Saturday October 19, 2019 ~ LANGFORD
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
On the heels of a four-day weekend of advance voting, and with less than a week to go until Election Day, Green Party candidate Lydia Hwitsum (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford) was boosted in the campaign profile of the west shore with a feature presentation by long-time environmental activist David Suzuki.
The event on Tuesday evening October 15 at the Westin Bear Mountain Resort in Langford was a rally for Lydia Hwitsum’s campaign including a long and effusive introduction by Green MLA Sonia Furstenau. Suzuki teased he’d like to enjoy an illustrious introduction like that next time!
Suzuki was introduced as having 29 honorary degrees! He is a well-known environmental activist with a long career through media including the documentary series The Nature of Things on CBC-TV (a series that began in 1960 which Suzuki has hosted since 1979).
The audience of over 200 people was clearly captivated by Suzuki’s meandering but powerful unscripted speech which lasted about 45 minutes. He covered all the base-points about the importance of climate change action, punctuated with a graphic scenario of trying to convince an unnamed corporate CEO that saving the planet comes down to remembering that we are biological creatures who are polluting the air, water and earth that we depend upon for survival.
And he got political. He’s been on a road tour with former politician and diplomat Stephen Lewis who together during this 43rd federal election campaign are promoting that climate change is no longer a partisan issue, given that the Canadian Parliament has declared climate change as a climate emergency. Which is rather interesting when juxtaposed with his support for Green Party candidates who represent what is essentially still a single-issue platform (or in this 2019 election cycle perhaps a single-issue platform that leads a bundle of issues behind it).
“So, everyone who comes to parliament works on climate change as a national issue,” declared Suzuki right at the start of his speech. Working for climate protections can give Canadians a sense of unity that he compared to the unified momentum of sports fans across Canada supporting the Raptors basketball team earlier this year (even though the sports phenomenon was de facto a short-lived one). He stretched that to referring to how democratic nations rallied together to fight World War II: “Winning a war was not a partisan issue”.
Suzuki pitched to the audience that how they vote is going to depend on whether they (which party) make climate change a top issue. He said today’s children don’t have a chance to look forward to the world enjoyed by Canadians who are now older. He supports the climate action rallies by teens and youth who have been leaving school to go out an protest. “It’s a shame that children have to tell us what the consequences of what we’re doing are,” he said, adding that a healthy planet is the “rightful legacy of our children and grandchildren”.
Suzuki pitched for seeing the world as an ecological system, not an economic one that measures its success by degrees of continual growth. He articulated that the legal system is “tilted the wrong way”, in that there are often some workarounds even after an environmental success has been achieved.
Simplistically saying that “green things take carbon out of the air”, he broadened that with challenging tree-planting as a solution where instead a full ecosystem approach is a more successful environmental solution than a ‘tree farm’.
And back to the politics of Green: “Elizabeth May is an amazing politician. She will find ways to get all the parties to work together.” The audience liked the sound of that. He also reminded about listening to indigenous peoples about their solutions to environmental issues.
“Climate change is the number one issue. It’s amazing to have Lydia Hwitsum running — indigenous and a woman,” Suzuki wrapped up with.
During the evening, there was a lot of reference to young children and grandchildren of the guest speaker and the candidate. In a brief interview with West Shore Voice News after the speeches, author-broadcaster-activist Suzuki replied to “what’s your most important accomplishment?”, with this: “My children.” He said he was pleased to be supporting the various Green Party candidates around the BC Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island.
In a long and suitably detailed speech during the two-hour rally held at Bear Mountain Resort, Hwitsum covered a wide range of reasons why she is running, and where she feels both the Cowichan-Malahat-Langford riding and the country should be heading in terms of equality for first nations as well as dealing with climate change.
Hwitsum said that “the Indian Act has run our lives for far too long”, which brought significant agreement from the audience. “We have so much work to do and it’s an uphill challenge,” she said about bringing first nations people fully into Canadian society.
The October 15 rally was also attended by Green Party candidate David Merner (Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke), and was immediately preceded by a private get-together ($250/ticket) for Green supporters to meet one-on-one with Suzuki.
The Lydia Hwitsum campaign office is at 134 B Fourth Street in Duncan. Contact info for the Campaign Office: 250-597-VOTE (8683) and email cmlgreens@greenparty.ca
On election day Monday October 21, the Hwitsum team will be waving signs in Duncan on Trunk Road and Trans Canada Highway, and at the Highway Pedestrian overpass. To participate, RSVP online. Their election night gathering will be at Cherry Point Wines in Cobble Hill.
============= ARTICLES:
- Lydia Hwitsum, Green Party Candidate (Cowichan-Malahat-Langford) addressed a campaign rally in Langford on October 15 (October 15, 2019)
- Lydia Hwitsum took part in an All Candidates Debate held at Brentwood College on Saturday September 14. See page 2 in the September 13-17 digest of West Shore Voice News .