Allyson Hildebrandt believes she cannot fully stand behind a political party whose platform she does not completely agree with.
Although she was the President of UWaterloo Conservatives, Hildebrandt recently decided to resign from her position.
“I think it is fine for some people to be that way but I stepped down because I think, for me, it is important to vote for a candidate or a party based on their current platform and their current activities. I do not think we should be loyal to a party per se,” Hildebrandt said.
The Conservative Party released their platform after the televised debates.
The platform plans on balancing the budget by 2024, cutting foreign aid by $1.5 billion and corporate welfare by $1.5 billion as well.
“In many respects, I agree with the Conservative platform and is pretty strong. I believe in many aspects of it. But I think that personally I was very discouraged by the Doug Ford government and I am worried about that translating into federal cuts, or something similar, because we do not really have a full platform yet from the Conservatives which is very similar to the Doug Ford situation,” Hildebrandt said.
“Quite frankly, I am not seeing a lot for young people or students in that platform.”
Hildebrandt left UWaterloo Conservatives during the election campaign.
“That was mostly because I felt it would be unethical to head up the club when I was not really 100 per cent behind the party. I thought that they deserved better leadership,” she said.
“The club does fantastic things and deserves a leader with their heart more in it than mine was,” Hildebrandt said.
Hildebrandt will not be part of the club in an official capacity anymore but will continue to attend events organised by UWaterloo Conservatives as a way to stay in touch with her friends from the club.
“I will be attending events to just share what I believe is good about the party and what needs to be changed and I think it will be met with respect from most club members,” Hildebrandt said.
With a plan to transfer to another university, Hildebrandt stated that she will involve herself in student politics instead of political parties.
“I think student politics are less partisan and I think that the change that I wanted to see and was not seeing with the Conservatives was change for young people,” Hildebrandt said.
The UWaterloo Conservatives is a WUSA club committed to the promotion of Conservative ideas and causes.
“They should keep doing what they are doing. Honestly, everyone in that club is strong-willed, hardworking, and tolerant of other people’s opinions. I am proud to call many of them my friends. I think it is important for students to be involved in politics,” Hildebrandt said.
“My only caution for any student is to make sure that you are constantly being critical of the party that you are supporting and not letting things fly under the radar because you do not want to disagree with your party. I think it is important to disagree with your party and I think that is one of the main reasons why I left because in my official capacity, I was not able to publicly disagree, which makes sense, but it is important.”
Imprint reached out to UWaterloo Conservatives but did not get a comment at press time.
