Glenn Wright - NDP
Mechanical Engineer
“When people tell me that all politicians are scumbags, the main reason I am doing it is I want to make a difference. I don’t want it to be that way.”
When Glenn Wright decided to run for the NDP , he knew it would be an ugly business. But he wants voices like his to become part of parliament.
“People like me are underrepresented in politics. I’m a person of science background and I make my decisions on fact and evidence,” he says.
His campaign has already come with some hard choices on how his campaign is run.
“We’ve elected not to have committee rooms or a campaign office for this election...Given our financial position...(we want to) focus all of our resources on advertising and getting out with our volunteers for more canvassing and door knocking,” he says.
Wright has noticed the widespread affect of social media. He is finding a lot of active, vocal people on online forums, like the Warman Speakeasy groups.
What Wright sees on doorsteps is a consensus for change and unrest with current government from everyone from dyed in the wool Conservatives to those who want to see someone other than Harper in power.
Wright does not agree with the negativity and the mudslinging going on during election time but to him, there is little he is happy about when he looks back on the last 10 years of Harper and his Conservatives.
On issues:
Economy: “A diversified economy is an economy that can far better weather the storms, the price boom bust cycle of commodities...Governments don’t control commodity prices so governments are far better off to focus on the diversified economy.”
Environment: “When I look at how many environment ministers (the Conservatives) had - they just seem to shuffle an environment minister in there for between 10 and 18 months and never seem to get any real action out of that department - it’s quite clear to me that the Conservatives are not interested in balancing...growing the economy and protecting our environment.”
Education: “I would much rather see us invest dollars supporting post-secondary education so it’s more available to people who want to further their education...We’re not supporting education in the First Nations communities the same way that we do for other Canadians and that’s something that needs to rectified.”
First Nations: “The Truth and Reconciliation Commission published their report and we hear nothing but silence...Ninety-four recommendations in there, many of them are good ones, but it appears that that report will just gather dust if it’s the Conservative government that’s in power.”
Immigration: “I’m annoyed at the temporary foreign workers program. To hear about big companies like the Royal Bank (abusing the program), what are we really doing here? I think that program is being abused by corporations now. We shouldn’t be looking at our immigrants as a form of cheap, slave labour.”
Healthcare: “(People on doorsteps) think that no matter how much you hear about these three parties all wanting to implement a national pharmacare program, a lot of folks tend to say to me that they think it’s a dream. I’m reminded of the fact that, when I was a child in Saskatchewan, we did have a pharmacare program briefly and it did work.”
Agriculture: “As a small farmer, some of the things I’ve been really disappointed in was the wheat board and how the Conservatives undemocratically gutted the Wheat Board and they handed over hundreds of millions of dollars in assets that was developed by Canadian farmers to a U.S./Saudi partnership.”
