This past weekend, a young teenager in North Vancouver took political activism to a level rarely seen among people his age by organizing a protest and recall campaign targeting B.C. NDP MLA Bowinn Ma.

Thirteen-year-old Daniel Thiele organized Saturday's demonstration outside Ma's North Vancouver constituency office, where just under 30 people gathered to hear speeches about frustrations with the NDP government.

Ahead of the event, Thiele described the protest as an opportunity for residents to “take back our community” and “let our voices be heard,” while calling on the government to do better on issues including B.C.'s housing crisis, broken promises and a lack of transparency.

Thiele, who was only 12-years-old when he first came up with the idea, is now spearheading an effort to recall Ma in North Vancouver-Lonsdale.

Recall campaigns allow voters to attempt to remove an MLA from office between elections thus triggering a byelection, but the threshold in B.C. is notoriously difficult to meet. Thiele's campaign says a total of 17,613 valid signatures are required to trigger a recall for Ma’s seat, and no B.C. MLA has ever been successfully removed through the process.

Those odds haven't discouraged the young organizer, who says the effort is worthwhile even if only to remind elected officials who they work for.

“A recall is not partisan games or personal attacks. A recall is the ultimate safety valve of accountability. It sends a message to every politician in Victoria regardless of their party banner that they work for us. They have to answer to us and if they refuse to represent us we have the constitutional power to remove them,” Thiele told those gathered outside Ma's office.

The teenager also assembled a lineup of speakers to address a range of issues affecting British Columbians, including OneBC candidate and former educator Jim McMurtry, former Chilliwack school trustee Barry Neufeld, and Surrey conservative mayoral candidate Honveer Randhawa.

For Thiele, however, the protest was also about something bigger than one MLA or one recall campaign: showing other young people that they don't have to wait until they're old enough to vote to make their voices heard.

More information about Thiele's recall initiative can be found at RecallBowinnMa.com.

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