Courtesy of Green Party
What you need to know about the candidate

Catharine Kendall

Oct 11, 2019 | 12:10 PM

Catharine Kendall is running for the Green Party in the Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies riding. Here’s what you need to know about the candidate:

Catharine Kendall-Green Party

Q: Why are you running for office?

A: I am running for federal office, seeking a seat as an MP in Ottawa so my children, our children have a future to look forward to. If we do not change the human course of how we live and take care of this province, country and planet, there will come a time where the waste clean-up will be too overwhelming and the climate will not be as comfortable.

Q: How does your party plan to address the issue of climate change?

A: A Green government will pass into law a Climate Change Act requiring a 60 percent cut in climate-changing emissions below 2005 levels by 2030, reaching net-zero by 2050. Interim targets would be set at 5-year intervals beginning in 2025.

Q: How would you address housing challenges facing some Aboriginal communities across our region?

A: Legislate housing as a legally protected fundamental human right for all Canadians and permanent residents. Increase the National Housing Co-Investment Fund by $750 million for new builds and the Canada Housing Benefit by $750 million for rent assistance for 225,000 households.

Q: What’s your stance on the development of pipelines?

A: Cancel the TransMountain pipeline (and its $10-13 billion cost) as well as to other subsidies to fossil fuel industries, totalling an additional several billion dollars a year. This money will be redirected to the Canadian Gridstrategy and the renewable energy transition. No new pipelines will be approved.

Q: Should the federal government help those affected by the downturn in the forestry sector? If yes, how?

A: Yes, by re-creating a forest industry that relies on wood manufacturing locally and offering retraining for individuals to manage, process and value add the forest products sustainably extracted.

Q: Do you think there should be term limits for MPs?

A: No.

Why you should vote for me:

Q: What would you do to help struggling seniors in the region?

A: Have all required supports in place for all seniors whether they choose to age at home or transition to a residential facility. Free Pharmacare. A 50% top up to CPP.

Q: What is something interesting about you that voters don’t know?

A: My work in the field of Environmental Health took me to many places in North Central BC. I learned from many First Nations Elders that I interviewed during this time that the landscapes that we love in the North and call home have been devastated for a very long time by the cumulative impacts of clear cut logging and aerial herbicide spraying, mining and contaminants that leak, dams that change water courses and ecosystems forever. I was part of studies that took samples from wildlife and fish that showed signs of these environmental impacts with organ and tissue changes. The fish in Pinche Lake are still being contaminated by Mercury leaching from gold mines that were closed long ago. The swans were never as numerous on the Nechako River after the Kenney Dam went in. The people of Blueberry River Nation today still suffer in the shadows of the oil and gas industry at their front and back doors. Their community was once moved due to sour gas well leaks. Our Canadian government moved them 1km away over a small hill.

Q: Where in the riding do you live? Why? What are your favourite places to spend time in?

A: Eaglet Lake and area. It has been my home for over 20 years. I live here because it is peaceful.

Q: Name the last Netflix program you binge-watched.

A: I do not have Netflix.

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