The brand new BC Ecosocialist Party has nominated Edward Quinlan, their regional director for the Skeena and Bulkley Valley regions, to be their candidate in the Stikine riding.
The Interior News has not been able to get hold of the candidate yet, but in an August interview he outlined the party’s platform, which basically entails a complete overhaul of B.C.’s political and economic systems.
Quinlan said he does not think that is unrealistic.
READ MORE: Minor parties scramble to get candidates nominated for Stikine
“We have literally billions of dollars that are escaping our economy, going to other countries, accumulating wealth elsewhere, meanwhile we’re barely taxing our natural resources,” he said. “That’s the kind of stuff that needs to be looked at. That’s the kind of fundamental overhaul that we need to be having in our economic system and in our political system.”
The party wants to: tax rich people and corporations; build new green energy and transportation infrastructure; stop all new fossil fuel infrastructure, including LNG; shut down Site C; close the province’s coal mines; return land and power to Indigenous people; decriminalize drug usage; institute proportional representation based on the Norwegian system; and raise the minimum wage to $16/hr.
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Quinlan holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Northern British Columbia. Since coming to the Bulkley Valley in 2016, he has worked as an economic development officer for the Village of Telkwa and a business analyst at Community Futures Nadina.
He is currently an SD54 school trustee and has helped out as an assistant coach with the Bulkley Valley Otters Swimming Club.
READ MORE: New B.C. political party ‘further left than the NDP, greener than the Greens’
editor@interior-news.com
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