Voters finally have an alternative to B.C.’s political extremes

Editor: Over the past 65 years, BC has a political history of swinging like a pendulum from Liberal/Social Credit “right” to the NDP “left”, back and forth, again and again. Under the first-past-the-post electoral system, a majority government usually results in the minority’s concerns and opinions being seldom heard and rarely considered.

Our province faces serious challenges that will not be addressed if we continue to swing back and forth from the extreme right to the extreme left. Funding for local initiatives, from your taxes, should not be doled out only in the months before an election and mainly to ridings deemed winnable by the party in power.

As a former mayor of Lake Country, I have experienced from both the NDP and the Liberals, the frustration of having to repeatedly beg for our share of provincial revenues for projects that matter at the local level.

We need immediate action on climate change, homelessness, dysfunction in the health-care system, an underfunded education system and an ever-increasing disparity between the very wealthy and the rest of us (particularly those living in poverty, whether unemployed or working at minimum wage).

And while both mainstream parties pay lip service to aboriginal issues, neither the Liberals nor the NDP have taken meaningful steps to right historical wrongs or to ensure equal opportunity for a prosperous future for the peoples whose historical land we occupy. The Greens will begin the process of reconciliation.

The Green Party is the only party that has put forward a sincere, solid plan to change the way we elect our government to ensure that all voices are heard in the legislature, so that meaningful debate can result in effective policies to address the issues mentioned above.

We owe it to our grandchildren to address these issues now and to leave them a government system that ensures all voices are heard as they try to straighten out the mess we are otherwise certain to be leaving them.

The Green Party is portrayed in the media as being just a bunch of tree-hugging environmentalists, but a careful look at their policies will show that they also support progressive social initiatives and true “free enterprise” which encourages small and medium business, where most new jobs are created, rather than big business in the form of international corporations.

We will vote Green on voting day and encourage you to do the same. In KelownaLake Country we have an excellent candidate in Alison Shaw — a well educated person, knowledgeable in business and environmental issues, and concerned and caring about the social issues that affect all of us and our loved ones.

For the sake of your grandchildren, please vote Green. Bob and Sharon McCoubrey,

Lake Country