Grazing Rites

Better Know A(n Electoral) District: New Westminster – Coquitlam

I have a Political Science Honours degree, a family, and I would like to think I’m generally seen as a pretty responsible and informed guy. As such during an election cycle it is not uncommon for people to ask my opinion on whom to vote for. They’re not so much asking me to tell them how to vote but rather to help them identify their priorities and inform them about the candidates, parties, and policy platforms that suit their interests and beliefs. In this particular election, as I’ve mentioned before, there’s no single party that has my complete support. In this election I feel none of the leaders are perfect and no party platform has a clear lead against the others so I feel this election we must look at the local candidates to make informed decisions and thus I humbly offer my research and analytical services.

I’ve put it off for awhile but someone who regularly requests my input had asked about this district so I’d best be getting to it since advance polls open this week. So I present a semi-in-depth look at the race in New Westminster-Coquitlam.

The candidates are:

Dawn Black (New Democratic Party)
Lewis C. Dahlby (Libertarian Party of Canada)
Michelle Hassen (Liberal Party of Canada)
Yonah Martin (Conservative Party of Canada)
Marshall Smith (Green Party of Canada)
Roland Verrier (Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada)

I will immediately dismiss the Libertarian and Marxist-Leninist Parties solely because they are not running candidates nation-wide.

First some history: the district was established in 2003; a Conservative won in 2004 by 113 votes, Dawn Black won in 2006 by 9,928 votes.

Let’s take a look at the candidates.

Yonah Martin (Conservative)
She claims the Liberals are “just interested in cutting taxes for large corporations” which as far as I can tell is not only untrue but completely nonsensical, particularly when the Conservative party keeps drawing attention to the Liberal Carbon Tax which would be levied on corporations. She also wants to “develop northern resources” which to me reads like offshore drilling and strip mining and yet somehow at the same time she wants to “deal with climate change in the north” and “protect the northern environment”. For one this contradicts a goal of developing resources and for another it showcases a remarkable misunderstanding of climate change. You can’t just “deal with” climate change, a vague proposition to begin with, in a single area. As well why is she advocating so much for the north when she doesn’t represent that area? This is also illustrated by some of her other areas of focus like crime which I don’t believe is a significant issue in the riding. Two areas I can get behind are environmental protection against flooding and senate reform. But the lack of depth of her policy positions and contradictory claims make anything she says somewhat suspect in my opinion. Her background, for those of you interested in such things, is teaching for 20 years and heavy involvement in the Korean community.

Michelle Hassen (Liberal)
She doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page so I largely had to rely on her website for information. I’m pleased to see she puts Health Care at the top of her agenda but her policy stance is thin and vague – frankly she reminds me of Sarah Palin both in appearance and lack of depth. Overall her website lacks specifics and wisdom – she puts up a tiny paragraph or two on issues she thinks are important but is painfully vague and lacking in specifics. Frankly all this leads me to believe that the Liberal Party, and perhaps the candidate herself, don’t think she has a serious shot at winning. The one glimmer of hope is that she seems committed to ongoing Afghanistan involvement.

Marshall Smith (Green)
No Wikipedia entry for this person either. He’s a blogger disguised as a candidate! His website is just posts of him writing about stuff, no organization, no policy section. My first impression was the he seemed a little young and I tried to put that aside but it’s clear he’s not a serious candidate. His position on Afghanistan, which took some digging to find, makes the frustrating mistake of thinking it’s just like Iraq. That said he may be a serious contender in a future election. But if this guy wins and Sarah Palin becomes VP I’m announcing my candidacy for…something.

Dawn Black (NDP)
Finally someone with experience! She’s a champion for women’s issues; specifically fighting violence against women, protecting a woman’s right to choose, and she proposed anti-stalking legislation that was adopted by Parliament. She is currently the NDP Defense critic. All this I got from her Wikipedia file but it says clear things to me that frankly make me wish I could vote for her. A quick glance at her website only reinforces this, she has two separate tabs for issues – separated into local and national. To give you a sample her immigration stance is that low-wage workers don’t help the economy but we need to make recertification easier for people like nurses and remove filing fees for refugees and victims of abuse. Appropriate, detailed, and shows a depth of understanding of multiple sides of a problem and strong yet agreeable and practical moral conviction. And her introduction of private members bills proves that she’s not just some quite line-towing backbencher – she gets things done and has a mind of her own. It sounds like a slogan but she seems to me someone who will actually stand up for her constituents and the things she believes in.

Conclusion
In case I was unclear, VOTE DAWN BLACK, NDP in the New Westminster – Coquitlam riding. Even if you don’t agree with everything she says she seems to be the only serious, qualified candidate who actually gets things done. It’s a no-brainer!

This entry was posted on September 29, 2008 at 4:38 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.