It will be six years before Sarah Brewster can cast a vote in a municipal election, but the local girl is still keeping close tabs on civic issues.
The 12-year-old Brow of the Hill resident is keenly interested in local matters, including the environment and development.
“I live in here, and I don’t want it to turn out how I don’t like it, or how people around me don’t like it,” she said. “So I kind of want to know what’s going on.”
Sarah will be sharing her perspectives on some of the local issues that are close to her heart in the Record in the future. She said her interest in civic affairs was sparked by reading her local community newspaper in the lead-up to last fall’s civic election.
“I kind of was looking into it because we always get the newspaper. I’m always home first because I go to a different school, so I would always grab it and read through it,” she said. “I started learning about the all the different candidates. And then I kind of went further.”
Sarah said she didn’t have any particular favourite candidates in the 2022 election, but she enjoyed learning how they stood on various issues.
“Lots of the ideas I agreed with, and some of them I didn’t,” she said. “It was just kind of like the idea that somebody could, you know, be in charge and have ideas. I live here, so I want to know.”
Along with saving newspaper clippings about civic affairs, Sarah collects newsletters, including those sent out by New Westminster-Burnaby MP Peter Julian.
“I have all his little booklets that he sends every month or so,” she said. “I haven’t personally met him yet, which would be kind of cool.”
Although Sarah didn’t have any favourite candidates in the 2022 municipal election, she did reach out to mayoral candidate Chuck Puchmayr’s campaign office with some questions. That evening, Puchmayr stopped by her Brow of the Hill home for an hour-and-a-half chat on his way home from a day on the campaign trail.
“It was really neat,” she said. “It was really interesting, actually. It was pretty cool that he came by.”
Keeping tabs on the city
Because she doesn’t have her own phone or computer, Sarah said print products are her main means of following local affairs. But she also uses the family computer to check out stories and complete polls on the Record’s website, read the newspaper’s weekend newsletter and watch online videos related to federal issues.
So, what local issues are of interest to the Grade 6 student at Fraser River Middle School? Environment and development are at the top of Sarah’s must-read list.
“Probably the environment the most, because I love being outside,” she said.
Born and raised in New West, Sarah is also interested in reading about the changes that are occurring in her hometown. She worries that the development that’s taking place could reduce the amount of greenspace in New West and she fears that construction noise could be harming the fish that call the Fraser River home.
“People say the sturgeon numbers are dropping, and the salmon, they are always dropping,” she said. “I feel like it might be connected to all the construction and things around that area.”
When she’s not pursuing her interest in civic affairs, Sarah enjoys playing basketball, visiting the New Westminster Public Library to borrow books, journaling, spending time with friends and family, walking her dog, and enjoying her hometown.
“I love it,” she said. “My friends are here, and my cousins and grandparents, so I like having that kind of a close city with everybody.”
