In my efforts to cover the election in Marquette, Marguerite-Bourgeoys and Verdun, I emailed a brief questionnaire in English to the candidates. John Symon*, the Green Party candidate for Marquette and a colleague in the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) was the first one to respond to my questions.
Here are his responses:
Yes, am running for the Green Party of Quebec in Marquette. This is my 2nd foray as a political candidate, having run for the du Canal council seat during the 2009 Lachine municipal election. I also worked (successfully) as a campaign manager in LaSalle-Emard during the 2011 federal campaign. I first became active with the Green Party in BC in the early 1980s and was also involved with the municipal Ecologie Montreal party in the late 1980s.”
1. Do you have details about local events you’ll be participating in between now and the 22nd?
For the moment, the priority is simply collecting signatures to support having my name put on the ballot. We need at least 100 signatures for that and, although I have a few volunteers, the Greens have nothing like the organization of bigger parties. Because we are thin on the ground, I am also working for party leader Claude Sabourin’s campaign in NDG.”
2. How do you plan to connect with voters in Lachine and Dorval during that time?
In part through newspaper articles such as this one. Thank you for letting me express my point of view!
The Greens are running a very low budget campaign and most of my contact with voters will be by glad-handing at local malls, door-to-door campaigning, a few dozen Coroplast election signs, some brochures, and through Facebook (Parti vert du Quebec Marquette).
Despite our scarce resources, we have high hopes. In 2008, we finished second in three Montreal Island ridings (D’Arcy-McGee, Jacques-Cartier, and Notre-Dame-de-Grâce) and finished third in four others (Mont Royal, Nelligan, Robert Baldwin, and Westmount-Saint-Louis). Given our bright showing in 2008, and with the recent election of Greens in Australia, Belgium, British Columbia, Columbia, France, Germany, Lebanon, Mexico, and New Zealand, etc, we wonder why the mainstream media is not following our party more closely.”**
4. Will you be participating in local debates? If so, when?
I am not aware of any debates scheduled in Dorval or Lachine but would be glad to participate.”
5. Can you outline your positions on some of the major local issues for me?
As you know, I am a big bicycle advocate. And part of promoting cycling falls under Quebec jurisdiction. I strongly support improving public transportation on the West Island and especially improving commuter train lines.
It should also be pointed out that for Anglophone voters that only two parties in Quebec (that I am aware of) officially have English versions of their names. Apart from the Greens, only the Liberals can claim this.
On Quebec independence, Claude Sabourin calls this “an irrelevant question” and suggests that the priority be put on saving the planet before we argue about the colour of our flag. That makes us federalists, if not globalists.
We are strongly opposed to provincial tax monies being used to reopen an asbestos (Jeffrey) mine to export lung cancer to the rest of the world. Ironically, the Charest Liberals are currently suing tobacco companies for knowingly selling a product that causes lung cancer.”
6. Did you set aside your journalism for the course of the campaign, or are you still reporting as well as campaigning?
Probably few freelance journalists are independently wealthy enough to take 35 days off work to campaign and I’m certainly not one of them! I informed my editors of the decision to run and am continuing to work with a reduced schedule and avoiding any topic that could be construed as linked to the provincial election. So I am continuing to write about charity events, sports, profiling local businesses, etc.”
Corrections and additions:
*In the first version of this article, I spelled John’s last name incorrectly. Sorry John.
**The first version of this article didn’t include this section.
Thanks John for carrying the Green flag. Indigene Community is working with a Mathematics professor from Universite de Quebec a Montreal Dr. Emile Segev to create and launch neighbourhood software an online Human Resource Catalogue HRC & Community Investment & Exchange System CIES. In order to build a fractal of local to international sustainability, we need to know & value each-other in our families, multihome buildings & communities. Economic Democracy is a stronger determinant of results than political democracy. Douglas Jack, Green Party of Canada candidate 2004 in LaSalle-Emard. 514-365-9594