233067
231186
Kelowna  

Kelowna-Mission Greens candidate Amanda Poon sits down with Castanet News

Amanda Poon: 1 on 1

Amanda Poon is seeking your votes as she runs for the Green Party in the Kelowna-Mission riding in Saturday's provincial election.

An Interior Health employee, Poon is looking to earn the seat left vacant by the retirement of longtime MLA Steve Thomson.

Poon sat down with Castanet news to discuss the election and the issues facing Kelowna-Mission.

On what is important to her:

"It's important to me that everybody in the city has the opportunity to be represented and exercise their democratic right to vote, as well as their right to run. For me, this election was also an opportunity because this was the first election, not counting that last byelection with the Christy Clark switcheroo, but the first election really where corporate money and big labour money has been capped. They are not allowed to donate to campaigns, there's limits for a first time. That to me is a small window, even though I am an underdog and a longshot. If you look at the statistics there's no chance. If you're a poker player like myself you might not go all-in in my candidacy. But, the fact we are capping donations means candidates like me who don't have that big engine of corporations and unions behind them can have a bit of a chance to enter the race, and at least be sitting here in this seat with you."

On Green Party values:

"I am attracted to the Green Party because it connects with my core values. The Green Party believes in participatory democracy, meaning everybody can participate. There's no barriers to anyone entering, regardless of your economic status or your background. They also believe in accountability. I think in the past, the Green Party hasn't really been given any space to talk about what they represents. As a newer party, they have been developing and growing.

"The Green Party really believes in evidence-based policy and also living within our means. Environmentalism is very much at the core of the Green Party, addressing climate change and these other environmental issues we see here in the Okanagan like flood and fire."

On leading B.C. out of the pandemic:

"I don't know if everybody saw the B.C. leadership debate. I thought Sonia Furstenau really shone in that debate. She was very cool headed. I think for a long time there has been a lot of unsavoury things happening in politics. In the age of Mr. Trump down south, and in the age of social media, which we've all been spending a little too much time on in the pandemic I think and I've been guilty of that as well. But, I think that has caused a climate of negativity and these ad hominem attacks on personalities. We've lost sight on policies.

"The Green Party, being a party that focuses on the policies and ideas more so than the politics and the personalities I think is the party we need right now. I don't think we need to be paying people to have Twitter arguments. I think we need to pay people to roll up their sleeves and do some work, do some research and put forward some solutions to the problems we are all suffering from."

On voting for Amanda Poon:

"I think it's time to vote for someone who has lived the issues we are talking about. We have had representation making decision on things that affect your daily life, health care, child care, transportation and the economy. We often hear we need to get people back to work, but I know from talking within my circle and talking with people I've met through my time in working in health care as I do now, but as well as agriculture and construction and trades, you never stopped working, you just aren't getting paid what you deserve.

"I think it's time you actually elected someone with a kid in the public school system, someone trying to navigate school buses. Someone who has never owned a vehicle as myself couldn't afford to, and someone who actually knows what it's like to be working in a time when there is so much economic uncertainty, environmental uncertainty, and a lot of questions that haven't been answered by the last three years of leadership, and were never addressed by the previous 16."

You can watch the entire interview below.

Read more BC Election 2020 coverage on Castanet here.



More Kelowna News