Daniel Quinn: We need to leave partisan politics in the past

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      By Daniel Quinn

      Raised in a home where the evening news was as much a tradition as our discussion of "what it meant" afterward, I've been plugged into how the world works since I was old enough to speak.

      I learned early on that it requires more effort, attention, and awareness to solve the world's problems than it did to create them, so when I was 21, I left B.C. and moved to Ontario where I stayed for roughly five years, learning how Ottawa organized itself and about Toronto's citizen engagement strategy. When I was finished there, I went around the world visiting cities throughout Europe and parts of Asia to learn more about things like energy production, food security and transportation. The thinking behind all of this travelling being that when I was ready, I would return home and try to make B.C. better.

      Now that I've returned I'm ready to give British Columbians a progressive option at the polls. I've never been a fan of partisan politics and this bickering back and forth between the Liberals and NDP serves no one. We need to be honest with ourselves: the Liberals have occasionally done the right thing and the NDP has a similar record.

      With this in mind, anyone with the best interests of the province at heart will give credit where credit is due and work with the other parties to make the province a better place, but that's not what's happening. The Liberals are accusing the NDP of incompetence and the NDP are running on a deplorable environmental platform that negates the few good Liberal decisions for the biosphere.

      Less concerned with control of the house and more interested in good policy, The Green party understands the importance of getting the right legislation in place and making sure that issues like public health, education and the economy work sustainably in this province.

      To that end, we feel that it's important to re-examine projects like the run-of-river hydro contracts in the interior and the Gateway developments here in the lower mainland in terms of how it affects all sectors of the economy, not just the profits to shipping companies. Our "triple bottom line" accounting process includes not only the value of the actual money changing hands, but the damage to the ecosystem, as well as the social costs of both of these projects.

      We are running a full slate in this election and our platform is covered extensively in our Green Book available on our website. I encourage you to support us in our efforts to make B.C. a more sustainable and politically inclusive province.

      Daniel Quinn is the Green candidate for North Vancouver-Seymour.

      Comments

      2 Comments

      ME

      May 7, 2009 at 7:08pm

      A vote for the Green Party is a vote for Campbell. We need to ensure Campbell's business party gets evicted. I used to be a Green supporter until I realized voting for them did more harm than good. Spitting the vote only help the neocons. ONE DOWN (Bush) AND ONE TO GO (Campbell).

      Chris Slater

      May 7, 2009 at 11:06pm

      To the commenter above (ME): This kind of thinking just leads us down the path towards a two-party future. Why not come up with ways to fix the system instead of shoe-horning voters? STV will be a good start.

      I'd love to see the day where voting for who I feel best represents me doesn't also feel like throwing my vote away. Let's try something new and maybe get those disillusioned voters to come back to the polls!