Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun / (Gareth Richmond)

Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun / B.C. POLITICS: THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS: Nineteen-year-old deliveryman Gareth Richmond is organizing his provincial election campaign as the New Democratic Party candidate in the riding of Vancouver Quilchena.

Most political candidates hide their high-school yearbook photos for fear they'll be an embarrassing reminder of lost youth.

For 19-year-old NDP hopeful Gareth Richmond, less than a year out of Lord Byng, they qualify as recent snaps.

Less than a month after joining the party and winning its nomination in Vancouver-Quilchena, Richmond is organizing his campaign to unseat Liberal MLA Colin Hansen.

"I decided it was time for me to take a more active role in the politics of my province and to protect the ideals of the NDP I believe in," the earnest and sincere Richmond told me this week.

"I was too young to play any part in earlier elections -- this is the first one I've ever run in that's for sure. But I believe that it is time for the youth of B.C. to make themselves heard."

In some political jurisdictions, a nomination from the party in power is a sought-after endorsement and an envied, easy-street route to a guaranteed job.

B.C.'s moribund governing party, however, finds itself scouring the countryside for volunteers to replace the double-digit number of retiring MLAs or to take a dive against an incumbent Liberal.

A few weeks ago, they found Richmond, who has lived in the central city riding all his life and works split-shifts as a deliveryman.

"I haven't been in politics a long time," he said ingenuously, "so I haven't been tainted by it. And I have a close understanding of issues that affect people my age. I have very strong beliefs and I will stand up for them. I don't let any one tell me what to say or how to say it. I will represent this area very well if I'm elected."

Aside from the young Richmond and still-game MLAs, for the coming fight of its life the NDP so far has endorsed nearly a dozen candidates under 30, others who are older but similarly lacking electoral experience, and a few expected ideologues willing to commit political hara-kiri. Seventeen candidates remain to be nominated and there are whispered concerns the party may not be able to field a full slate for the battle.

Cynics are apt to draw comparisons with shanghaied sailors, or the participants in the doomed Children's Crusade.

Though the NDP's current lack of support may doom it to a period of wandering in the B.C. political wilderness, paradoxically I think it also may be the party's agent of renewal.

Its low standing means the NDP is attractive to neophytes like Richmond who can get involved and gain valuable experience for a potential political career. As well, party members marginalized by the NDP's Big Union focus of the last decade are getting a chance to champion their pet issues.

In Vancouver-Langara, for instance, middle-aged Peter Prontzos has garnered the nomination and is ebullient about the opportunity to debate his concerns.

A long-time anti-Vietnam War and peace activist, Prontzos lives in White Rock, but he used to live in Langara and he still teaches political science at the community college.

"I want to address the larger issues -- I want to create a more democratic and socialist society," he told me.

An ex-Marine reared in San Francisco who came to Canada in 1969 to escape the Vietnam war, Prontzos said he wants to talk about global issues such as climate change and world trade liberalization as a way of emphasizing the importance of what we do locally.

"The consequences of a Liberal victory will just be so awful for most of the people in B.C., it just felt like it was necessary," he told me when I asked why he was running and almost certain to lose.

"On the one hand, the choice is dramatic. But specifically I think we're at a pivotal time socially. We're at a time when they're rolling back the social gains people have won over the years -- cutbacks to health care, education and social welfare. Real people get hurt when that happens and that's a problem for me."

Still, it's hard to ignore the disgust with the NDP that appears in opinion polls and candidates have ready their best stiff-upper-lip response.

"Obviously this is an uphill struggle -- there's no secret I'm the underdog," Prontzos says. "But I do want to talk about these issues. I do want emphasize these broader issues of democracy and socialism. I don't think the NDP has failed its constituencies. I do have many areas where I wish the NDP had lived up to its mandate more strongly and that's one of the reasons I'm running: to be a voice for living up to those promises."

Or, as Richmond puts it: "If people want to listen, then I'll make a difference. I believe sincerely in the ideas behind the NDP."

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EXTRACT: Gareth Richmond (left) from his Web site statement:

I was born in Vancouver in 1982 and have lived in Quilchena my entire life. First a student of Lord Kitchener elementary school, I graduated from Lord Byng high school in 2000. During my school years I was active in the Dunbar Soccer League.

I have a keen interest in history and political science and enjoy camping and hiking. I have travelled throughout parts of Europe, South East Asia and North America.

Since graduating, and after a summer of working for the Vancouver park board, I am now working for a small food-industry business . . . .

I believe sincerely in the ideas behind the NDP. It is a very dangerous time in B.C. politics. . . .