Fighting spirit Road to Avonlea's Sarah Polley has rebounded from serious health problems to become a passionate political activist

Even in prim and starched '30s-era skirt and matching uncomfortable shoes, Sarah Polley is the picture of health this steamy July day on the Road to Avonlea set. Taking a break, she lifts her skirts as we walk to her trailer, where Polley takes her Doc Martens off the daybed and curls up on it.

The occasion for her rare reappearance as Sara Stanley on Avonlea is the filming of the final episode of the series, which closes its doors after seven seasons next April.

But unlike many cast and crew who are sadly nostalgic, the 16-year-old Polley is pragmatic abut the end of the road. "I feel like such an ice queen because I'm not sentimental about it at all," she says. "Honestly, I'm here for the fun of it."

First, though, Polley wants to put to rest any concern about her physical well-being. It was national news when the actress had to have immediate surgery last November to correct scoliosis, a disease that tends to strike female adolescents and causes curvature of the spine.

All told, Polley's recuperation required an eighty-day stay at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, with no rehab or physiotherapy afterward.

"I really dreaded the surgery when I first found out because it sounded so horrible. But it turned out to be like getting my tonsils out."

Today, she says, "everything is great." And as a role model for many young viewers, she's quite willing to volunteer information on her recovery. "I actually like talking about it, because it's something that so many young women have and it's such an easy thing to fix."

As for future acting plans: "Undecided," she says firmly. "I never wanted to make acting full time. I never wanted to make it a career. Now I'm concentrating on school. I've always known that what I needed to do with my life was in the area of politics and writing."

Especially politics. If you want Sarah Polley in low gear, talk about acting; if you want to get her pumped up, talk about politics. "I'm probably more left than the NDP by quite a bit," she says. Still, she campaigned for a Toronto NDP candidate in Ontario's June election, and seems genuinely distressed that the reigning NDP government was crushed by the Tories.

And her assesment of NDP leader Bob Rae being ousted by Tory Mike Harris: "Ontario just went from a Rhodes scholar to a golf pro, that's how I look at it. From a thinking, honest man to slogan boy."

After she finishes high school, Polley's got her sights set on a Masters degree in literature and a phD in politics - and she plans on doing it at Oxford University, no less.

Until then you might spot Polley some Saturday morning at Toronto's down town Kensington Market, where she regularly turns up to sell copies of the Socialist Worker to shoppers. "I love it," she says, breaking into laughter "People yell at me: 'Get a job!' I feel like yelling back: 'Just tune in Sunday nights at 7 o'clock, buddy! I don't get paid for doing this!'"

by Andrew Ryan