Lisa Grant from Morinville is running for the federal Green Party to give the residents of her riding Westlock-St. Paul another choice when they go into the voting booth on May 2.
“The Greens are a true alternative on the ballot,” said Grant, explaining that traditionally the electorate seems to go back and forth between the Conservative and the Liberals but neither party seems to make them happy in the end.
Grant is a 33-year-old stay at home mother of a toddler and a kindergarten age child she is planning to home school. Her husband is in the military and is preparing to go overseas this summer to help close down Canadian operations in Kandahar. She graduated high school with honours in Sylvan Lake in 1995 and studied Environmental Science at Lethbridge College.
This is not Grant’s first election, she also ran as a Green Party candidate in the 2008 Alberta provincial election in the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake constituency. Although there are a lot more rules for the federal election, both the federal and provincial Green parties follow the same six core values of the worldwide Green movement: ecological wisdom, non-violence, social justice, sustainability, participatory democracy and diversity, she said.
“This year our federal party has narrowed that down to three main issues, smart economy, strong communities and true democracy,” said Grant.
The key words of Grant’s personal campaign platform are sustainability, accountability and efficiency. Most people think of the environment when they hear the word sustainability but Grant says all three terms should apply to all government policies, including economics.
“When we make decisions we need to ask, is this something that is a long-term solution or are we just throwing money at a problem that will keep coming back,” said Grant. She believes leaders should be held accountable for their actions and for the decisions that they make on behalf of the electorate. “Right now the only option is to just not vote for them in the next election. That is not much of an incentive to keep your promises,” she said.
The federal government is wasting way too much money and that needs to stop, Grant said.
It is simply a matter of becoming more efficient and re-organizing how the money is spent. For example, the Green Party proposes spending less money on the military and redirecting the funds to other programs.
Grant is planning a road trip from Morinville to Cold Lake, stopping in many communities along the way including St. Paul. At press time she was not sure when she would appear locally.
