the Walnut Diary

Why is the Green Party important?

Neither the Liberals nor the CPC have a real vision for where they want to go. The NDP do, but it’s a very narrow vision. I’ve been a Green Party supporter for a long time. Many of our ideas have been tried in Europe and around the world. The North American model of big business is unsustainable. Everybody has the jargon, but they’re just using it to win debates. It doesn’t translate into meaningful action.

Kim Sytsma is a director of the Ontario Cattleman’s Association. Kim claims that the car industry is 2.1% of the GDP of Ontario while the cattle industry means 1.4% of the GDP for Ontario economy, and yet no one is helping the beef or pork farmers. It’s fascinating that whenever the price of crude oil changes it is reflected immediately at the pumps, but when wholesale beef prices crashed during the mad cow scare, there was no change to beef prices in the stores.

Last election’s Green Shift Plan looked like a good policy, badly sold. Now your party has relabeled it and made it part of your platform.

While there were some communications issues associated with the campaign, the Green Shift Plan was basically sound. It should be. Dion and the Liberals stole it from us.

Why are you running as a candidate?

Over thirty years my husband and I have noticed a decline in the vibrancy of the area. Our young people aren’t staying. Those trying to create small businesses are strangled by government.

The cheese operation at Upper Canada Village was forced to close because it didn’t meet modern requirements. You don’t know that there’s anything wrong there, but the big business model doesn’t allow for traditional methods of production.

I know of local people involved in a small business promotion program, a federally funded, provincial government effort to help small business startups. October 9th of this year a letter came from Toronto which abruptly cut the program. It said they are putting money into the colleges for retraining adults and that was it.

So what’s wrong with the big business model?

Why bail out GM and Chrysler? They have already proven that they are not running companies worth investing in. We’re throwing bad money after bad. It’s a short-term solution to a problem we have known for years and years. We’re maintaining jobs in failing industries and not looking to jobs that provide a viable and sustainable future for Canadians.

Factory farms? I’m against them because they’re dependent upon herbicides, pesticides and antibiotics and are not good for the environment. They are ripe for contamination and economic blips and transportation complications. Small and local is tasty and beautiful.

So what do you think of food in Canada today?

We should produce as much food for our own population as we can. For one, we have a fairly good regulatory system within the country but we’ve had some catastrophes from things coming across the border. For another, we have a problem with obesity right now, and fresh fruit, vegetables and meat all taste good, even if you don’t like brussels spouts. I’m not about to legislate the Doritos-and-Pepsi lunch out of existence, but good food’s not as available as it used to be because of the distances people have to travel to get it and of course the distance the food has to travel, as well.

The papers are full of the locavore movement.

We’re just going back to our roots. It’s a fad which isn’t going to pass. Food is a necessity. You are what you eat. If you want to stay healthy, eat well.

What are your goals for the next six months, and how do you plan to achieve them?

To promote the Green Party from Gananoque to Kemptville, from Cardinal to Westport, and give voters an alternative to the other, more traditional parties.

So the Green Party is a fad?

Oh come on! It’s been a long time coming and it’s not going away. Food sustainability and water quality are ongoing issues. Carbon emissions are a world-wide problem. Social issues like child care, early childhood education and pensions are not going away.

A Green Party proposal is for the elimination of income tax for individuals who earn less than $20,000 per year.

Where is the Green Party on the political spectrum?

It is neither right nor left wing. It is for people and sustainability. It is pro-business where business is good for the country. It is pro-people because people are our future.

So is a vote for you a vote for a Stephen Harper majority?

No. A vote for me is a vote to have a representative in Ottawa to espouse policies which are not simply short-term solutions to problems created by falling polling numbers.

What we really need is proportional representation. It’s a fantastic idea because the first-past-the-post-system we have now does not allow a voice for new ideas in parliament.

Instead we have bad ideas like the current wave of stimulus spending which has simply given Stephen Harper a bottomless war chest with which to play politics. That’s not good government. It’s the Conservatives becoming the Liberals, throwing away money.

Harper broke promises to veterans and their families. His flip-flops on clear and open government, income trusts, and four-year terms show that this man is not a conservative.