Georgina
October 08, 2008 07:08 PM
If Sylvia Gerl is tired of campaigning for the NDP in the past three federal elections in York-Simcoe, she’s not showing it.
And that comes after another tilt in the provincial election five years ago in the York North riding where she placed a strong third.
Third place has been the traditional finish for Ms Gerl, 49, but she said she takes heart in the fact she pulled in close to 2,000 more votes in 2006 over the previous election and, with party leader Jack Layton the choice of more Canadians for prime minister than Liberal leader Stephane Dion, this could be a breakthrough campaign.
She outlined her party’s environmental policy, which is the most comprehensive of any, including a cap and trade carbon pricing sytem. She pointed to the Clean Air and Climate Change Act, based on the NDP’s polluter-pay plan, that was praised by environmentalists.
The NDP also has its Green Collar Jobs Plan designed to make Canada’s much-needed transition to a low-emissions new energy economy.
The NDP policy is both environmentally strong and economically responsible, she said.
But big polluters will pay.
“You have to be able to check and see how much everyone is polluting. It’s very sensible and necessary to start putting the onus on the creators of the pollution. I don’t think the Green Shift is strong enough. And it’s not simple to explain.”
The Green Party are more of a “single issue” party, she added.
The Harper Tories’ environmental policies have been a failure, she said, noting they abandoned the Kyoto Accord emission targets and continued to subsidize companies developing the Alberta tar sands, Canada’s biggest polluter.
Canadians are lucky to have universal health care, thanks to her party, Ms Gerl said.
“I was talking with a nurse today who was from the (United) States. She told me she once had to take a man off the operating table, luckily they hadn’t cut him yet because the insurance company decided he wasn’t a good enough risk,” she said. “She said, ‘You guys don’t know how good it is here’. We need to preserve that.”
A feminist, Ms Gerl has been a community activist participating in anti-proverty rallies, an advocate at a shelter for abused women and children and was previously a residential counsellor for dually diagnosed handicapped adults.
She is a member of the board of directors of an addiction treatment centre, a volunteer with a pioneer museum, the Eaglewood Folk Festival and a member the Poverty Action Coalition for Change, the Council of Canadians and Greenpeace
For more go to sylviagerl.ndp.ca/en