Ashcroft native John Kidder has been nominated as the BC Green Party candidate for Cariboo-Chilcotin.
Kidder was one of the founders of the BC Greens back in 1982. He was also a federal and BC Liberal for several years before returning to the BC Green Party in 2013.
In 2019 Kidder married Elizabeth May, the longtime leader of the Green Party of Canada, and has worked around B.C.'s Interior as a cowboy, range manager, small business owner, builder, farmer, and volunteer. He currently splits his time between Sidney and Ottawa.
Kidder says he is running in this election because "voters in these areas need choices other than the choices that are being presented to them." He added that people are "not happy" with the choices on offer from what he describes as "old-fashioned parties."
"I talked to a lot of people who do not live in the fantasy world of Mr. Rustad or in the equally fantasy world of the BC NDP, and they're looking for people, practical people, who know what has to be done on the ground, willing to take action, willing to find practical political ways to make things work," Kidder told the 100 Mile Free Press.
This isn't the first time Kidder has run for office. In 2019 he ran as a federal candidate with the Green Party of Canada for the riding of Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon, garnering 10.9 per cent of the vote. He also ran in 2013 as a provincial candidate with the BC Greens for the riding of Fraser-Nicola, and in 2011 he ran as a federal Liberal candidate for Okanagan-Coquihalla. In all three attempts, he lost.
Kidder says the provincial government should pay more attention to the issue of climate change and the disruption caused to normal life in the B.C. Interior.
"Government needs to work on real adaptation strategies so that people can live here as it continues to get hotter and drier," he says. "We need industrial strategies to reduce, not to increase, our economic dependence on fossil fuels." Kidder adds that there needs to be value and resiliency to forestry, agriculture, and rural and small-town communities.
He adds that BC Hydro should be encouraging the "rapid deployment of small-scale solar power."
"We need to be planning for a new economy after fossil fuels, not digging ourselves deeper in the old one."
Kidder notes that the BC Greens plan to stop the vast amounts of subsidies that are attempting to attract LNG business in BC, which he says would not be in the province on a private sector basis.
"Pull the subsidies, and let's see if industry still wants to make these LNG plays to sell to Asia."
Kidder's goal is a minority government, with the Greens and Independents holding the "balance of responsibility" in a similar way to what happened in 2017, when John Horgan — then BC NDP leader — made a coalition deal with Andrew Weaver, who was the leader of the BC Greens. The Independents he refers to are those candidates who feel abandoned by BC United after the party suspended its campaign and endorsed the Conservative Party of BC: a move which astonished Kidder.
"I'd never heard of a political leader standing up on stage without even talking to his caucus and saying 'We're quitting the fight.' I couldn't believe it," Kidder says, referring to Kevin Falcon, the leader of BC United.
He does not believe that either the BC Conservatives or the BC NDP should be "trusted to handle the power of majority government."
"Under Sonia Furstenau's and Adam Olsen's leadership, the Green-NDP Supply and Confidence agreement created value for B.C.: banning big money in politics, creating a strong climate plan for B.C. — largely ignored by the NDP — and making the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples a law, done in principle, way behind in application." Kidder said in the release.
"We need compromise and moderation more than ever, not bone-headed ideology and conflict. The real strategic vote is Green."
