ELECTION ’24 – The importance of choice in B.C. elections

We welcome submissions from candidates in the Oct. 19 provincial election. This one is from Randy Sunderman, the Green Party candidate in Kamloops Centre.

I believe one of the strengths of a healthy democracy is to have a choice of policies and approaches that most closely reflect the individual values of as many voters as possible.

When our politics become polarized, we run the risk of simply voting for those who we don’t like the least or becoming hyper focused on trying to block someone else from power, instead of someone who will best champion our values.

This voting style robs us of the ability to build a province that includes as many voices as possible and a vision that reflects all of us.

Another important element of our elections is that we talk about the issues and how we want to build our communities. Again, this is best served when there are a multitude of perspectives in the debates and discussions through the election period.

In the Legislative Assembly, perspectives from different parties is an important part of checks and balances. However, as we are seeing now, the power brokers in Vancouver really struggle with giving the public a set of options if it doesn’t lead to the outcome they desire.

So again, we see them try to leverage their influence to foster an outcome that is good for them but takes choice away from the electorate.

B.C. has a history of wide swings in political leanings. This has led to big moves in policy and funding approaches, often leading to extended periods of undoing policies and programming, only to see this reversed later.

In the long-term this leads to poor outcomes for British Columbia. For proof, look no further than the state of our health care system or B.C.’s forest sector as examples of poor outcomes built on competing priorities layered over the decades.

I am Randy Sunderman, the BC Greens Candidate for Kamloops-Centre, and I am here to discuss a direction that works for the residents of Kamloops.

RANDY SUNDERMAN
BC Greens Candidate, Kamloops Centre