Northern Green Party candidates say environmental issues being ignored

Two university professors are working to convince voters in northern Ontario to vote Green Party in this upcoming provincial election.

David Robinson and Bill Crumplin are running as Green party candidates in Sudbury and Nickel Belt respectively. In fact, the Green Party will have a candidate in every riding across Ontario this time around.

The party released its platform Wednesday, with a focus on three pillars: people, planet and jobs.

"At the heart of that is an understanding that these are really tightly connected issues," Robinson, an economics professor at Laurentian University, said.

Robinson ran in the last federal election, and in the Sudbury byelection three years ago. He is back representing the Greens in Sudbury.

"The job platform is really driven by an understanding that we can make a big conversion to a carbon free or lower carbon economy," he said. 

"But that's going to actually generate huge amounts of work...especially for young people."

Robinson says climate change is a major issue that others political parties aren't talking about in this election. He adds that the other parties are also not making the environment a priority.

"We know from the polls that the majority of Canadians want more action on climate change," he said.

Robinson says scientists are clear that not enough is being done to improve the situation.

"The government's own auditor says that they can't achieve their goals, Doug Ford wants to go backwards and the NDP's been hiding from the issue. You've got one issue that is absolutely massive, world-changing and they're all hiding from it."

Nickel Belt candidate new to politics

Crumplin, the candidate representing the Green Party in the riding of Nickel Belt is also a professor at Laurentian University. He teaches environmental studies.

"There are only so many times a professor can tell his students to stand up for what they believe in and to get involved in the community, without actually doing it himself," Crumplin said.

This is his first time running in an election, and he says his students were a big influence on his decision.

"I think my generation is probably going to escape the real challenges of what I call 'climate chaos'. But my students I do firmly believe, and I'm afraid that they're of the age, they're the generation that is going to pay dearly for this," he said.

Crumplin says he chose the Green Party because he wants a better future for his young great nieces and nephews, and his students.

"I'm tired of the NDP, the Liberals and the Conservatives saying that we need jobs first. We need to exploit our resources that we'll worry about the environment later. There is no later, as far as I'm concerned. It is now."

No sugar-coating the issues

"I just think it's a shame that we don't hear anything about the environment really or putting the environment first from the other parties."

The Green Party puts an emphasis on putting people and the planet first, which Crumplin fully supports, including supporting small businesses.

"I try to stay away from national and multi-national firms. I try to support local business whenever I can," he said.

Crumplin also likes how the Green Party is honest about the issues, whereas the other main parties are too busy trying to spin issues to get votes.

"We're not going to give false promises in order to buy votes....There isn't a bottomless pot of money in Toronto to pay for everything that we think we want."