. There was this quiet joy in that office of new birth - and even outside, as I wandered around town, beaming at people as we lived this historic moment.

Where do we go from here? It is tempting to want to grow the Green party. I know many across the country who are inspired by the "Vision Green" platform it has offered us, available not just in time for elections, but 365 days a year. I sense there is huge potential there.

But I know that there is good within each human being, also within the ranks of each of our political parties. I believe Elizabeth has a special gift for bringing out the best in people, and that ought really to be our goal - to connect with what is best in others towards protecting the things that make life worth living. This is something we can work towards across party lines and this is a kind of politics we can be happy to invite our kids to be involved in.