In the third installment of TimminsToday's candidate profiles for the riding of Timmins-James Bay, we feature Max Kennedy of the Green Party of Canada.
Kennedy is a math and science teacher with District School Board Ontario North East. He resides in Englehart.
Kennedy is a trained environmental toxicologist and has worked in several capacities including chemical recycling and as an environmental consultant. This election is his first foray into the political field.
He recently spoke with TimminsToday to discuss his campaign, as well as politics at the national level.
Q - Why did you decide to run in this election?
A - The truth is that the system that we've had up until now is quite literally duplicitous.
We vote for them, they promise us anything to get our vote, and once they're in Ottawa, they toe the party line. The party tells them how to vote on various issues and if they don't, they're punished.
Well, that's not my idea of a democracy. It really came down to, I complain about it or I do something about it. It was put up or shut up time, so I put up.
We really need as a country, our government to have integrity and that is not something that I could say for any of the parties we've had in the last 30 years.
Elizabeth May has come out and said if there's a conflict between what the party wants, and what your constituents want, as a Green MP you vote for your constituents. That's the kind of integrity that I can live with, and that's why I decided to run.
Q - How would you stimulate economic growth in the Timmins-James Bay region?
A - One of things that I would promote, it's not part of the Green Party platform but it's certainly keeping with it, is a rewards system for actually creating jobs.
Whereas people like Mr. Harper and the Liberals before him, would give across-the-board tax breaks. Right now we have $630 billion dollars, according to the IMF(International Monetary Fund) sloshing around in corporate bank accounts doing nothing. If lowering the tax for everybody created jobs, we'd be swimming in jobs. Where are they?
A system whereby a job created gets a benefit for that company, that's where I'd be going.
Another initiative would be promoting 'value added activities'. We have tremendous resources. We have tremendous mining resources, lumber resources and between Timmins and New Liskeard, there's a distinct farming community. What are we doing with that? We're extracting raw resources and sending them off.
In the 1970s, Canada's major export was finished goods. We're now back to being an exporter of raw materials and we've lost 500,000 manufacturing jobs in the last 10 years. There's just not that many jobs in the resource extraction sector to make up for that. The development of value-added jobs is what we need to promote.
Q - What are some of the challenges of running a campaign in the geographically massive Timmins-James Bay riding?
A - One of the challenges is that you have such a wide diversity of needs in the region. There's an old piece of wisdom that you can't be all things to all people. So when you're talking to people its sometimes difficult to convince them that you would be good for them as well, because maybe your party platform doesn't have something to address their specific needs this time around.
The way that I've addressed that though comes back to the integrity of our representatives. It really doesn't matter what anyone promises you, if they don't follow through, you're not getting it anyway.
At least with the Green Party, with somebody that is focused locally and has the integrity to say 'Yes, I'm going to work on this', you have the option to hold them by the short-and-curlies and ask 'Did you do that?' I would do it.
The other big challenge is getting everywhere so that you're seen by people. It is a challenge. I'm hoping to get up to the James Bay coast in the next couple of weeks. It's not like one of your southern Ontario urban ridings, where its 18 blocks and you can walk the entire riding.
Q - Green Party leader Elizabeth May recently said that the legalization and taxation of marijuana could be a 'good revenue stream'. Is that something you would be on board with?
A - Certainly on the medicinal side, I'm fully in support of that. Because of the stigma that its had, we do need to do more research. There is evidence that it deserves a lot more investigation than what its had, because its been labeled a 'recreational drug'.
As a recreational drug, something equivalent to alcohol, I'm a little more ambivalent on that personally. It's not in the same ballpark as heroin or any of the harder drugs, but I'm a little unsure of that.
There was a time when I would have said 'absolutely not'. In the last few years, before Elizabeth May brought it up, I've been looking into how other countries deal with it. Some of the models you find over in Europe, seem to have far greater success in keeping it out of the hands of children. Because it loses the mystique of being something that is forbidden, along with greater knowledge of it, use levels are actually lower.
I wouldn't say I'm against what Elizabeth has said, but I would say that it needs to be looked at in greater detail for me to fully support it.
Q - Do you have plans to open a campaign office? Will you be putting up any signage?
A - I'm working on the signage. This is my first time with my hat in the political arena and I've had to learn an awful lot.
I would like to get some signage out. I've been offered an office in Englehart, but without an official agent, there's also a difficulty in accepting donations.
The Green Party is not a big dollar party, I'm not happy with it, but that's where I am.
Q - What can be done to help the struggling forestry sector in Northeastern Ontario?
A - I think what we need to do is create a level playing field. Quebec has subsidized the industry with low energy costs, which creates an unfair competitive advantage.
That's something that I think we have to get rid of across Canada is subsidies of that nature. They create an environment where you can't compete appropriately.
One of the major problems we have is jurisdictional issues, whether its federal, provincial or municipal. The Council of Canadian governments that has been proposed by Elizabeth May, would set up a dialogue and smooth out those unfair pockets across the country. We need to create secondary manufacturing jobs, value-added jobs.
Q - What is your stance on the development of the Ring of Fire?
A - The potential is massive. That kind of industry though, has been subject to boom-and-bust cycles.
We need to have plans that extend beyond the 4 year cycle of an election period. We need to look at developing it in a sustainable fashion, so that the jobs that are created aren't just there for a few years, they are there consistently. Yes, it might mean that there aren't quite as many jobs but it also means that for someone who does work there, it's something that you can count on.
Obviously you need to work between all levels of government and that includes First Nations. It is on traditional lands. It needs to include them in the economic benefits.
We need to be fostering co-operation as opposed to conflict. Historically, Canadians have been very good at co-operation, but in the last 15-20 years we've been going more towards the American model of 'me-me-me and only me'. I don't see it as a short-term, get it done now kind of project, but its something we should be working on because there is tremendous value in the Ring of Fire.
Continued in Part Two.
