He’s got the name for it, and once again Arthur Green is running for the Green Party, this time as the Green Party of Canada’s candidate for the federal election in Chilliwack-Hope.
This isn’t Green’s first foray into politics. Most recently the Hope resident ran for the Greens in the provincial election in 2017 in Fraser-Nicola.
“Standing shoulder to shoulder with the Canadian Greens, and Greens from around the world, climate change will be our priority issue,” Green said in a statement issued Monday. “Creating a plan to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees is the major concern, not only for Greens, but populations from around the world.
“The latest announcements that unmitigated climate change will result in the extinction of over one million species, is not only alarming, but potentially catastrophic, not only for other species, but ours as well.”
Green said the party’s innovation and technology platforms will help with local economic development. Green used to work in the motion picture production industry where he sees potential.
“With over $3.5 billion of motion picture production forecasted for 2019, and growing, this has the potential to increase the GDP of the Eastern Fraser Valley by tens of millions of dollars, and create hundreds of family supporting jobs. We currently have an extensive crew of volunteers, and will be out canvassing in your neighbourhood soon.”
Green’s announcement puts the total officially announced number of candidates at three in a riding that will likely have at least five seeking to be the Member of Parliament.
At the start of May, incumbent Conservative Mark Strahl confirmed he would seek re-election as MP for Chilliwack-Hope. Before that, on April 27, the upstart People’s Party of Canada chose high school social studies teacher Robert Bogunovic as their candidate for the riding.
• READ MORE: Candidate chosen for People’s Party of Canada in Chilliwack-Hope
Neither the Liberals nor the NDP have chosen a candidate yet, but the NDP is planning a nomination meeting in June.
The riding of Chilliwack-Hope was created in 2012 when federal electoral boundaries were redistributed. Chilliwack-Hope is a geographically much smaller version of the previous riding, Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon.
In the 2015 federal election, Strahl won with 42.3 per cent of the vote. Liberal candidate Louis De Jaeger finished second with 33.8 per cent, and the NDP’s Seonaigh MacPherson received 18.2 per cent. Green candidate Thomas Cheney received 4.7 per cent. Two indpendents, Libertarian Alexander Johnson and Marxist-Leninist Dorothy-Jean O’Donnell each received less than one per cent of the 50,661 votes cast.