REGINA - In alphabetical order, the third in our series of leaders’ profiles is an interview with Naomi Hunter, the leader of the Saskatchewan Green Party.
Hunter is running as a candidate in Saskatoon Riversdale and her party is running a full slate. Here are some highlights from our conversation with Hunter, which took place at our Harvard Media headquarters in Regina.
About the leader:
"I'm 51 years old, I'm a single mother, a farmer, I farm with my father in the summer up near Birch Hills, Saskatchewan and then in the wintertime I have a small business right in Riversdale in Saskatoon where I'm running. I have, I actually spent many years here in Regina, and at that point I was working for the government doing specialized programs, helping seniors who had had heart attacks, stroke or other illness get more active and work with their injuries. And my biggest reason for getting into politics is that I was a lifelong person who was involved with social justice and the environment.
"I was organizing protests and petitions and trying to get politicians who were in power to care about the issues that I cared about and it got to a point where I realized that I need to step up and see what I can do to become that politician because it's really hard to change people once they're in power. You need people who have those principles before they get elected and so being part of the Saskatchewan Greens, all my candidates are activists so knowing that I've got an entire full slate of 61 individuals ready for when I become Premier and form government to have that kind of ethical conviction behind them is very motivating."
What differentiates the Green Party from the other parties
"The Greens, for the most part, are I would say very, very different from most political parties. Most political parties really make sure that every candidate is exactly the same and is not allowed to go off track. In fact, they provide them with briefing notes before they go and speak.
"The Greens, really, it's old-fashioned politics. Do you remember back in the day where people really voted for the individual? We encourage that with the Greens. We believe really strongly in electoral reform, digging out the corruption in our government and making sure that the politicians that you vote in actually represent you. You're not just voting for a party name, you're voting for the person."
On electoral reform:
"One of my biggest dreams for Saskatchewan and Canada is that we would see a system of voting where one vote equals one vote. Right now, our system of voting, first past the post, was actually intended as a temporary measure in Canada when Queen Victoria gave us our independence from Great Britain. She said, well, use first past the post temporarily.
"We know that it's not the perfect system for Canada or your provinces because you already have more than two parties. This system of voting encourages people to just switch between one party and another. It encourages a two-party system.
"I would actually like to see a system more like what there is in most of Europe where people were under first past the post because it was all British dominion at one point in time. As they broke free of that, they switched to different forms of proportional representation where what we see in government is more like what we see on the debate stages. All the parties that you see running would actually form a coalition government together at the end.
"So instead of a winner-take-all system, which isn't actually how Saskatchewan people vote, right? Percentages of the population actually vote for all the different parties. So we should see that reflected in the government that we see elected. So if I formed government, one of the first things I would do is instead of holding on to absolute power, which is what the Sask party and the NDP have done, because both of them have had the opportunity to switch to a fairer system of government, I would immediately bring about a form of proportional representation, electoral reform, and that would immediately give away my power.
"It would actually encourage more voices in the government."
The Green Party’s priorities in this election campaign:
"Affordability. We need to look to the crushing poverty and homelessness that we see in our province right now. It's never been this bad. And the Saskatchewan Greens would bring forth a housing first policy where we would actually house every single person in this province based on the model from Switzerland and the Netherlands where they rapidly transition people into stable housing within days and they get a small apartment.
"And what they see is that 80 per cent of individuals manage to overcome addiction, mental health issues, and stabilize themselves because they're not wondering where they're going to sleep tomorrow night. And where they're sleeping tomorrow night isn't out on. the street where they freeze to death and die. This is happening far too often in our province…
"We have an amazing amount of resources to draw on and we can fix this. This spring instead of complaining about the carbon tax, which is a federal matter, Scott Moe could have immediately chosen to cut the PST in half or just halt it. This is something that could have helped all Saskatchewan people right now while we were in this massive financial crunch.
"I'm saying that it's a failure of morals that he didn't."
