Green Party offers a new kind of politics, says Neil Kudrinko
Posted Feb 25, 2010 By Conan De Vries
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Tweet ThisEMC News - The Green Party of Ontario isn't interested in offering just another set of policies, another platform to compete with its political rivals. The Greens want to offer Ontarians a whole new kind of politics.
And local candidate Neil Kudrinko thinks that's a good thing for Leeds-Grenville. "People are looking for a different way of doing politics," he says. "That's resonating very well with voters."
A native of Westport, Kudrinko will represent the Green Party in the Leeds-Grenville by-election on March 4, but his political career actually began with the Liberals almost 17 years ago. It wasn't until 2007 that the long-time party insider realized his concern for rural Ontario, and particularly for the agricultural community, was better reflected in the Green Party. "I felt (the Green Party) better represents my community and me, as a rural Ontarian," he says. "It better represents the needs of Leeds-Grenville."
One thing Leeds-Grenville desperately needs, says Kudrinko, is a government in Toronto that appreciates the importance of small business to rural communities throughout this part of the province.
"Small business owners are the ones who provide the long-term, steady jobs in the community," says Kudrinko, who, as co-owner with his wife and parents of a grocery and specialty food store in Westport, can speak with some authority on the matter.
Successive provincial governments have instituted regulations that govern how various industries do business in Ontario, all geared towards encouraging large corporate concerns, but none, says Kudrinko, has considered how such policies will affect small business. "They haven't taken the time to consider how those rules and regulations play out in individual communities."
Kudrinko supports smarter regulations, ones that take into account the different size and scope of the businesses affected by them, such that the rules established to promote and encourage big business don't put smaller enterprises out of business.
"That would go a long way to helping the small business community."
The farming community in Leeds-Grenville needs help, too.
"They're feeling the pressure of the large industrial food industry," says Kudrinko, who considers 'buy local' not just a farmers market catchphrase but rather the preferred model for the entire Eastern Ontario agricultural industry.
Food grown or raised on farms in Leeds-Grenville should be available on the shelves of local stores and in the kitchens of local restaurants, says Kudrinko. Furthermore, he says, there should be a renewed emphasis in the counties on the food processing industry. In this way, area producers will be better compensated.
"We need to start paying farmers fairly for the work they do."
Wherever a candidate runs in the province, be it a big city or small town, urban or rural, healthcare is always a major issue, and that is no less true in Leeds-Grenville.
"We need a team approach to healthcare," says Kudrinko. "It's not just about giving you a pill."
The Green Party supports a greater emphasis on preventive medicine and on the judicious use of licensed complementary health practitioners to help take some of the pressure off of MDs.
"It's about giving people the support they need to make healthy lifestyle choices," says Kudrinko. "It's the only way to make the system sustainable."
If the powers-that-be in Toronto are going to listen to Leeds-Grenville, the community needs someone to tell Queen's Park what it needs, and Kudrinko believes that he and his party are uniquely placed to understand and communicate what it will take to make the riding prosper.
"The people of Leeds-Grenville will find a friend in the Green Party."
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