Ottawa

BTC: Behold, the child who will lead us

CBC has a nice round-up of the young(er) candidates running in this election. Most worthy of your attention might be the Green party’s Emily Berrigan, who is, if nothing else, bravely quotable.

A few of the highlights so far.

On why she’s running. “Because parliament frankly needs me. I’m young, I’m a woman and I’m working class and I’m really not ashamed of that. In fact I’m pretty damn proud of that. The old parties in Ottawa have not been serving us well. We’ve been stuck with a backbencher for two years, who can only talk about two pie-in-the-sky ideas … that don’t even have shovels in the ground. I think Peterborough deserves to get noticed. Who is going to be noticed more? A backbencher? Or a young working class woman who gets it.”

On Parliament. She remembers sitting in the House of Commons gallery with Ms May watching people run the country while acting like “buffoons.” “It is completely disconnected. I don’t think I have to tell anybody that, I think everybody knows that it’s completely disconnected from real life,” she explains.

On government plans for a train from Peterborough to Toronto. “It’s not enough to propose one rail line through three safe Tory ridings and think that’s all he has to do to show real leadership.”

On Omar Khadr. “Omar was a child when he was put into Guantanamo Bay. Perhaps Mr. Del Mastro does not understand what a child soldier is.” 

On Del Mastro’s rejection of same-sex marriage on biblical grounds. “I grew up a Catholic too. It does not mean I am going to take everything at face value because it is biblical.” 

On government funding for the arts. “Any country that supports the arts is incredibly brave…it allows itself to be both celebrated and criticized. Arts and culture contributes to overall well-being. In a world of strip malls and parking lots, it provides relief to mediocrity. Arts and culture is not just a frill and shouldn’t be treated that way by government. It’s a whole range of things, each contributing in a big way to who we are as a people.”

On Tory crime proposals. “Poverty begets violence. We need to focus on poverty and the reasons why some juveniles are acting out in such horrific manners. Don’t just throw them in jail, it’s not humane and not a long-term solution, either.”

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