Hants West Green Party candidate hopes to alleviate causes of stress if elected
Jenn Kang is no stranger to the Green Party — having been a member for two decades — and the Lockhartville resident hopes to represent Hants West at the provincial level.
Kang, who has been involved with the Green Party of Canada since 2000 and the Green Party of Nova Scotia since 2017, applied to be a candidate for the Hants West riding in March. They were approved at a regional meeting on Earth Day, April 22.
Kang was the Green Party’s candidate for Hants East in 2017, giving that community the opportunity to vote Green provincially for the first time in eight years. Kang also ran at the municipal level in 2020, seeking the mayor’s seat for the Municipality of the County of Kings.
The next provincial election has yet to be called. Also running to represent Hants West is Liberal candidate Brian Casey and Progressive Conservative candidate Melissa Sheehy-Richard.
Kang sees stress, which comes in a variety of forms, as one of the biggest challenges facing residents today.
“I consider stress to be the biggest challenge facing this area and I would work to resolve it by starting with those who have the most pressing daily needs and working to alleviate some of those sources of worry: housing security for those in unstable housing situations; affordable dental treatment for anyone who needs it; higher wages for workers at transnational corporations (example: McDonald’s, Amazon) that can definitely afford to pay their workers better but have chosen not to,” Kang said in an email interview.
“Fewer obstacles for those who would be willing to practice family medicine here and those interested in becoming certified as doctors. Much of the contention between citizens arises from the stress in their lives and the pressure placed upon them. The calmer and more content that people are, the more patient and compassionate they are able to be,” Kang continued.
When asked about one of the hottest topics in West Hants at the moment — the Avon River causeway and aboiteau — Kang said they have invested considerable time learning about the multifaceted issue.
“I can tell you that the issue of the causeway and the lake has sparked important questions that will need to be addressed on a wider scale as salination of our freshwater increases worldwide, such as who should pay for the adaptations that will be needed to either use salt water or desalinate it?”
The Avon River causeway system regulates the flow of the river. A federal ministerial order issued in March dictated that Lake Pisiquid, a freshwater head pond created as a result of the causeway opening in 1970, be drained and the gates be allowed to open for a minimum of 10 minutes at each incoming tide to allow for better fish passage. The sudden change has caused strife in the community.
Kang said they understand that for some, the lower water levels is an inconvenience, for others, it impacts quality of life.
“What I can tell you is that my stance on this and every issue will always be with the voiceless and the most vulnerable,” Kang wrote.
“For someone able-bodied, with a vehicle, who likes to kayak or ski but is able to do a myriad of other activities, lower water levels in Windsor and Falmouth will be an inconvenience. For someone who relies on a walker and has no access to transportation out of town, dust flying in their face along one of the few level walking paths available to them during a respiratory disease pandemic is a heavy impact on their quality of life.”
Kang continued to note that Indigenous communities are championing the cause of the fish that historically had unrestricted passage.
“Too many human construction projects ignore the habitats, migration patterns, and complex ecosystems of the millions of species other than our own,” Kang wrote. “Too often, the wisdom and values of our local Indigenous elders are ignored, ridiculed, and treated as an inconvenience. We of settler ancestry who occupy unceded lands need to learn the history that was never taught in colonial schools. We need to respect all our relations, and we need to stop ignoring the untold costs of conventional anthropocentric colonizer business as usual. We need to do better by those whose land we reside on and continue to profit from.”
Kang, who is a fire master at the Front Street Community Oven, considers themselves a lifelong learner and actively seeks to understand other points of view. Kang identifies as a nonbinary/genderfae human and uses they and them pronouns.