Jonathan Pedneault, one of the Green Party’s two co-leaders, made a stop in Whitehorse on March 31 to announce promises for a new national civil defence corps, and meet with Yukoners The Green Party co-leader visited Whitehorse on March 31 to implore Yukoners to vote green. Jonathan Pedneault, one of the co-leaders of the party (the other being Elizabeth May), hosted a meet-and-greet at L’Association Franco-Yukonnaise with local Green Party candidate Gabrielle Dupont. Attendees were able to ask questions of both politicians. Polls such as 338Canada show the riding of the Yukon as being a race between the Liberals and Conservatives, with the Greens polling at around five per cent of the vote. Pedneault said pollsters aren’t on the ground, and said they have a history of underestimating Green candidates. “What I do know and see is that in this community, you have everything, all the ingredients for this community to want to vote Green exist,” he told the News at the event. The federal Greens nearly sent a candidate to Ottawa for the Yukon in 2011, when John Streicker — currently a territorial minister — received around 20 per cent of the vote. The Conservatives won the riding that year, and Ryan Leef represented the Yukon in the House of Commons. Pedneault expressed a great deal of admiration for current Yukon MP Brendan Hanley — but said Hanley had “chose the wrong party” which delegated him to the back benches. In regards to the Yukon, Pedneault said the territory, like other parts of the North, are on the front lines of climate change. But he also said the south has a lot to learn from northerners. “I think a lot of people down south would benefit from your expertise in facing challenges, in standing together as a community,” said Pedneault. In regards to mining, Pedneault told the News he believes in responsible mining. “We want mining whose products and profits stay in Canada. We want to ensure that when a public dollar is spent subsidizing an industry, that that industry lives up to the standards that I think all Canadians expect from industry,” said Pedneault, listing good-paying jobs, environmental protections and sustainability as such standards. Pedneault called the current mining business practice “colonial.” “Our economy continues to heavily rely on that colonial mindset when it comes to taking raw resources, rip and ship, and in the process lose control of our resources,” he said. He said the Greens want to see a strategic reserve of mineral ore, aluminum and timber, as well as investment in creating manufacturing capacity within Canadian borders. He said the Greens also want to see more comprehensive environmental assessments on the federal side of things. There are “so many horror stories of mining corporations or other extractives that basically come in, destroy an entire area and then go bankrupt, quote, unquote, leaving the bill to taxpayers and communities to clean up the mess they’ve created,” said Pedneault. “And governments seemingly appear to think that this is, this is fine, and this is the way to do business in this country.” Pedneault said the Greens think that cross-country pipelines are a waste of money, and by the time such a pipeline is built, Canadians will be left holding a “piece of infrastructure that will have cost tens of billions of dollars, if not more, probably funded with our own tax money, to export something that the world doesn’t want anymore.” Pedneault said that Canada can become a renewable energy superpower. He also said the country is sitting on lots of critical minerals, which are in high demand to hasten electrification. However, he said these minerals need to be harvested responsibly. Pedneault also discussed the Green Party’s support for guaranteed livable income. He said that the Green Party would substitute all social assistance programs with universal basic income, distributed to all Canadians. He said that all Canadians contribute to the economy, and all should benefit from it in turn. “I think right now, for the first time in history, we have a chance, with the Trump tariffs, to become the truly independent nation that we can be,” said Pedneault. “We’ve continued to act with a colonial mindset. We continue to see ourselves as the small backwater. We are one of the places that is the richest on Earth, but we continue to let the levers of our economy development up to other people, mostly abroad, who are very content with taking our money, basically being paid to take our resources and sell them abroad because we think so little of ourselves,” he said. Pedneault and DuPont also hosted a press conference earlier that day to announce the Greens’ intention to commission a National Civil Defence Corps. According to a press release which accompanied the news conference, the corps would provide universal civil defence training to all Canadians. The plan includes more funding for Canadian Rangers and local defence initiatives led by Inuit, Dene, Gwich’in and other Indigenous nations, to strengthen Arctic sovereignty. Pedneault said consultation with First Nations is important, while acknowledging that the party had not directly spoken with the Dene and the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation regarding the local defence initiatives the party would be funding. However, he said that they want to see the government of Canada work with northern Indigenous communities to have “a better sense of the needs in terms of protection, in terms of response, what kind of equipment may be needed for these communities to be able to protect themselves from what we know is a changing climate.” Contact Talar Stockton at talar.stockton@yukon-news.com
Green Party co-leader meets with Yukoners ahead of April 28 election