On the carbon tax:
"Well the carbon tax, which of course was a federal matter, was always meant to be a revenue neutral tax. So people were getting back more than they spent out on average and I am in favor of it. Right now I am constantly confused as to why I see conservative politicians across Canada, but especially in Saskatchewan and Alberta, blaming the poverty and affordability crisis on the carbon tax when in reality inflation isn't an all-time high, funds have been misspent and there are so many other reasons as to why people are suffering.
"Large corporations are price gouging, grocery stores are just charging whatever they want without any caps put on it, as recent court cases have proven, and so blaming it on a federal tax that was meant to be revenue neutral has always seemed a little bit ridiculous. I think that we need to be more responsible than that."
On education:
"Well, education and health care are two areas that are completely under provincial control and are in total disarray right now after 17 years under the Sask Party.
"We would restore funding, make sure that power goes back to local school boards that was chipped away at way back in the early 2000s, and really local school boards should have the ability to set local tax rates and make sure that they have the revenue that they need. But as well, all of the demands that the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation was making during recent labor strikes weren't just about money, and we need to do more to fix our education system and make sure that teachers aren't so stressed that they feel like they can't cope, because that's not good for our students. We would deal with all the other issues that the teachers were requesting.
"We need to deal with class size. We need to deal with inadequate supports. We need to deal with buildings that simply are not keeping up with what the students need.
"And we need to make sure that we also have enough teachers. We need to make sure people aren't leaving the province because they're finding it too stressful to work here. We need to make sure that we have an education system that works well for teachers and students."
Health care:
"That is actually one of our three main platform planks with the Greens. Affordability, climate change, and health care. Without healthy citizens, we really have nothing in our province.
"And right now, so many people that I know can't find a family doctor. Our health care system needs a complete overhaul from the ground up. Emergency rooms have had to shut down in both Saskatoon and Regina.
"And one of the biggest issues that I see talking to doctors, especially in rural Saskatchewan, as I told you, I'm one of those people who works in both the country and the city. I'm a farmer. And in Birch Hills, Saskatchewan, where I farm, there is a health center that used to be a hospital.
"And it's open from 2.30 to 5.30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. And I find that everyone I know in Birch Hills has a very hard time timing their injuries and problems that they need to see a doctor in, in order to fit into those hours. We need to stop centralizing all the services in this province.
"It puts an incredible strain on the urban systems, when so many people from rural communities are forced to come into the city for medical services. And then of course, that makes it so that the people in the cities that are using those services have a harder and harder time accessing them as well, because we're just pushing everybody into centralized systems. We need to revitalize people being able to actually access healthcare within their home communities.
"And we need to make sure that there's also care at the other end of life in our rural communities. And in our cities, our seniors need to have better systems set up, we need to make sure that during COVID, we saw that our seniors homes are in really poor state. And it's not what you or I imagined as we grow into our golden years that we're going to end up living somewhere with bedbugs and cockroaches, where temporary workers flee, as soon as things get difficult during a pandemic.
"That's not what I want for my mother. My mom just had two strokes, she's managing to live in her own home. When it's time that she ends up in a seniors facility, I want to have the peace of mind of knowing that she's in a good place.
"Right now, I don't feel that way. And many Saskatchewan people that I talked to feel that way. As well, we need multi-level care facilities for seniors in this province where when a couple who've been together their entire lives, I don't know if you're married, sir, but wouldn't it be awful if you spent your whole life with your partner, and one of you has had a major event, a stroke, and you cannot care for yourself.
"The other partner does need to move into a facility, but they're not at the level of care that your husband or wife is. Right now, for the most part, you would be forced to live in different facilities. We can do better.
"Every decision that we make in this province, and one of the reasons that the Greens are different in how we look at politics is that we see every aspect of politics as connected to one another. And I look to Jacinda Ardern, who was Prime Minister of New Zealand, who created an entire economy based on well-being and happiness. That's what I would like to see for Saskatchewan. And healthcare has to be at the very center of that because healthy people make for wealthier communities, they make for better economies, and they ensure that people want to stay in our province and grow our province locally.
"This is how to keep our youth here in Saskatchewan and not moving far away where we don't see them, making sure that we have good health and life services for them."
To listen to our interview with Naomi Hunter, click play below.
