Alberta Youth Parliament

The central focus of the organization is its parliamentary program. The main parliamentary session occurs during the last week of December in the Alberta Legislature. The cabinet also meets throughout the year to plan events, discuss the operations of the parliament, and prepare for the annual winter session. which recently reaffirmed its non-exclusionary spiritual foundation. It believes that exposure to different points of view encourages tolerance of varying interpretations of religion, faith, and spirituality. ==Activities==

AYP holds an annual session from December 26 to 31. The focus of session is the parliamentary sittings where the members learn parliamentary procedure and debate legislation on topics of interest. It was also a founding member and participant in the now-defunct Youth Parliament of Canada/Parlement jeunesse du Canada. ==Organizational structure==

The Executive Committee consists of the Premier, the Leader of the Opposition, the Deputy Premier, and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition (formerly known as the Alternate Leader of the Opposition). They are elected at Session by the members of the parliament and serve a one-year term. The Executive Committee is colloquially referred to as the "Front Four" and they run the parliament by appointing the Front Bench: Ministers for the Cabinet and Deputies for the Shadow Cabinet. The current Executive Committee, elected at the 105th Session, is Daniel Zander as Premier, Ajminder Sanghotra as Leader of the Opposition, Monisha Velmurugan as Deputy Premier, and Sofia Ibrahimi as Deputy Leader of the Opposition. The current Front Bench is: Cabinet: • External Affairs: Isaak Nissly, Aayan Saleemi • Education and Programing, Provincial Secretary: Isaak Nissly • Internal Affairs, Devotions: Eddie Lutz • Finance: Ved Agwekar, Ali Abzakh • Event Coordination: Shree Baskar • Publicity: Rufine-Tufaine Tompe • Membership and Recruiting: Addison Kumka • Minister without Portfolio, vacant ==History==

The first Session of the Older Boys' Parliament of Alberta was first held in the Legislative Chamber of the Provincial Government in Edmonton, from December 28 to 30, 1920. The Mayor of Edmonton, D.M. Duggan, acted as lieutenant governor. Armour Ford was elected as the first Speaker. The first Premier was Edward Hunter Gowan. The Leader of the Opposition was James Robin Davidson. Like many of the other Canadian Youth Parliaments, AYP was sponsored by the Boys' Work Board of the provincial Religious Education Council (“REC”). “TUXIS” stands for “Training for Service, with Christ (represented with an 'X' for the Greek letter 'chi') in the center, and you and I on either side, with no-one but Christ between us”. Unlike most other Canadian Youth Parliaments founded during the same time, AYP met continuously throughout the Great Depression and World War II. As a result, AYP has the longest uninterrupted history of annual sessions of any youth parliament in Canada. The TUXIS Parliament of Alberta voted to change its operating name to the Alberta Youth Parliament during its 102nd Session in December 2022, and the change was ratified by the Alumni Council on March 20, 2022. ==Notable alumni==

• Clarence Campbell (Former NHL commissioner) • Robert Clark (Former Alberta MLA and Cabinet Minister) • Murray Smith (Former Alberta MLA and Cabinet Minister) • Richard Starke (Former Alberta MLA and Former Cabinet Minister) ==See also==