I’m honored to be re-elected to the ACTRA Montreal Branch Council for another two year term! I feel like we've started some exciting things, and I'm looking forward to furthering these initiative and seeing some real change within our industry. Thank you sincerely to everyone that cast a ballot in this election, whether it was for me and/or any of the other excellent council members.
With that said, I wanted to take a minute to talk about voting. Voting - exercising your right to have a voice and a say in your future - is so so so so important. If you take a look at the ACTRA Montreal website you'll see that 358 ballots were cast. Of those, 11 were spoiled and therefore 347 were valid.
There are 2067 full ACTRA members in good standing that were eligible to vote. That means that only 17% of our total membership cast a ballot in this year's election. I believe wholeheartedly in our union and everything it does to protect us and support us. I also believe wholeheartedly in our membership and our talent and potential to do great things.
I have to be honest in that I'm a little disheartened by these numbers. The union, its staff and reps, and council members work hard to protect us, foster our growth, expand our work, champion our achievements, and empower us to stand up for our rights and development as people and artists. And in light of that, when we can see that only 17% of the people we fight so much for and alongside voted for our future, (and when I say our, I mean all of us as a community of performers and artists, not simply council members), it's difficult not to be a little crestfallen.
Voting allows you to have a say, a voice, an opinion about your rights and your future and who is representing those. Make sure those representatives reflect what you want to see!
So many people have fought tirelessly through generations for their right to vote and be heard. Let us not take it for granted.
(I do know that this is a local branch council election so on the grand scale of things it may seem small in the grand scheme of things; voting is still so crucial no matter the size of the election)
And as I serve my last month as the YEAA chair before committees are re-struck in the new year, I sincerely want to ask: if you are a young/emerging artist 35 and under who was eligible to vote in this election and you did not, I would love to have a conversation about why. YEAA's mandate is to foster the community of young emerging actors, and part of that is making sure that you feel like your voice is heard, and your interests are being represented. So if you didn't vote and didn't feel represented, I would love to know why. Feel free to PM me or send an email to viens.jen@gmail.com.