Young candidate’s green in more ways than one

Green Party candidate Scott MacCallum says his party is about more than just the environment. He’s offering cash for housing, addiction treatment and the chance for voters to send a message to the three major parties. (PHOTO BY CHRIS WINDEYER)

Scott MacCallum admits he’s a longshot to go to Ottawa as Nunavut’s MP after the May 2 federal election.

But the 29-year-old Iqaluit resident and long-time Green Party supporter says a vote for him is a vote to send a message to the three major parties that the status quo is not working.

MacCallum is taking on Conservative Leona Aglukkaq, New Democrat Jack Hicks and Liberal Paul Okalik.

He found himself recruited as a candidate when he called the Green Party head office to ask who was running after their original candidate dropped out of the race for health reasons.

“I would love to win the election but I do realize that there is very strong competition,” he said in an interview. “Essentially, my goal is just to do the best that I can and to help promote the Green Party name.”

That name can be controversial, thanks to party policies that oppose the seal hunt by all except aboriginal subsistence hunters and the bowhead whale hunt in all cases.

MacCallum — and the Green Party’s platform document — say that’s because the bowhead whale is endangered (the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada actually lists the bowhead whale as a species of special concern, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada allowed the resumption of limited bowhead hunting in 2009).

The Greens oppose uranium mining completely, but MacCallum said they support other types of mining, so long as it’s done in a responsible fashion.

“We just need to make sure that we are doing it keeping in mind the environment and people,” he said.

And MacCallum said the Greens aren’t just focussed on environmental issues.

“We have to have a plan to attack the housing [shortage],” he said.

That plan includes $400 million for affordable housing nationwide, and an additional $800 million for aboriginal health, education and housing.

The Greens promote a health care system based on prevention and MacCallum said they’d ensure funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment centres, plans for which were recently put on hold by the Government of Nunavut.

MacCallum, who moved to Iqaluit last December after two years in Rankin Inlet, acknowledges he’ll be running a modest campaign, relying on face-to-face contact with voters over signs and buttons.

That’s partly due to a lack of money, but also because, true to Green form, buttons are essentially one-time use items.

He even went door-to-door to collect some of the 50 signatures needed for his nomination papers.

“That was definitely new, just going door-to-door not knowing how well I was going to be received,” he said. “But all in all it went really well.”

He also won’t be able to travel outside of Iqaluit, because he still has to work at his day job with an airline logistics company.

In fact, MacCallum had to rejig his work schedule to attend the all-candidates meeting scheduled for April 23 at Iqaluit’s Parish Hall.