If you’ve heard anything about Larissa Shasko, it’s likely due to her recent election to the leadership of the Green Party of Saskatchewan. At just 27, and having been a Green Party candidate three times in the past three years – twice federally and once provincially – the political career of this emerging female politician deserves recognition.
Shasko’s penchant for politics comes at a time when voter apathy is high, including among young people. The 2008 federal election had the lowest voter turnout in history at 58.8 per cent. And in the 2006 election, only 44 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds voted compared to the national turnout of 64.7 per cent.
So, what got this 20-something so impassioned about politics?
Shasko cited her grandfather, a farmer and strong supporter of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation as a significant political influence in her life. She also described her dad’s political stance as “pretty radical at times.”
But politics seems to keep finding Shasko rather than vice versa.
Her passion for the Greens sprouted out of a conversation with her boyfriend, Ryan Stusek, prior to the 2006 election. Stusek merely mentioned that he’d voted Green in the last election.
With a wide grin, Shasko explained, “This was my new boyfriend: he was a drummer, he was absolutely cool, I respected him completely. I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to check out the Green Party.’”
After spending all night reading Green Party policies on the Internet, Shasko was hooked. The next day, she became a candidate.
“I called to see who my local candidate was, to see how I could help out. There wasn’t a local candidate confirmed at that time. I was asked if I wanted to run because apparently I spoke well on the phone, and I said ‘Okay!’”
This is how Shasko’s political career evolved – unwittingly but with remarkable flow. “I never intentionally set out to be where I am today,” she said. “It seems to be something that just happened.”
Shasko’s decision to run for leadership of the provincial party this spring was inspired largely by her opposition to the development of nuclear power in Saskatchewan.
“[The Green Party is] the only political party in Saskatchewan that is strongly united against nuclear and uranium mining,” she said. “We also strongly oppose the location of any nuclear fuel waste dump in Saskatchewan.”
“It’s an industry that doesn’t make sense . . . The environmental repercussions in the long-term far outweigh any short-term benefits,” Shasko said.
For Shasko, politics is a means of creating the change that the activist part of her wants to see in the world. She identifies herself more as an activist than a politician and insists there is a strong relationship between the two roles.
“You can’t change society just from outside of government, and you can’t change society just from inside of government,” she said. “It has to happen at the same time. You have to get out there and do your protests and rallies and letters to the editor, to your MLA and your premier and the prime minister. Then . . . when it comes time for an election, you have to vote, because that’s what allows you to see your hard work as an activist pay off.”
Shasko balances her political and activist work with arts. She was an avid ballet dancer as a child and is now pursuing a minor in Visual Arts alongside her major in political science.
She spends her free time immersed in music with Stusek, now her fiancé. Not surprisingly, Shasko named “Redemption Song” by Bob Marley and “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere” by Neil Young as two of her favourite songs.
Both of Shasko’s parents are artists in their own right – her mother a former home-economics teacher who now lives on Vancouver Island, and her father makes ceramics and has a gallery in Lumsden.
Maybe it’s her artistic outlets that allow Shasko to remain hopeful in the face of some of humanity’s most significant challenges. Her unflappable optimism is contagious, and she knows it.
“The most powerful thing that you can give to people is hope, and we have every reason to be hopeful. If we can get ourselves into this much trouble, we can get ourselves out,” she said with a laugh.
When asked about her vision for the Green Party, Shasko confidently responded, “I see us forming government.” For a party that won just 2 per cent of the popular vote in the 2007 election, and not a single seat, this might seem like an unrealistically bold statement. But Shasko’s optimism is uncompromising.
“I look at what’s happening with the nuclear debate, and I see a lot of people that are really, really scared the decision has already been made. But I also see an enormous outpouring of opposition to it, and an enormous call for renewable energy and energy conservation from people that normally would have just been okay with sticking with the status quo.”
As for her vision for herself?
“Now that I’m here, I’ll be here for the rest of my life,” she said of her involvement in politics. “You can’t become an impassioned and informed citizen and then just go back to the other extreme.”
In the midst of all the recent political excitement, Shasko’s also planning a wedding – she and Stusek will be married at the end of July.
Thanks for the Great article. It does inspire hope in myself and hopefully others to continue the endless struggle for Justice, Peace and lasting resolution on many of the world’s problems.
Muc cheers, vic.
Thanks so much for pointing out what so many of us Greens already knew. Larissa is bright, energetic, and full of hope. Exactly what we need to see in the leadership of this province. I’m proud to say that she and I will be a team for a long while, as leader and presidents of the Green Party of Saskatchewan. I couldn’t ask for a better partner in all that we must accomplish!