For Jonah Gowans, entering politics was always first and foremost about serving his community.
“It’s about helping people; I was raised in a beautiful community, and the community did a great job of helping raise me and create me,” he said. “My job is to give that to every other person coming up.”
Born and raised in Powell River, the 26 year old said he first became interested in politics when he was just 11.
“I went to my first all-candidates meeting, and one of the people there told me politics was how he felt he could help the most amount of people in the shortest amount of time,” explained Gowans. “I’ve always been raised with service as a goal.”
Fast forward 15 years to today, and Gowans is contesting his first federal election, running for the Liberal Party in the riding of Courtenay-Alberni.
“My current aspiration is to win; I want to be the MP for this riding, and hopefully for a very long time,” he said. “Your job in the riding is to be the C-L-O, the chief listening officer, and your job in Ottawa is to be the megaphone.”
Gowans studied at the University of Ottawa between 2011 and 2016, and it was there that he first joined a political party. However, Gowans said he did not rush to become a partisan during the early days of his degree, also noting that the Liberal Party was a long way off from forming government when he first became involved.
“I felt I needed to take some time to decide whether I firmly believed what I felt I believed,” he said. “I ran the gamut. In 2011, the Liberal Party was at its lowest, and in 2015, it was at its highest.”
Although he is not running in the electoral district that encompasses his home city, Gowans said he believes his roots in small-town BC bring invaluable perspective to the halls of power in Ottawa.
“It was definitely a culture shock, moving to Ottawa, and it took a little while to get settled out there,” he said. “I was also different; I was the small-town boy from the west coast. There wasn’t a lot of us.
Gowans said he brings an entirely different position from someone who is the same age from Vancouver.
“Our life experiences are different,” he added. “You’re starting to see young people standing up and speaking out, and they’re not coming from just the cities anymore.”
To any young readers contemplating a career in politics, Gowans recommends undertaking as much political volunteer work as possible, and staying focused on the big picture.
“You’re just a grunt. You just do whatever is needed in an office, but that does expose you to a lot,” he said. “You see a lot for it, and you can see which ones are doing the job in the way you could see yourself doing it, or what you appreciate in them as MPs.”
It is also a way to get to see the bureaucracy behind them, he added.
“We see the public 338 faces,” said Gowans, “and in actuality there’s a gigantic number of people who are faceless, nameless to the average Canadian. Just be prepared to say, ‘yes.’”
