Provincial MLA’s have to know they’re hot water now. Even teenagers know the expense scandal is wrong.
Hannah MacNeil and Alexandra Stephenson are two teenagers at Liverpool Regional High School who are bringing attention to the MLA expense scandal through the power of song and social media.
The pair created a protest song, which they filmed and posted to the popular video sharing site youtube.com. Already the video has reached almost 900 views as of press time Friday, after being posted only the weekend before. The girls also attracted the interested of the provincial media, being interviewed by CBC last week for the supper hour news.
The girls say before making the song, were only vaguely aware of the expense scandal going on. They knew it was an important issue though, especially with the province still being in a recession.
Both girls are musicians, almost living and breathing music. The friends go to music lessons most of the week, and the rest is spent at each other’s houses just playing guitar and singing. When it was suggested they create a protest song over how the MLA’s spend taxpayer’s money, it just seemed like the natural thing to do.
It became clear to them just how bad the scandal was when they started looking into it too.
“It really opens your eyes. This isn’t right, all the stuff they bought,” says Hannah.
They spent 11 hours over the weekend composing, playing and recording the song. They first had to do a lot of research into which MLA bought what, to make sure the information was correct.
Both girls agree though it was well worth the time. It’s also bringing the news to their peers, who probably weren’t as aware of it before the video.
“I think this has made our friends notice it a bit more,” says Alexandra.
They hope the MLA’s sit up and take notice too.
“They have to realize it’s pretty bad when two 15-year-olds know what (the MLA’s) did is wrong,” says Hannah.
The pair hopes that, along with noticing teens are paying attention too, all MLA expenses are posted online for all to see. They say it would eliminate all the problems with money, since MLA’s would be held completely accountable for what they bought.
The video can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/mlaexpense
nmoase@theadvance.ca
