One Victoria political team wants to get people intimately involved in considering an alternate reality: one where women rule government. And doing so could cinch you an extra $500.
Dancing With The Octopus, an initiative spearheaded by long-time women’s advocate Sandy Mayzell, is back and is inviting everyone to participate in a video contest that asks the question: “What would it look like if your government was 75 per cent women?” Currently, Canada’s parliament is made up of 75 per cent men and 25 per cent women. But Mayzell and her team of passionate volunteers weren’t willing to hear these numbers sitting down — they have turned it into a way to brainstorm for money.
“A lot of younger people are turned off by politics, but we can’t find solutions for these challenges until we start talking about them, so we wanted to find a way that everyone could get involved in that discussion,” says Mayzell. “Now is the best time for that.”
People of every gender and age are encouraged to make a video using any medium from mobile phones and webcams to animation, stills, talking heads, drawings, or slideshows, then upload it to the DWTO website. From there, a team will jury the pieces and, ultimately, one lucky winner will score half a grand. The contest is open internationally, and videos must be in by midnight, Pacific Time, on March 31.
For more, see dancingwiththeoctopus.com. M