Letter to the Editor

In the words of Greta Thunberg: “how dare you pretend you are fit to govern!”

For most of the last 32 years we have lived in this community, one or sometimes two of you political parties have held office at a provincial and federal level. Yet the best you can do in this election is point fingers at each other and make empty promises that you won’t keep.

Now in our sixties (almost 70 for Andy), we want to leave behind a world that is safe and fit for our children and grandchildren to live in – not one that is diminished in hope and opportunity because of an overpowering greed for money, which is also causing the rapid loss of other lifeforms and even putting our own human species at risk.

Like Greta we are angry, but we are also sad and ashamed at the fact that a 16-year-old girl and millions of children and youth have to take to the streets to demand that they have a future.

We adults are supposed to protect and nurture our children and youth, and help them build a future life – not destroy it before their very eyes.

At an event on climate change where we live, one youth said: “You know the science, so stop electing politicians who won’t do anything about climate change.”

Please follow the young peoples’ lead and think carefully before you vote in this Canadian federal election. We ask you to put aside your own immediate needs and think about the immediate need of the coming generations to have a world that will support them. Just like our parents’ generation fought a war so that we could be safe, we need to honestly assess which individuals and platforms in this election will work to give our children a safe tomorrow that is worth living.

Our parents’ generation did not relish making the sacrifices they did during the war, but they did it because in their hearts they knew it had to be done. So too must we make changes to our lifestyles and economic organization. We have already voted, and Andy is now working day and night, in Fredericton, to elect another woman from the Green Party to sit in the House of Commons.

How many of you will join us in electing an MP who will roll up their sleeves to help address climate change, and no longer pretend that business-as-usual politics or lip service to the issue without actually doing anything will save the day? As always the choice is yours, but do you have the courage and conviction to vote for the change you know has to happen?

Andy Shadrack and Gail Bauman,

Kaslo

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