ATIKOKAN – Green Party of Canada candidate Eric Arner says he’s running “for people who really prioritize and really feel passionately about the environment.”
It’s important that those people in Thunder Bay-Rainy River have an opportunity to register their viewpoint in the April 28 federal election, he told Dougall Media.
Garner was the Green candidate in Thunder Bay-Atikokan for the Ontario provincial election in February, and once before that in the 2022 provincial election.
This time around, he said, the federal Greens reached out to him asking if he would be on the ballot for them.
“If they want me to help out the party and help out the cause … yes, I’d love to do that and love to be a part of that.”
Arner, who teaches at Atikokan High School, said the Greens aren’t like Canada’s older political parties.
“I think one of the nice things about the Green party is that it does have a lot of liberation for the individual candidates. It’s a lot less toeing the party line.
“There’s a lot more room for listening to your local constituents and saying ‘Well, what do we need in our riding? What do the people around here want?’
“And not necessarily ‘What does the leader of the party tell me that we’re going to do in this riding?’”
The tariffs and annexation threats coming from south of the border have unified Canadians in an encouraging way, Arner said.
“They’re voicing their disagreement with this kind of treatment, with the insulting comments about annexation and also the disruptive nature of all these tariffs that are being put in place.
“Canadians are looking to each other and saying ‘You know, we’re working on this together. We have each other’s backs.”
Notably, he said, Green MP and co-leader Elizabeth May “was one of the first very vocal people out there that was voicing her disagreement and standing up … against what was coming from the American administration.
“So I thought that was a very proud moment for our party, to see her taking the lead on that —along with some of the other parties, but she was a very strong voice right from the beginning.”
What would make Arner a good member of Parliament for Thunder Bay-Rainy River?
“Well, I’m definitely passionate,” he said. “I really care about making this area a better place.
“I’ve been living in the north here for 12, 13 years. I grew up in southern Ontario on a farm, but I love the big outdoors here — the clean air, the fresh water and the friendly people.
“I really care a lot about this place and I would do everything I could for my constituents — not what my leader would tell me to do, but what the locals need done.”
