global youth assembly 2009 ignites edmonton.

It's been an exciting couple of weeks for north central Edmonton. City Council voted for the phased closure of the Edmonton City Centre Airport twenty days ago, the Edmonton Indy was held last weekend, and starting tomorrow morning on the NAIT campus over 500 delegates will converge at the Global Youth Assembly 2009 presented by the John Humphrey Centre.

I'm not able to attend the entire conference, but I will be there to hear former Foreign Affairs Minister and current President of the University of Winnipeg Lloyd Axworthy speak tomorrow morning on the topic of 'Global Community & Citizenship: Building Responsibility.' I'm very interested to hear what he has to say, especially in regards to the Canadian Armed Forces current involvement in Afghanistan.

In an event open to the public, Governor General Michaëlle Jean will be hosting a Friday evening 'hip hop' dialogue with conference delegates. Also on Friday, a panel discussion on apathy and political engagement will include local notables Councillor Don Iveson and federal election candidate Lewis Cardinal.

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited by the conference organizers to write a guest post on their blog and it's now been posted, so feel free to to peruse over and check it out. I'm not sure how often their blog will be updated during the conference, but you can follow #gya09 on twitter for instant updates from delegates.