After the provincial election, Albertans suddenly found themselves with dozens of fresh-faced MLAs. None was fresher than Thomas Dang, Edmonton-South West, who made headlines for becoming the youngest MLA in Alberta history. Dang, who turned 20 the day the election was called, was a second-year computing science major at the U of A before turning his attention to politics. He's taking the fall semester off, for obvious reasons.
What were people's reactions at the door when they heard you were a university student running for a seat in the legislature?
Definitely, you got a lot of mixed responses. But most of it was, "Wow, that's exciting - somebody who's young and excited to be part of politics!" In a province where we've typically seen very low youth-engagement rates, I think people are happy and encouraged to see youth involved in trying to make change.
How did you juggle your academic responsibilities during the campaign?
The election was called a couple days after classes ended. However, I did have exams during the campaign period, so I'd campaign all day during door-knocking hours, and outside of that I just studied as much as I could, pretty much. It was a lot of jumping back and forth, definitely a couple of all-nighters. My schedule was a bit funny - I had four exams in three days, I think. It wasn't exactly the lightest schedule.
What was the moment you realized you'd won?
We were always campaigning as if we were 10 votes behind, but [the news commentators] called the election very early, at 8:25 or 8:30 p.m. They said, "Thomas Dang has been elected in Edmonton-South West." I thought, "It's not even 9 yet! How could they know?" So I actually sat there and watched the numbers come in for another good hour before it sunk in.
Was there anything in your academic career that helped prepare you for being an MLA?
I was a member of the U of A debate club, which helped out a lot. In terms of academics, it was definitely a bit of a different direction than what people in comp-sci typically take. A lot of the students there would say, "Oh, you're running. That's kind of odd. That's not a technical thing - that's a social thing."
All new MLAs go through orientation, but your class went through an entire mock legislature session as well. What was that like?
It was a really good experience. We got the opportunity to ask a few questions and be heckled a little bit back and forth, which was fun. It was sort of like being back in class again: "Here's how we do this and that. You've got a few readings to prepare." I thought I was done with school for now, but it looks like it's right back to studying.
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