Democratic reform, voter participation, and the environment took centre stage in a town hall with Green party candidates SFU professor Lynne Quarmby, Claire Martin, and environmentalist David Suzuki.
The meeting on Wednesday night, held in Images Theatre on Burnaby Campus, was organized to allow the crowd of about 150 students and voters to ask the candidates questions directly.
As part of the developing campaign story, the town hall sought to foster conversation between voters and the parliamentary hopefuls.
Quarmby is running in Burnaby North — Seymour, and Claire Martin is running in North Vancouver. The election is on October 19.
To begin the event, Suzuki offered a passionate call for young voters to act because “youth has everything at stake in this election.” Although he describes himself as nonpartisan, he plainly stated his opposition to the current government by telling the audience, “I just want Harper to get the hell out of office.”
As his speech went on, Suzuki grew more candid. While retelling a story of how he had met Harper in the late 1980s, he let slip that he told the politician, “Mr. Harper, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
Martin jested later in the evening, “I didn’t know we could swear!”
Distrust of politicians and distaste for the current state of affairs in Ottawa was a common theme as the candidates described their thoughts and why they decided to run for the Green Party.
Quarmby expressed that if politicians were doing their job faithfully, she wouldn’t have to leave science and run. She continued to say that the Green Party was the only party she could run for, being “the only party that can freely represent their constituents.”
Quarmby’s decision to run has had an effect on the campus over the course of this election. Her campaign signs and buttons can be found all over campus, some even hanging from faculty office name-plates.
Michael Vegh, co-president of SFU Greens and Quarmby’s campus campaign organizer said that student support has been strong since the SFU Greens was founded in Spring 2015 and added, “Week by week [support] keeps growing.”
The town hall ended with a question and answer period. The topics ranged from tuition fees, unemployment, and the contentious subject of strategic voting. Several times, attendees also referred to the Green Party’s election platform.
The document, released on September 9, promises an end to tuition, the repealing of Bill C-51, and a bold action on climate. Quarmby expressed confidence in these promises: “I know what I offer is what people want.”
The recurring theme that overshadowed all others was voter participation. Martin explained that by not voting in the election, citizens were in effect casting a vote on the status quo.
She concluded that in acknowledgement of candidates’ effort to inform voters with events such as this, she asked that participants “[do] us the honour and vote.”
