The federal election is Monday, but there's a good chance some of you still aren’t 100% sure of your decision.
With that in mind, PentictonNow chatted with all five South Okanagan--West Kootenay candidates over the past 48 hours for this, our last-minute candidate wrap-up.
We asked the same five questions of each candidate and they offered their replies. Note that we approached them with little advanced warning and conducted our Q&As verbally, giving them no chance to prepare scripted responses.
Here in Part III, it's Green Party candidate Tara Howse.
Tell us about yourself, your accomplishments, why you're the best candidate, and why you feel the need to run again?
I'm a rural development practitioner. I've been working in the field of rural development for my career, understanding how everything is interconnected, from housing to climate to social justice issues.
I recently finished my Masters, and I've been an active volunteer in my community for my whole life. I've been a hockey coach, served on the curling club board, and recently was one of the founding members of the BC Climate Alliance. And I serve on the City of Rossland advisory committee for the official community planning process.
I was the 2019 candidate, and I'm running again because I felt like I was dismissed and my voice wasn't heard. I feel like politicians need to be held accountable, and I feel I am able to bring forward and empower people's voices.
But what's really mportant and why I'm with the Green Party is that we don't have 'whipped' voting. I'm constitutionally required to represent constituents. It's not about towing the party line. It's not about following the leader. I have to be independent and responsible for the voices in this area, and as an MP, that's what I'm promising I'll always do.
Between soaring temperatures, wildfires, and choking, lingering wildfire smoke, summers are becoming increasingly difficult in the region. How will a vote for you and your party help change this?
There's two pieces to this. I'm not whipped, so I have the ability and the freedom to say that industrial forestry practices have to change. I'm the only candidate saying that, and the truth is we have to reassess how our forestry practices are being managed.
The massive forest fires we’re seeing are a result of industrial forest practices. We need a national forest strategy. We need to be investing in conservation efforts and providing Indigenous nations with autonomy and agency on their lands for them to steward.
It's no secret that the Green Party has consistently been pushing climate action policies from the beginning. We need to start having voices that can stand up and take a leadership role in pushing for these policies. We have to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. We have to create a cross-party caucus with independent scientists, youth and Indigenous voices to drive climate policies in this country.
Home prices and rents in the region were already onerous, then along came the pandemic to drive them into the stratosphere. How will the situation improve for folks who currently can barely afford rent, never mind a downpayment, with you as the MP?
I understand this issue in depth. I just completed a very large research project with the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary that looked at housing in the area and also in the Okanagan because we're so intertwined.
We're seeing a massive influx of people coming from the Island and the lower mainland, and the direct result is unaffordability. There's a zero percent vacancy rate. And this affects our work force, our families, everyone. And we have to recognize it’s not about just one segment of the population. Everything is interconnected.
We have to talk about things like foreign ownership, and we have to recognize that the CMHC needs to revert back to its original role, which was to support World War II veterans coming home. So we can revert CMHC's mandate to support cooperative housing, land trust models, co-housing mortgages, tiny home mortgages.
We need to help reduce cost and barriers to builders, which includes significant infrastructure upgrades in some of our rural communities. Some places are on septic. We can't have even a small development if someone is on septic.
So we have a federal responsibility to our communities for their infrastructure upgrades and to help mitigate some of the costs to developers and builders. And we have to realize there's a labour shortage. So this is all interwoven when it comes to housing in rural areas, and I absolutely understand these issues.
How would you and your government deal with the pandemic going forward? Where are your priorities? (Mask mandates, vaccination passports, economic recovery, etc?)
The pandemic really showed the huge gaps in our social network and our economy. We have to take this opportunity to start reinvesting into our local communities, reinvesting in our local economies. We shouldn't be shipping things away, then shipping them back in.
This is a great opportunity to start reinvesting in local manufacturing, reinvesting in transportation systems to allow our small businesses to thrive, and to review things like our tax system to allow our small businesses an opportunity to regain their footing.
Is there anything we skipped (Indigenous issues, crime, opioid crisis, homelessness, etc) that you feel is critically important and would like to discuss?
I really want to ask people how satisfied they are with their voting strategy so far. I'm hearing people are not happy with how their vote has been performing. And I give people that choice. I firmly believe in giving power back to the people.
If you're not happy with your vote it's time to make a change, because your vote matters. And I would like to be your voice in parliament.
