Calvin Beauchesne from Golden will represent the BC Green Party in Columbia River-Revelstoke in the 2024 provincial election.
Beauchesne says he was motivated to join the Green Party because of his strong environmentalist views.
“Throughout my life, I’ve been very frustrated by the lack of leadership we’ve seen to address what I would say is the biggest challenge of our lifetime: the climate crisis,” said Beauchesne.
“Every year, we see climate disasters continue to get worse and worse and more records get broken. In 2021, we saw that heat dome that scientists said would have been virtually impossible if not for man-made climate change. It was B.C.’s deadliest climate event, it killed over 600 people.”
Beauchesne says the BC Greens are the only party with a focused plan to address climate change.
“We want to invest in clean energy sources rather than more fossil fuel projects like pipelines and fracking,” said Beauchesne.
“It’s naive to think we can both address the climate crises and expand the fossil fuel industry at the same time.”
The Greens have tied their economic platforms to climate as well.
“Climate-related disasters are costing our economy billions of dollars every year, they’re raising the cost of food around the world because of droughts and extreme climate events,” said Beauchesne.
“Industries like the oil industry, grocery store companies and real estate companies are making record profits while people are struggling to afford to pay for food, gas and rent. We could implement a windfall tax that would put a tax on historic profits in an industry. That would reign in some of those profits and use it to help people.”
Beauchesne hopes the BC Greens can bring some change in the upcoming election.
“The BC Green Party is the only party that’s willing to stand up to stand up to large corporations and actually put people ahead of profits,” said Beauchesne.
“In terms of the climate crisis – to be blunt – I think we are simply running out of time. We need people in office now who are willing to address this crisis and invest in the clean energy future.”
Voting day in the 2024 provincial election is set for Oct 19.
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