The Final All-Candidates Meeting...
Jackie Moad, RN
...presentation in Nanoose
Nanaimo-Ladysmith NDP, All Candidates Meeting
Wednesday, October 1, Nanoose First Nation Community Hall
Hello,
I want to thank the Snaw Naw As people, and to acknowledge that we’re on their territory - lands recognized under Douglas Treaty rights of 1853 ...which still need to be resolved and respected.
Hych’qa.
And let me also extend a pledge to all those of retirement age on this National Seniors Day. I will stand up for your rights, just as I will those of our First Nations.
Along with representing the interests of the people in this Riding then, should I be elected my three priorities for getting Canada and our communities in shape would be:
1) address health care issues so that equal and universal treatment is restored.
2) advance solutions for seniors, and everyone – housing, home care and support services
3) food security. Let’s put some local meat and potatoes on the table, and help our farming and agricultural sectors.
Next year, 2015, would have been the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Conservation Commission. The Commission’s practical approach to conservation was as eloquent as it was simple and straightforward. They said:
“Each generation is entitled to the interest on the natural capital, but the principal should be handed on unimpaired.“
(- Canadian Conservation Commission, 1915)
Growth and development was fine back then - as long as we left something for our children so their lives would be as rich as ours.
But now we have news reports telling us that climate change is real ...and that extreme weather events are in our future ...along with increased droughts and floods ...and impacts on our food and water supplies
We’re up the creek without a paddle if we don’t get serious – and we need to send serious people to Ottawa who can and will address these problems.
Just two days ago a World Wildlife study was released that documented the loss of 50% of Earth’s wildlife in the past 40 years!
The report states that
”Currently, the global population is cutting down trees faster than they re-grow, catching fish faster than the oceans can restock, pumping water from rivers and aquifers faster than rainfall can replenish them and emitting more climate-warming carbon dioxide than oceans and forests can absorb”
All creatures, great and small, are in trouble in other words - including us.
My plan would be to re-instate the Canadian Conservation Commission on its 100th anniversary ..then staff it with researchers and scientists and leaders in our communities ...and all kinds of people that Harper hates to listen to ...and charge them with finding solutions that help us meet our challenges.
My second objective then, comes from my experience as a farmer for the last ten years in Cedar.
I believe we need to seriously increase our agricultural, forestry and fisheries production in our region. In the fifties we provided 80% of our food on Vancouver Island, and now we just produce 4%. That means that out of the $5.4 Billion we annually spend for food on the Island, less than 4% goes to farmers.
Much of the money goes to California of course. But the California drought of the past three years means that our food prices, on imports from California, may go up as much as 25%.
Free trade agreement or no free-trade agreement, it's time we had a 'Made In Canada' policy that invigorates our farming, forestry, fishing and agriculture sectors.
Fisheries and marine harvesting have of course had a vital and integral place in the waters of the Salish Sea for many centuries. We could revitalize that rich, coastal resource once again by supporting the proposal for a National Marine Conservation Area - my third objective!
I'll bet, if we ask for it – loud and clear - that we could include all the coastal waters of our region in a marine conservation area ...helping to restore our fisheries and helping us meet our food needs.
By the way - Canada's an international villain when it comes to protecting our ocean waters and coast. Out of 10 countries with the longest coastlines, Canada came last, protecting only one per cent of our marine areas from development. (China comes next with two per cent.)
We need to restore Canada's international reputation – starting right here!
And with these three objectives in mind I would like to offer the suggestion that ...we need a Buy Island policy to encourage locally-made and marketed products that will stimulate farming, business and Island economic spinoffs.
We need to create jobs, restore our institutions and build the foundation for healthy, prosperous communities starting right here on Vancouver Island!
Your help and support to achieve these goals is of course welcome ...and if you agree with my approach and priorities I hope you will consider sending a nurse to Parliament.
Thank you.
