Dufferin–Caledon Green Party nominates candidate

March 4, 2021 · 0 Comments

Written By Sam Odrowski

Orangeville restaurant owner, Laura Campbell recently announced she will again be running for the Dufferin–Caledon seat under the Green Party in the 2022 provincial election, after first running in 2018.

Her core motivations to run are the same as when she first campaigned, to address environmental issues, create a green economy, and ensure all Ontarians are taken care of, especially the most vulnerable.

“The bigger picture remains that we have a climate crisis, we have also a biodiversity crisis, and we have a terrifying and continuing massive gap in wealth,” Campbell told the Free Press.

She also noted that strengthening protections for wetlands and green spaces threatened by development is a key priority for her campaign.

“Living in Doug Ford’s Ontario we can see the… brazen assault on our natural spaces, with the fast tracking of environmental assessments, to the copious use of Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZOs), just to get work done for developers without going through proper community consultation processes,” said Campbell.

She added that the Province’s “attack” on conservation authorities through the recent approval of Bill 229, which includes the controversial Schedule 6, is a cause for great concern. This decision allows the government to force conservation authorities to approve permits for development even when they go against their provincially mandated responsibility of protecting people, infrastructure, and the environment.

“I’m all about creating a prosperous economy, but if it’s not green then then you’re just shooting yourself in the foot as a society,” Campbell explained. “It’s absolutely possible to have jobs, and to have a safe, sustainable, strong, prosperous economy, that still puts the planet first.”

As Ontario recovers from COVID-19, Campbell stressed the importance of making it a green recovery, rooted in sustainability, that will create well-paying jobs, well into the future.

Affordable housing and wealth inequality are two other key issue Campbell plans to address if elected. Since first running in 2018, she says these issues have grown worse and been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Housing prices have continued to go up, but people’s wages aren’t going up,” said Campbell. “Young families, new Canadians, all kinds of folks cannot root themselves down in communities when they can’t even afford rent.”

Providing better wages, paid sick days, and long-term high-quality benefits to essential workers is another area of focus for Campbell.

Intersectional environmentalism, which is the disproportionate ecological impact to ethnic communities, has been a topic made popular over the last year, said Campbell.

“In Canada and in Ontario, when we talk about that, we’re talking a lot about indigenous communities and how they’ve been ignored by our governments for so long,” she noted.

“We have a real responsibility in the path to reconciliation to address those inequities, and that’s a huge thing that drives my work.”

For Campbell’s campaign, she says her focus will be to engage with constituents of the Dufferin–Caledon riding, listen to their ideas and advocate for positive change.

She landed third place in the 2018 election when first running, beating out the liberal party in total votes by a narrow margin, gaining 12.53 per cent of the total vote. The Progressive Conservative Party currently holds the seat and the NDP came in second during the 2018 election.

Campbell said her goal is to convince as many Dufferin–Caledon residents as she can that it’s time to change the way the government treats the environment and send a message to the major political parties that this change is needed now.

“We do our best to work across party lines and I think this is especially important in the context of Canadians and Ontarians feeling like, ultimately they only have a choice between the liberals and the conservatives, and possibly the NDP,” she remarked.

“These are not your only choices… across the world, people are electing greens. There’s really a green wave happening and what greens really have been showing their citizens is that we’re really adaptable.”

Any residents of the riding who would like to share their, ideas, concerns, or offer a comment can reach Campbell through lauracampbell@gpo.ca for a timely response.