I couldn’t be prouder of the work the Gary and Nova Scotia NDP have been doing to put forward an egalitarian alternative to the deeply conservative and terribly harmful policies pushed by the other parties in this province.
“At the recent federal NDP convention in Edmonton, a comment made by Indigenous leader Cindy Blackstock really stood out to me. She pointed out the urgency of improving the lives of Indigenous children by poignantly reminding us that “children do not have incremental childhoods.” This is every bit as true for children who grow up in poverty–children cannot afford to wait twenty or thirty years for governments to get on board with making their lives better.
Nor can minimum wage workers and their families wait while their pay increases in step with the cost of living. Nor can Indigenous communities wait decades for the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to be implemented. Nor can Cape Bretoners, like the many I met with this weekend, wait for real economic development opportunities.
Rather than waiting, isn’t it time for us to decisively begin implementing real poverty reduction measures, the health care system we need, and environmental protection with some teeth?”