Jackie Moad
Thistledown Farm, Nanaimo, BC, V9X 1K3
(250 722-7223) <[email protected]> (http://jackiemoad.weebly.com)
Jackie Moad, RN
...presentation in Nanoose
Nanaimo-Ladysmith NDP, All Candidates Meeting
Wednesday, October 1, Nanoose First Nation Community Hall
Hello,
I want to thank the Snaw Naw As people, and to acknowledge that we’re on their territory - lands recognized under Douglas Treaty rights of 1853 ...which still need to be resolved and respected.
Hych’qa.
And let me also extend a pledge to all those of retirement age on this National Seniors Day. I will stand up for your rights, just as I will those of our First Nations.
Along with representing the interests of the people in this Riding then, should I be elected my three priorities for getting Canada and our communities in shape would be:
1) address health care issues so that equal and universal treatment is restored.
2) advance solutions for seniors, and everyone – housing, home care and support services
3) food security. Let’s put some local meat and potatoes on the table, and help our farming and agricultural sectors.
Next year, 2015, would have been the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Conservation Commission. The Commission’s practical approach to conservation was as eloquent as it was simple and straightforward. They said:
“Each generation is entitled to the interest on the natural capital, but the principal should be handed on unimpaired.“
(- Canadian Conservation Commission, 1915)
Growth and development was fine back then - as long as we left something for our children so their lives would be as rich as ours.
But now we have news reports telling us that climate change is real ...and that extreme weather events are in our future ...along with increased droughts and floods ...and impacts on our food and water supplies
We’re up the creek without a paddle if we don’t get serious – and we need to send serious people to Ottawa who can and will address these problems.
Just two days ago a World Wildlife study was released that documented the loss of 50% of Earth’s wildlife in the past 40 years!
The report states that
”Currently, the global population is cutting down trees faster than they re-grow, catching fish faster than the oceans can restock, pumping water from rivers and aquifers faster than rainfall can replenish them and emitting more climate-warming carbon dioxide than oceans and forests can absorb”
All creatures, great and small, are in trouble in other words - including us.
My plan would be to re-instate the Canadian Conservation Commission on its 100th anniversary ..then staff it with researchers and scientists and leaders in our communities ...and all kinds of people that Harper hates to listen to ...and charge them with finding solutions that help us meet our challenges.
My second objective then, comes from my experience as a farmer for the last ten years in Cedar.
I believe we need to seriously increase our agricultural, forestry and fisheries production in our region. In the fifties we provided 80% of our food on Vancouver Island, and now we just produce 4%. That means that out of the $5.4 Billion we annually spend for food on the Island, less than 4% goes to farmers.
Much of the money goes to California of course. But the California drought of the past three years means that our food prices, on imports from California, may go up as much as 25%.
Free trade agreement or no free-trade agreement, it's time we had a 'Made In Canada' policy that invigorates our farming, forestry, fishing and agriculture sectors.
Fisheries and marine harvesting have of course had a vital and integral place in the waters of the Salish Sea for many centuries. We could revitalize that rich, coastal resource once again by supporting the proposal for a National Marine Conservation Area - my third objective!
I'll bet, if we ask for it – loud and clear - that we could include all the coastal waters of our region in a marine conservation area ...helping to restore our fisheries and helping us meet our food needs.
By the way - Canada's an international villain when it comes to protecting our ocean waters and coast. Out of 10 countries with the longest coastlines, Canada came last, protecting only one per cent of our marine areas from development. (China comes next with two per cent.)
We need to restore Canada's international reputation – starting right here!
And with these three objectives in mind I would like to offer the suggestion that ...we need a Buy Island policy to encourage locally-made and marketed products that will stimulate farming, business and Island economic spinoffs.
We need to create jobs, restore our institutions and build the foundation for healthy, prosperous communities starting right here on Vancouver Island!
Your help and support to achieve these goals is of course welcome ...and if you agree with my approach and priorities I hope you will consider sending a nurse to Parliament.
Thank you.
Jackie Moad
Thistledown Farm, Nanaimo, BC, V9X 1K3
(250 722-7223) <[email protected]> (http://jackiemoad.weebly.com)