Regina – The Green Party of Saskatchewan held a press conference today to announce the candidate for the upcoming Regina Douglas Park by-election. Regina Douglas Park resident, Victor Becker Lau, will be representing the Greens in Regina Douglas Park, and he says the main issue in this by-election is the nuclear issue.
According to Becker Lau, it’s not just the environmental problems of nuclear that the people of Saskatchewan need to be concerned with; it’s also the economic problems. “Half of Ontario’s debt came from nuclear power. We can’t afford to waste taxpayers dollars like that,” stated Becker Lau. “If the province is prepared to spend $10-20 billion on nuclear reactors, the money could be better spent on ways to improve the lives of the people in my riding,” he continued.
Becker Lau identified a number of key issues for the residents of Regina Douglas Park, including the amount of poverty faced by people in the riding and the need to implement a Guaranteed Livable Income. He also pointed to the extremely low rate of home ownership in the riding, with only 15% of residents owning their homes. Lack of accessibility to post-secondary education was another key issue identified for residents of the riding, a problem that Becker Lau says would be easily remedied if the Green Party of Saskatchewan were to form government and implement the party’s policy of free post-secondary education for Saskatchewan residents.
According to Becker Lau, voters are becoming more and more disillusioned, and we need to find ways to reach and inspire these people, such as restructuring our electoral system to be proportionate. “We need to give people hope again.”
The Saskatchewan Greens say they will be running a strong race in the Regina Douglas Park by-election. According to the Leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan, Larissa Shasko, “A two-party system between the NDP and the SaskParty is failing the environmental and social aspirations of the people of Saskatchewan. The Green Party of Saskatchewan is the only party that will put social justice, equity, and ecological wisdom first. A third party is urgently needed in government to push forward the environmentally and socially progressive policy goals of Saskatchewan people. Now is the time to elect Saskatchewan’s first Green MLA.”
