Editor:
When he declared, “Conservatives have managed to balance the needs and wants of the environment with the economy,” Mark MacDonald, Conservative candidate in Nanaimo-Ladysmith, made a typical stay-the-course Conservative statement.
No surprise “many of the young people he’s hearing from intend to vote socialist or Green.”
“Environment,” MacDonald went on to say, “is (their) No.1 issue. Environment, environment.”
He doesn’t seem to realize it’s today’s young people that will be facing any environmental problems caused by current industrial practices decades after the present aging Boomers in parliament are too old for politics, beyond even napping in the Senate.
Today’s young people want the hot romance with fossil fuels to be permanently capped before it causes more climate change.
They like the prospect of drinking fracking-free tap water and being able to breathe unpolluted air, even when it’s their turn to be in rocking chairs.
No wonder they find a healthy environment to be crucial and are drawn to the policies of socialists and Greens. “Staying the course” on the environment is the problem, not the answer for them.
Edwin TurnerNanaimo
