Green leader wants to build rural support

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This article was published 22/01/2014 (4673 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Green Party interim leader Alain Landry said he knows he will not win the Morris byelection on Jan. 28. His goal is to build support for his party outside of Winnipeg, which is why Landry is putting a Green name on the ballot in Morris for the first time despite not living in the constituency.

“We have to get to the rural community because it’s hard to find candidates in rural communities,” said Landry.

The Landry family does have roots in the Morris area. Landry said his father was born on a farm on the east side of the Red River across from Morris. The French immersion teacher from St Boniface is straightforward when it comes to his not knowing much about the area, which is why he hopes his name being on the ballot this time will pique the interest of someone who lives in the constituency for the general provincial election in a couple years.

“I have to be honest: I don’t live there, I’m not there very often, but the fact is we need that Green constituent to step up and say, ‘I live here, these are the problems that I see, and these are solutions to those problems.’ We need that person to step up and be a part of the party,” said Landry.

While working full time has limited how often he has been able to get out the area, Landry said he has heard at the doors that people want to see something different.

“They want to see more subsidies for organic farmers. They want more of a choice in the foods they eat; they’ve read about tainted foods, they know about insecticides and pesticides that are lacing our everyday food. They want things done differently. They want a green voice to say stop a second, you can’t do that unless the environment is considered,” said Landry.

Landry explained why he would rather run with the Greens than try to colour the other parties a little greener:

“The ideology of being Green is you walk the talk and you breathe the talk. Every step you take and every breath you take you have to consider sustainability in everyday life, and that’s the way I live my life. There’s no other party that is stronger than the Green Party when it comes to sustaining natural systems right across the planet. Other parties are merely painted green, and they act green but they don’t have green in the blood.”

 

Read the full profile in the Jan.23 edition of The Carillon