Green Party leader pays visit to Kamloops one week before election day

“Choosing [Kamloops] with six days to go says something about why we are here,” said May in a news conference at Currie’s office on Victoria Street. “Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo is showing some real movement for the Green Party.”

May and Kidder, the party’s Finance Critic and candidate in the Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon riding, were also in Kamloops to announce the Green’s commitment to reform the tax system. It would include raising the corporate tax rate from 15 to 21 per cent and charge a five per cent surtax on commercial bank profits.

“We look to where the money is and it’s in large corporations, it’s with the banks, it’s with the Internet companies who pay, I could use root phases, but not very much,” said Kidder. “We see a whole lot of room in things like stock options and capital gains tax that needs to be adjusted pretty strongly.”

The Greens feel the money is out there. It’s a matter of extracting it to pay for social programs, fight climate change, and ultimately balance the budget.

“Bringing in universal pharmacare in the first year of spending is $26 billion,” said May. “Eliminating tuition and debt forgiveness [for people making less than $70,000 a year].”

Cancelling the Trans Mountain pipeline, May says, would free up $13 billion of federal public money. She says it would be put into energy infrastructure for a national energy grid among other things.

May’s visit meant a lot to Currie. The party knows how tight this riding Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo could be.

“The energy is here and people understand this is the most important election of our lifetime,” said Currie. “As John said and Elizabeth pointed out, the Green Party has a full platform that speaks to the things Canadians want.”

May said on Tuesday the momentum from the 2017 provincial election gives her confidence this federal election could bring similar results for the Greens.

“When I saw the provincial Greens in 2017, having not even had a candidate here in the previous provincial election, run Dan Hines and Donovan Cavers and get 20 per cent of the vote, then we thought ‘okay, Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo is an area where the Greens can do well. In fact, we can win.”

As far as a strong Green vote enabling the Conservatives to come up the middle, May pointed out that Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada could end up splitting the vote on the right.

She adds a vote for the Greens is not only a vote for the climate, but she would also promise to clean up a scandal-ridden Canadian government.

by Ashley Legassic

Green Party leader pays visit to Kamloops one week before election day

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