Nathan Cullen Reflects Back, Looks Forward
Prince George, B.C. – Nathan Cullen has offered up his thoughts on a turbulent 2015.
“In general, 2015 was a real mixed year, it was a very politically charged year,” says the Skeena-Bulkley Valley NDP MP.
“It was one in which the country was at a crossroads and chose to turn away from the direction we’ve been on for the last decade under the Conservatives and I’m very glad we did.
“It wasn’t the orange path but that happens in politics, sometimes we are the beneficiaries of a wave and sometimes we get hit with a wave.”
Despite the disappointing election result for his party, he’s still optimistic he’ll be able to advance many of the issues of importance to the northwest.
“I think a lot of things boil down to the personality and the energy of the individual MPs,” says Cullen. “I’ve seen very ineffective cabinet ministers who couldn’t seem to get anything done and I’ve seen people on the backbench without lots of profile seem to be quite effective in getting changes.”
He suggests he was one person who got things done . “Even working with a hostile government under Mr. Harper, I was able to get quite a bit of attention and support for the northwest on the issues that we care about,” says Cullen.
“With a government (Liberals) that campaigned on many of the issues that I also campaigned on, I won’t have to overcome their animosity.”
Looking ahead to 2016, he says one of the biggest issues will revolve around changing Canada’s first past the post electoral system.
“My advice to the new minister is to say lets establish the principals, lets work with Canadians and then contemplate a referendum a couple of elections down the road so that voters can say whether they like the new system.”
And on another front, Cullen says action must be taken to address climate change.
“Coming out of the Paris climate talks, the transition to a greener, cleaner, economy is even more urgent now that oil is selling below $40 and there isn’t a lot of prospects for things improving,” he says.
“So Canada needs a Plan B in terms of what drives our economy so we no longer have all our eggs in one basket.”
Comments
Waiting for a “couple of elections down the road” for a referendum is not an option! Nathan better get ready for the arrival of an election outcome (conducted under the promised new system) which requires co-operation (or coalition) with another party. Unless of course he wishes to align with Conservative principles he (the NDP) has only these other options: Co-operate with the Liberals or Greens or a combination of those.
So Cullen says “And on another front, Cullen says action must be taken to address climate change”
So Cullen what do you mean by climate change? You surely don’t mean there was no climate change before mann.
Okay lets suppose you are referring to global warming and you are insinuating it is only caused by man. Can you point to any reproducible, verifiable science that man’s production of C02 is affecting climate, come on there must be some somewhere.
Oh by the way the most accurate measure of global temperature are satellite measure verified by weather balloons and they show no warming for the last 18 years 9 months. Whats your answer to that. Actually there has been a slight cooling trend globally and looking at climatic history the current phase of the sun will take the earth into a cooling trend.
So Mr. Cullen you have all bases covered, your use of climate change can morph into global cooling. Hope you got woollies for Christmas.
Spoken like a true politician.
Cullen:-“So Canada needs a Plan B in terms of what drives our economy so we no longer have all our eggs in one basket.”
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What drives any economy is Consumer Demand. And having a way, where it exists, to make it fully Effective Demand. Which means consumers having enough ‘money’ in their hands as a whole to be able to fully liquidate all the costs of production through the prices paid for all those goods and services we require and desire that can be made or procured. I would be curious to know what the NDP has in mind to enable that to happen by way of their Plan B. Somehow I doubt they really have anything, since they seem to think the primary purpose of the economy is to make work.
The ndp are all for proportional representation and that would be a dis aster for rural representation. I find it interesting that he wants principles of any change defined and ‘work with Canadians’ as his criteria… One assumes he is open to other forms of electing government other than first past the post and proportional representation… As in a preferential ballot could be an option he supports… Or is that just politics being an MP from a rural riding?
I like his idea for a sunset clause on any electoral reform that would require a referendum on its performance for Canadians to decide if we should keep it. That would be the responsible thing to do even if it pits the proportional urban vote in an open front against the proportional representation solution for rural ridings a few elections down the road. Having debates about process is healthy for democracy.
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