The provincial leader of the Green Party took the pulse of the Battlefords in a recent visit.
"The province has never needed a Green MLA more than they do now," said Larissa Shasko, party leader, who was in North Battleford Oct. 3 for an informal gathering at Crandleberry's as part of her tour of the province. Her visit followed earlier meetings in Prince Albert, Paradise Hill and Saskatoon, and she planned to continue her tour last week in Yorkton, Estevan and Weyburn.
The purpose of the tour is to "meet fellow Green Party supporters as well as new supporters," and also to do candidate recruitment for the next provincial election. She also wanted to find out what the local issues are that people are concerned about, issues the other parties aren't addressing, she said.
The Greens have been growing "fast and furious", said Shasko. The party ran 48 candidates provincially in 2007, and Shasko is promising the Green Party will run a full slate of candidates provincially for the first time in the next election.
As far as the party's platform is concerned, it will be approved and voted on by the members prior to the election.
"We are a grassroots party", she said, which "acts from the bottom up."
The same will be true of the candidate selection process.
Shasko said further announcements on candidates and nominations, including in the Battlefords and surrounding area, can be expected in the coming months.
In the meantime, Shasko will be running in the Oct. 18 Saskatoon Northwest by-election, where she will be on the ballot as a candidate.
She sees the by-election as a further way to increase the party's profile and possibly get elected to the legislature.
"By-elections are always a great opportunity for the people of the province to get to know a leader of a new party," said Shasko.
The 28-year-old University of Regina student is no stranger to political campaigns, having run twice federally for the Green Party in Regina, and also provincially and municipally in her home community of Moose Jaw.
She became provincial leader in 2009 and was re-elected to a two-year term earlier this year.
Shasko said she was motivated to join the Greens because of the principles of the party, such as "ecological wisdom, participatory democracy, gender diversity" as well as "peace and non-violence."
The other mainstream parties aren't offering that, she said. "As a voter the other political parties weren't giving me anything to vote for," said Shasko.
The party has been keeping its eye on a number of important issues. One of them has been the potash issue and the ongoing story of the proposed takeover of PotashCorp by BHP Billiton. The Conference Board of Canada has issued a report on the takeover, stating the takeover could have little to no net effect on employment in the industry and potentially reduce provincial revenues by $2 billion.
"A Green Party government would have handled that issue differently," said Shasko.
She said foreign takeovers are not in the "net benefit" of Canadians, and said the provincial Greens would be putting pressure on the federal government to use power under the Investment Canada Act to turn down the takeover bid.
She also called for resource royalty rates to be raised, so the people of the province are better able to realize the benefits of ownership of the potash and to deter takeover bids by foreign companies.
The Greens have also been critical of the province's policies on the uranium industry and nuclear power.
"The nuclear debate brought me to the position I hold now," said Shasko, saying the party's opposition to nuclear power help stop the proposed large-scale nuclear reactor that was being proposed for the province last year.
The party is now working towards stopping the location of a nuclear-waste storage facility in northern Saskatchewan, she said. Shasko said the party opposes further expansion of the uranium industry in Saskatchewan.
The Green leader says the public is with the Green Party on their stand on nuclear, despite what some polls might say.
"A majority of people in the province do not want nuclear power," Shasko said.
Instead, Shasko said her party supports increased energy efficiency and greater conservation measures.
Shasko is also concerned about health care issues and wants to see greater emphasis placed on preventative measures and the root causes of illnesses.
While the Green Party looks to be in its most prepared state going into an election and believes they can attract a stronger percentage of the vote than last time, actually winning one of the 58 ridings in the province may prove a tall order.
That is yet another issue for the party - the first-past-the-post electoral system that is currently in place in the province. Shasko reiterated the Greens' stance in favour of proportional representation and for democratic reforms to take place, saying the current electoral system is one cause for the disinterest in politics among many people in the province.
Shasko believes the current system disenfranchises many voters, and says greater democracy will be one of the issues she will be pushing in the by-election campaign.
"Democracy is definitely what this by-election is about," said Shasko.
