Local greens find fertile ground in Waterloo Region

“We have the skills and the knowledge to build solar panels here, so why are we sending technology to be built in Germany?” asks Jacob Pries, communications coordinator for the Organic Council of Ontario.

"A lack of political will is holding us back," says Pries. He adds that current government energy business policies support “grey energy technology instead of developing alternatives for the 21st century.”

In his opinion, these policies stifle homegrown alternative energy companies that have the potential to create local jobs.

Pries, 27, was among a few dozen people at last week's campaign launch for Kitchener-Waterloo Green party candidate Cathy MacLellan. The event was held at the Waterloo campaign headquarters in the former Generation X Video & Media store.

Pries says he supports the Greens because, for one thing, “they support the principles of democracy. Two of the other key parties don't all the time.”

He refers to the recent and not-so-recent record of scandal and alleged abuse of power that haunt the federal Liberal and Conservative parties.

Pries' views blend economic concerns with those of environmental stewardship and good governance. He believes that Waterloo Region, with its established expertise in manufacturing and its explosion in technology research and innovation, could make the area the “green energy infrastructure capital of Canada.”

MacLellan is directly connected to the green energy sector through the company she and her husband founded in Waterloo in 1996, ARISE Technologies. A publicly traded company, ARISE creates a variety of solar energy products including custom solutions for consumers.

Her biography states that MacLellan's company, though based in Waterloo, manufactures solar cells in Germany because renewable energy policies there are conducive to business.

In the 2008 federal election, MacLellan garnered 12.1 percent of the vote in the Kitchener-Waterloo riding. She was among the five most voted-for Green party candidates in the country.

Green party supporters at the event said they vote Green because the party represents a movement they agree with, rather than a strategic vote to keep a particular party (or leader) out of power.

Despite their inclusive platform, the Green party remains the financial underdog of Canada's federal parties with the exception of the Bloc Québécois.

Using registered financial transaction quarterly returns for 2010 on the Elections Canada website, OpenFile Waterloo Region has calculated that contributions to the Green party totalled about $1.3 million, compared to approximately $17.4 million in contributions made to the Conservative party.

Local Greens are hungry for volunteers and donations to help get out their message for the May 2 federal election. Green leader Elizabeth May visited the Kitchener-Waterloo office shortly after the federal campaign began and told supporters that vote-splitting is not the issue that other parties make it out to be. Rather, she said, vote abandonment is the real “crisis in our democracy.”

In the 2008 federal election, 41 percent of Canadian voters (more than 9 million people) did not cast ballots. Every major party except the Greens saw a decline in votes from the previous election in 2006.