The following is a letter to the Editor taken from the Vancouver Sun's website, written by one of our esteemed authors here on the blog, and is slated for publication tomorrow.
It strikes me that the Green platform is what the NDP would have offered 30 years ago, and the Liberals 50.
Now the big three are pretty much indistinguishable — all business, all tax cuts, all free trade, and all about what government can’t do.
I grew up in a time when people were genuinely proud of this country and its accomplishments, and believed that our goal as a nation was to build a better life for all people, not just for the rich.
That meant social safety nets that treated people with respect and compassion, a belief that an educated population benefited all of us, and an understanding that the rights and dignity of individuals were more important than profits.
The Green platform and its candidates offer, for the first time in decades, an opportunity for me to vote for something instead of holding my nose and choosing the lesser of three evils.
BARRY RUEGER
North Vancouver
21 comments:
Claire Martin is an excellent candidate for the Greens in North Vancouver. She will be getting my vote.
I like Claire as a person, but don't like Greens politics.
Vote Claire vote for what you believe!
I've thought very much along the same lines as Mr. Reuger for some time. The "big three" are tribes competing desperately for power and are very much out of touch with Canadians and only really want to obtain power for power's sake. I don't think any of the big parties have their hearts in the right place for Canadians.
Reality is that you have to vote strategically to keep someone from being elected as opposed to 'voting for what you believe' as Unite North Van says. Voting reform that does not waste votes past the 50%+1 is long over due.
Most of the people I know are planning on voting for whichever candidate they deem is most likely to be elected other than Andrew Saxton. He just toes the party line and has not made any reasonable contribution to North Vancouver.
Andrew Saxton ... has not made any reasonable contribution to North Vancouver.
Oh come on. Andrew has certainly worked tirelessly to keep the paper recycling industry in business. Those "householder" mailings don't print themselves you know!
Touche!
It is interesting that Andrew Saxton and Mike Little have been affiliated for a number of years. The gerrymandering that happened when the riding of North Burnaby -- Seymour was established has, I believe, backfired for the Tories. Good luck Mike!
It was ungerrymandering, and it wasn't intended to benefit anyone other than the voters. The old riding descriptions were two pages long with this street in and that block out, the new description is two paragraphs long and uses arbitrary geographical, municipal and infrastructure boundaries, Such as highways, rivers and city borders. Way simpler.
And how exactly does merging Seymour with North Burnaby benefit the voters? Except of course that they both are firmly against the Kinder Morgan expansion. They share the harbour.
CBC The National reports that Greens are polling ahead of Conservatives and Liberals in some Island ridings. No reason why North Vancouver couldn't do the same.
In one part of Canada, the Green Party is polling ahead of the Libs and Cons. https://youtu.be/qbJHQ1_HWwI
Some of you have no idea what you're talking about. Every few years, the Electoral Boundary Commission rejigs ridings based on population and is completely free of political influence. The area that is now Burnaby North-Seymour was split like this many years ago when Liberal, Mark Raines was elected as the MP in 1974. It isn't the best arrangement but with increasing population, that is what they decided. It really doesn't benefit anybody, voters or politicians alike. Unfortunately, there isn't much similarity between the North Vancouver section and the Burnaby section, but it is that way for the next while.
And where did Anon 6:16 get the idea that both ridings are firmly against the pipeline. There is a very vocal opposition, but I do not believe they are speaking for everyone. In fact, I would go so far as to say they may be in the minority.
Looks like the Conservatives have just pulled a rabbit out of their hat:
http://www.fin.gc.ca/afr-rfa/2015/index-eng.asp
"The federal government posted a surprise $1.9-billion surplus in 2014-15 -- bringing the country's books back into balance a year earlier than expected.
The Finance Department released year-end figures Monday for a period that was supposed to instead generate a $2.0-billion shortfall.
The number ends a streak of six deficits under the Conservatives and is certain to reverberate on the campaign trail." http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/ottawa-posts-surprise-1-9b-surplus-1.2562055
Not one other democracy in the world can claim this. Astounding too, given the oil price crash. An election game-changer? The other parties want to spend, spend, spend. They want to take us down "Alice's rabbit hole" with promises they can't keep.
I agree with Barry, it's great to be able to vote for someone and actually feel good about supporting their platform rather than holding my nose and voting for the least objectionable. Elizabeth May did a very good job in parliament and commanded a surprising amount of positive attention given the Green's limited resources and number of MPs.
Early in the run up to the election I met Jonathan Wilkinson and he seems like a nice person, however I was very dismayed when the Liberals supported C-51 and decided to leave greenhouse gas emissions to the provinces. At the time I'd assumed the Liberals were the only party to have a viable chance of unseating the Conservatives in North Van, but I simply can't vote for a party that supported C-51.
I was relieved and excited when Claire Martin put her name forward to run for the Greens in North Van. I think she is a high quality candidate and has a very legitimate chance of being elected. I am surprised how excited I am to actually be able to vote for someone, rather than against someone, and at 45 years old this is the first time that's happened for me.
Bravo Anon 11:40
I concur. There is a lot of talk about "splitting the vote" and that means that Andrew Saxton gets re-elected. I respectfully request that all supporters of the NDP, Liberals, and Greens vote for the candidate in their riding who has the most chance of un-seating Saxton, ergo Harper and his cronies. I think that may be Claire Martin in North Vancouver.
I don't believe the Green Parties platform is particularly well thought out in areas other than the environment. For example in the Leaders Debate's Elizabeth May suggested that we have a constitutional amending formula based on a referendum. This is ridiculous. You cant't let minority rights be decided by majority vote - look what happened in California with proposition 8. Frankly, if the USA had a referendum instead of a civil war, there probably would still be slavery! The Green party is redundant because all parties should be green or measured by how green they are. Defeating Harper is important but I can't hold my nose and vote Green!!! Also dogwood initiative recently published poll showing Claire Martin in 4th place in North Van http://votebc.dogwoodinitiative.org/north_vancouver
Don't pay attention to polls. Many of their questions are biased and look what happened in the Provincial election n 2013 regarding the pollster inaccuracies. Perhaps NDP supporters didn't bother to get out and vote, i.e. seniors, people with disabilities, etc., because they thought it was a "done deal."
Only seniors and the disabled support the NDP? What sort of daft twat are you anon 2:23?
Claire Martin, Green candidate for North Vancouver was on CBC's "The Current" this morning. She was excellent and stole the show from 3 candidates from the other parties.
Claire Martin is intelligent, funny and is probably a very creditable person. Her party however is still on the fringe and she doesn't stand a chance of being elected.
Letter in today's Province newspaper:
Climate is bigger issue
Letter-writer Robin Gibson states: “Everyone believes in the security of the country will vote Conservative. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair certainly do not.”
This so-called security comes at a tremendous expense to the average Canadian citizen who has no contact with terrorists.
And, why is Gibson not so concerned about climate change and corporate pollution, which are much more important than profiling the citizenry, digging into their personal lives and coming up with personal information that can never be adequately protected in 2015?
Wendy Qureshi, North Vancouver
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