Meet the Mi’kmaw who wants to paint western Newfoundland Green – The Independent News

September 15, 2015

In the face of economic and ecological crises, and with a revival of Mi’kmaq identity and culture on the Island’s west coast, one man thinks the time is right for Western Newfoundland to usher in a new era of political representation in Ottawa.

If residents of the Island’s west coast want meaningful change at home, they need representation in Ottawa that none of the three main political parties are offering this federal election, says a Mi’kmaw man who has thrown his name in the hat as a Green Party candidate for the newly formed Long Range Mountains district.

Terry Cormier, a retired federal civil servant who lives along the Humber River just outside Little Rapids, says based on conversations he’s had with people at community events and in going door-to-door in towns like Burgeo and Tompkins, western Newfoundlanders are tired of the way federal politics is being done and want a Member of Parliament who more aptly represents their values and principles.

In a recent phone interview the 62-year-old husband and father told The Independent he decided to run for the Greens in the Oct. 19 election after spending time in British Columbia, where he met party leader Elizabeth May. He said the way May—a lawyer from Cape Breton—engages with the people of her Saanich—Gulf Islands riding, and the way she does politics, opened his eyes to what’s possible for federal politics in Canada.

Read More: http://theindependent.ca/2015/09/15/meet-the-mikmaw-who-wants-to-paint-western-newfoundland-green/