Green Party mission is to provide hope

Mercredi, 21 Juillet 2010 00:00

Green Party mission is to provide hope

Published Wednesday July 21st, 2010

By Jack MacDougall

In the upcoming election, the people of New Brunswick will have at least one new choice on their ballots, the Green Party of New Brunswick.

I must first explain my own transition to the Green message. I had a good career with the Liberals for many years. I was involved in several campaigns, including all of Premier Frank McKenna's, Clyde Wells of Newfoundland's first campaign and several of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's. I believed that I would always be a Liberal, but eventually had my fill of politics and searched for a new direction in life. I returned to university to qualify to become a teacher.

One summer, a friend asked me if I would help Elizabeth May in her federal election. I had time and said yes. My Liberal friends were encouraging and wished me well. They publicly supported my decision, including Premier Shawn Graham. For that, I am grateful.

Since the Greens, an international party, had never made a breakthrough in North America, the promise of winning was hopeless. I came to admire the people who believed so strongly in their message and yet fought with virtual certainty there would not be a victory. I also became a believer of their message. They had basic principles which guided their thinking. I felt liberated and soon came to believe that if ever there was a place that required this choice, it was a place called New Brunswick.

So, what, in essence, is the message of the Greens, and why is it so important for New Brunswick?

First, the Greens always think about the next generation, not the next election. We would not compromise what we believed to be the truth for the sake of winning, but rather the impact of our ideas and decisions on our children and theirs. We believe we are losing our individual values at the community level.

For example, every parent I know wants only the best for their children. They want them to be healthy, well educated and have a good life. At the individual level, we would never contemplate leaving our children a burden, but as a community and a province, we know we are. We are leaving them with a debt out of control, with severely depleted natural resources and a nuclear responsibility for what amounts to eternity. Our collective policies have become selfish in an effort to win elections.

Second, we believe strongly in an independent media. Journalists, to be professional, must go where the truth takes them. Yet some journalists must work in fear of writing a truth which may not be in the interest of its owners who also have vast and various other interests. This is not an attack on the owners but a simple truth. I believe media concentration places too much pressure on politicians to agree with a corporate view of matters for fear of bad press. It does not serve the public well if the media gives an unjust weight to our issues.

We will need that independent media as we embark on bold new debates and directions in forestry, fisheries, farming, job creation, health care, education and tax reform. We will make some very specific promises, such as removing the hideous double taxation on apartment buildings or placing the tolls on the four-lane highway, with one permanent free pass to any toll booth the owner chooses. In other areas, change may be slow but we will begin. We will address the health-care crisis and propose bold new ideas of how to address sustainability. We will make the connection between disease prevention and dollars spent. We will talk about the poor and the working poor. We will talk about job creation, not simply for the sake of job creation, but the opportunities that arise when governments go in new and positive directions. We will talk of waste elimination, such as bad loans and poor investments, and seek smarter and better ways of running government. We will ask our artists to play a vital role in growing our province by defining us and representing us in music, theatre and art.

Finally, we will present a credible team of candidates. There will students and teachers, journalists, businesspeople, activists, elected counsellors, senior civil service experience and it will be gender balanced. They will not worry about winning and losing, but about what we stand for.

We will provide hope.

Jack MacDougall is leader of the Green Party of New Brunswick.