THUNDER BAY — For the second time this year John Northey has his name on the the ballot for the Green Party.
Northey ran provincially back in February, getting just under 1.6 per cent of the vote. Now he's running for the federal seat in Thunder Bay--Superior North.
Northey has not given any interviews in this election. A Green Party of Canada spokesperson told Newswatch that Northey is one of several candidates in this election to "run small campaigns, giving voters the opportunity to vote for the Green Party, but (who) don't have a media communications strategy.
"They won’t be speaking to the media during the course of the campaign."
Eleven years ago, when he first ran provincially, Northey said he wanted to make sure the provincial government isn’t wasteful, whether that meant environmentally or financially.
Running again in Thunder Bay-Atikokan in 2018, the then 44-year-old said he felt his degrees in statistics and economics gave him a good handle on what it takes to watch over government spending.
Health care, along with education, were two of the main reasons Northey said he's running for provincial office. Like most people, he's seen loved ones in long-term care and thinks there's a better way.
"I watch what's going on and it scares me. I worry about the health care of everyone in this province and the sustainability," he said in 2014.
In 2025, affordable housing, climate action and peace and security top the list of priority areas in the Green Party platform.
The party is committing pegging affordable housing rates to income, preventing corporations from "buying up single family homes" and making major investments in public housing construction.
On climate, they say they'll stop all new fossil fuel projects, switch to a 100 per cent clean power grid nation-wide, and "hold big polluters responsible for the climate damage they cause."
The party has also said they will increase strengthen national defence and cyber security capacity, increase Canadian self-reliance though measures like processing natural resources domestically, and up diplomatic efforts towards global peace and nuclear disarmament.
The Greens have been represented in the Thunder Bay-Superior North seat once when Bruce Hyer joined the party mid-term after being elected in 2011 as a New Democrat. Hyer finished fourth running as a Green in 2015, garnering 13.8 per cent of the vote.
Northey is running against Liberal incumbent Patty Hajdu, as well as challengers Bob Herman for the Conservatives, Joy Wakefield of the NDP, and the People’s Party’s Amos Bradley.
