MONTREAL - Tyrone Benskin is ditching his jobs as chief of the Black Theatre Workshop and as VP of ACTRA.
No word yet on whether he's keeping his ponytail when he gets to Ottawa to sit in the House of Commons.
"I'd be considered a new face although I'm not without experience," says the freshly-elected rookie MP Benskin. "Everybody started off as new at one point," he adds.
"As the VP of ACTRA, I've spent 10 years battling for Canadian content and for better support of arts in Canada," he points out.
Benskin notes that worries about the young, inexperienced batch elected as NDP MPs from Quebec are exaggerated, Party veterans will act as mentors for the newly-elected crew.
"Whether they expected to win is neither here nor there, they're a committed to doing the best they can and will get the mentorship they need," says Benskin.
He notes that people must try to be less skeptical about the neophytes that will be hitting Ottawa as Quebec MPs.
"We want young people to be involved and engaged and to vote, so why shouldn't they participate in the process itself? These aren't kids hanging out in social sciences, they're all members of the NDP Youth Group," says Benskin
