Thursday, September 26, 2019 ~ LANGFORD
by Mary Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
The only federal campaign presence at today’s monthly lunch meeting of the Westshore Women’s Business Network (WWBN) was that of both Green Party candidates for the west shore area: Lydia Hwitsum running in Cowichan-Malahat-Langford and David Merner running in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke.
About 50 women attended the lunch meeting at the Royal Colwood Golf Club to hear about the topic of ‘The Power of Mindset’ with keynote speaker Patricia Haakonson, and also had the chance to visit Hwitsum and Merner at their display table, and to hear a one-minute speech from each.
Hwitsum spoke about her work with all levels of government through her 20 years of running her own Hwitsum Management Consulting firm that does strategic management supports for all levels of government. She talked about “strengthening each other” and “finding ways to build stronger governments and relationships with each other”.
She said she has stepped up for this role as Green Party candidate so there can be “more Green voices in Parliament”.
“The real opportunity in Parliament is to raise issues that are important to this community and what happens to our environment and the well being of humanity,” said Hwitsum to the group. She wants to encourage people to think green and vote Green for “the riding, the country and Mother Earth”.
Merner started out by saying “the energy in this room is fantastic”. He said he’d been asked how it feels to be the only man in the room — being a father of four daughters he said he felt very welcome. That was a bridge for saying that he hopes in politics there can be “the sort of positive collaborative energy where people are working together, rather than fighting each other and competing all the time”.
“We need a different kind of politics in Canada and that’s one of the things we stand for … doing politics differently, where people are working together,” said Merner.
“We’re campaigning very hard,” said Merner. He started knocking on doors in December. He hears from people that their concerns are what’s going to happen to their children and grandchildren in the context of a “serious and urgent need to deal with the climate emergency”, the high cost of education, and having a livable income for all people.
The WWBN lunch organizers made an effort to ensure the entire buffet meal was gluten-free yet tasty and varied, without registrants having to make a special order for that dietary requirement.
Members with display tables each had a few minutes to promote their products or services.
WWBN was founded by Deb Alcadinho. She and her team will be celebrating the organization’s 10th anniversary this coming December.