Greens vow to protect farmland
Leader Andrew Weaver says Greens’ agricultural policy puts people 1st during Kelowna visit
A Green party government would take steps to curb the construction of mega-mansions on productive Kelowna farmland.
Leader Andrew Weaver says the party’s agricultural proposals, which also include cracking down on industrial and commercial use of farmland, are particularly popular in Kelowna.
“Our agricultural policy is second to none. It puts people first,” Weaver said Sunday before addressing a group of about 80 Green party supporters at the Best Western Plus Kelowna Hotel & Suites.
Green party members feel a sense of momentum heading toward the May 9 provincial election, Weaver said.
“Something happened after the leaders’ debate,” he said. “We’ve had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of new donors. We’ve seen campaigns just explode in popularity across the province.”
Although the provincial Liberals won the three Kelowna ridings with an average of 58 per cent of the vote in the 2013 election, Weaver said the Greens are hopeful of a breakthrough.
The aim in Kelowna, he said, is not just to displace the NDP for second place, but to win one of the three ridings.
He noted that Liberal MP Stephen Fuhr won Kelowna-Lake Country in the 2015 federal election after the Greens chose not to field a candidate locally.
“We have an awful lot of federal Liberals who support the B.C. Greens because they do not see the B.C. Liberals as federal Liberals. We have seen surging support here,” Weaver said.
“This (event) was put together on short notice, (and) look how many people showed up,” Weaver said. “I would argue that, a year ago, if we had a Green event in Kelowna we would get a couple of the people who’ve been with the party for 30 years and that’s about it. This is exciting.
“I wouldn’t be coming to Kelowna if I didn’t think we had a real surge of support here,” he said.
Voters fed up with the Liberals should be wary of voting NDP, Weaver said, describing its current leaders as members of the “gang” that he said mismanaged B.C. through the 1990s.
“The NDP have had 16 years to inspire British Columbians with something to get behind and they’ve failed,” he said. “Now their big inspiration is to be better than the Liberals. Well, better than really bad is still bad.”
Although the Greens failed in their goal to have a candidate in every B.C. riding, Weaver said it was a good cross-section of contenders with 20 per cent an educator of some sort, real estate agents, small business owners, forestry workers, labourers and clergymen.
“We’ve got a whole diverse array of candidates that would reflect the demographic profile of B.C. reasonably well,” Weaver said.
Weaver was asked who the Greens would support to form government if the Liberals and the NDP were to win the same number of seats on May 9.
“We would want to see who is agreeable to our platform measures, and we’ll base our decision on discussions that would occur at the time,” he said.