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June 17, 2025 44 mins

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This PULSE podcast episode features remarkable teen democracy advocate Janelle van Dongen and Parksville City Councillor Sean Wood discussing critical healthcare infrastructure needs at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.

This Episode Features:

(15:42) Teen Democracy Champion Janelle van Dongen shares her extraordinary journey from interviewing MPs in grade 3 to representing British Columbia at the Forum for Young Canadians. Janelle discusses founding "100 Kids for Change" and working as a deputy returning officer, proving that Vancouver Island youth are leading civic engagement despite not being old enough to vote.

(28:15) Sean Wood, Parksville City Councillor and Nanaimo Regional Hospital District Board member, explains how heart attack patients north of the Malahat face life-threatening delays without a cardiac catheterization lab, while the promised $1.8 billion Nanaimo hospital project disappeared from provincial budget despite 2024 election promises.

Episode Highlights & Quotes

"Democracy is only as good as the people who choose to participate in it... we cannot have a government, we cannot have a democracy without the people participating in it." - Janelle van Dongen, Teen Democracy Advocate

"The BC NDP, BC United, BC Conservatives made public promises during 2024 election to move forward with the patient tower and the cath lab in Nanaimo... March came and the project was nowhere to be found on the provincial budget." - Sean Wood. 

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