'Green Party of Canada has the policies, values and integrity to manage the change,' says nominee for Green candidacy in Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte

BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at news@barrietoday.com. Please include your phone number and address for verification, not publication. The following letter is from Marty Lancaster, nominee for the Green Party candidacy in Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte for the upcoming federal election, in response to a letter published Friday from Dan Janssen, the riding's NDP candidate.

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This letter is an answer to Dan Janssen's question, 'Do we have the political will, courage to shift toward a sustainable future?'

Yes! The answer is yes.

My name is Marty Lancaster, Green Party candidate in the 2015 election and seeking the nomination for the 2019 election.

Dan, your letter to the editor, which was full of concerns and questions about preserving nature and solving major environmental problems, has an answer.

Yes! I have the political will to shift to a sustainable future. I was at the Site 41 protest 10 years ago when we forced the County of Simcoe to change their minds and not build a landfill on one of the world’s most pristine, clean water aquifer.

It was a political awakening for me. The people could influence government! We supported first nation women and little old farmer ladies who stood shoulder to shoulder against police and their government. We really cared and were willing to put in some effort, demanded a change and got one.

There are lots of people, more every day, like the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition, that have the will and courage to demand a better future for their children.

But you are right to point out the challenges: The recent damning biodiversity report by the UN, the IPCC reports, and the chorus of scientists documenting the problems and suggesting solutions are numerous and they can seem overwhelming. How we react as politicians is crucial.

Here are some examples of not having the political will:

* Pushing a carbon tax, while buying a pipeline and having some of the lowest taxes in the world on oil companies. Trudeau?

* Cancelling the planting of millions of trees in Ontario while science shows this is one of the best ways to deal with the flooding that desperately needs to be solved. Ford Conservatives in Ontario??

* Saskatchewan is suing Canada over the carbon tax, wasting money and time better spent on new clean energy infrastructure.

* And even though we have known about the global warming/ climate change crisis for decades, every day we are burning more fossils fuels that the day before. World?

The NDP recently turned down the Leap Manifesto presented by Naomi Klein at your annual general meeting (most of which was already right in the Green Party’s policies).

Seeing how the results on Vancouver Island went, it is starting to be clear that the Green Party of Canada is the only party with long term, comprehensive, thought out plans to deal with climate change.

We have been leading on these issues for a long time. We have market-based solutions to encourage people away from carbon-based fuels. We say no to the LNG plant in B.C. (NDP support it).

We say no to the Kinder Morgan bitumen pipeline (Liberals bought it for over four billion dollars!).

We have the political will that your are referring to, and this is why Canadians are starting to give up on the tired old parties and vote the greens.

You can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results; that’s insanity. Change is coming and the Green Party of Canada has the policies, values and integrity to manage the change.

If you want to be inspired, want to be the political will for change, if you have the courage to shift, there is room for you under the fast-growing big green tent.

Marty Lancaster

Shanty Bay

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