We don't need another hero.

Former Canadian Armed Forces general Roméo Dallaire however he might meet all the requirements of a hero, eschews the label.

Nonetheless, this admirable man expresses awe for young Canadians, in particular ...

We are entering an era where the revolution in communications is empowering the under-25s and they're able to start realizing that they can coalesce in real-time around the world. They’re also getting more information about what's going on around them, whether they want it or not, because it's all being punched out every minute,” he says, adding that their power extends beyond protests.

“The 2.9 million votes that they represent (in Canada) have never been used and there are MPs who are elected with less than 50 votes. That means one class out of a political science course at U of T could have gone and voted and there would have been a different result at the end. So they hold the balance of power in our democracy with that vote.”

Dallaire notes that the politicization of Canada’s youth hit a tipping point last summer when Parliamentary page Brigette DePape held up her 'Stop Harper' sign during the throne speech.

“The gesture of that young page in the Senate has got to be one of the most significant expressions of opinion of that generation of under-25s has yet seen in this country. You've got all the Senators, all the MPs, the Governor-General, you've got the Prime Minister, the Chief of Defence staff, the Superintendent of the RCMP, all the Justices of the Supreme Court, you've got the whole gallery, you've got the whole country's media in this incredibly decorous room and she goes and walks in the middle of that, very stoically, and puts her sign up, turns around and shows her sign to the other gallery and then is escorted away. No screaming, no yelling, (just) enormous dignity.”

From here.

Grand merci to impolitical whose tweet provided me with a link.