Nipissing-Timiskaming Green Party Candidate Craig Bridges kicks his campaign off at North Bay City Hall Saturday morning.
Thanking supporters and the media for leaving their families and other commitments to spend part of their Saturday morning with him, Nipissing-Timiskaming Green Party Candidate Craig Bridges explained why people from young families to business owners are making the switch to green.
“People who are concerned about our future are from every walk of life,” he explains.
“I’m so impressed and I’m very humbled by the number of people that have come out and by the diversity it just tells you that people are paying attention. People are paying attention to what’s happening not just in the environment but politically and they care and they want change they want a new message they want a different idea they want hope and that’s what we offer.”
Bridges said that he opted to kick off his campaign off on the steps of North Bay City Hall versus his campaign office on Lakeshore Drive because an initiative he strongly supports was taking place across the street.
“The farmers market represents a local initiative to bring people out to connect local people who have local supplies with local people with local demands and I think that they work really well together,” he explains.
“The farmers’ market is something that the Green Party supports whether the farmers’ market supports me or not that’s their choice.”
Speaking of choices Bridges said it came as no surprise that his party leader, Elizabeth May, was originally blocked from the National Leaders Debate.
“I think that we should have all expected that that was what was going to happen, there is an established power base and they are going to help or try to protect their own power. And having someone come in with new ideas, with imagination, with a positive message is dangerous to them.”
“We are looking to take their jobs, the jobs that they believe are rightfully theirs as leaders and as MPs and Prime Ministers and I don’t think that there’s a rightful spot for any party as the Prime Minister that’s the people’s choice, the Prime Minister shouldn’t tell you who you should hear and who you shouldn’t hear that’s not democracy.”
Bridges explained why he made the choice to go green when it came to his political views.
“I have followed politics very closely my whole life, I’ve been a supporter of the large parties in the past and a number of years ago I looked up after all the different things had happened on the federal stage and I decided that I needed to look to a different place.”
“When I came to the Green Party it really did feel like a political homecoming.”
He went on to talk about the real differences he sees between the Greens and the older established parties and why with the Green Party future generations will inherit a healthy county.
“I think that in every way it’s different, we are not the established party with lobby groups that come in and bring their opinions above and beyond the needs and desires of the citizens of Canada.”
“We are a party of absolutely grass roots based and we don’t have the political machines, we don’t have the war rooms that’s not what this is about it’s about democracy this is about our future. And it doesn’t require a machine or war room to get the message out,” he states.
“It’s about a holistic future that brings our economy, our environment, our health system, our education system and our lives back into a web of care and sustainability as opposed to keeping them siloed.”
Bridges also noted that the big parties are taking notes out of the Green Party’s play book to develop policy, but unlike the Greens they haven’t truly given time to come up with a well thought our plan.
“The biggest difference I would say is that the Liberal party poached their ideas directly from the Green Party which is terrific … parties don’t hold a patented on good ideas. If other parties want to steal our ideas fantastic, because we believe our ideas are good ones.”
“So the Green Party provided the basis that the Liberal party has borrowed and it’s great that they’ve done so, but they didn’t go to the extent of talking about the reform we are talking about. The Green Party is the only party that is talking about the significant reduction of income and payroll tax, significant reinvestment in our manufacturing in community manufacturing local manufacturing, so there is a significant difference in the depth and breadth of policies versus the Liberals. The Liberals are doing it on the fly we’ve been looking at this policy for years,” he adds.
Locally Bridges says he wants to not only see the needed changes happen to the environment, economy and health systems take place, but that he also wants to see changes in manufacturing so that consumers are purchasing a greater amount of goods that are 100 percent Canadian.
“What I’d like to see in our riding in particular is a greater emphasis on keeping our resources at home, having value added jobs for our resource based economy,” he explains.
“We have a resource based economy … we ship things out not everything gets shipped out, but the majority of our resources get shipped out for other people to add value to it. And I’m not sure why we’re shipping wood to China to be made into chairs to be brought back to North Bay to sell that doesn’t make sense to me.”
