In BC’s October election, as a member of the Green Party, I am endorsing the NDP candidate for Ladysmith-Oceanside, Stephanie Higginson, hoping she will win.
This needs some explaining!
I met Stephanie when she came to my home to pick my brain about local environmental concerns, and I found her to be smart, alert, and committed. I think she’ll make a great MLA. She lives locally on a small farm in Cedar, and she has served our community on the Nanaimo-Ladysmith Board of Education, and as past president of the BC School Trustees’ Association.
Our Green Party candidate Laura Ferreira, on the other hand, appears to be a paper candidate. I’m sure she is great, but she does not live here, does not appear to be campaigning, and has not been attending election meetings. On October 9th, the website Canada 388 suggested that in our Electoral District the BC Conservatives are leading at 43%, with the NDP at 40% and the Greens at 12%.
This tells me that a vote for Laura is a wasted vote that could help the Conservative candidate get elected. If they win a majority and form the new government, the next four years willl be dire for everything I believe in:
- They will be worse for climate action, since they have promised to scrap all of the government’s climate action plans and initiatives.
- They will be worse for affordable housing, just leaving it to the market.
- They will be worse for healthcare, allowing private care for wealthy people, which will siphon off doctors and nurses and make health care harder for everyone else.
- They will be worse for BC’s forests.
- They will be worse for building respectful relations with BC’s First Nations.
My primary loyalty is to the Earth, not to any one party. I am a Green Party member because that is where my heart is, and I support their approach on almost everything. They are the only party that promises to stop permitting new LNG projects, and to phase out fracking for fossil gas, both of which pour fuel onto the raging climate fire. As someone who has been working to slow the climate crisis for more than 20 years, I find the NDP’s careless attitude to fracking and LNG appalling.
I know the NDP has been split over this, with some NDP MLAs disliking their approach to LNG and fracking, but lacking a majority in caucus to be able to change things. This is why we need more green New Democrats to be elected. I perceive Stephanie to be a strong environmental advocate, which is why I am endorsing her.
I hope you will too!
Guy Dauncey, Yellow Point, Ladysmith
The Practical Utopian 