Fin's Spin
on
what matters to Kingstonians & Canadians
 

What do you think about this whole 51st state threat from Trump?

I lived in Africa long enough to know that Trump's particular brand of autocrat are always serious when it comes to threats like this.  The simple, very Canadian answer, is to drop the gloves and let him know that it won't happen without a fight.

I guess there's a common misconception that Greens are weak on defence but we're not. We value our armed forces greatly. We want the best for the people who defend our borders. So I will say that our position on Trump and the U.S. right now makes Poilievre and the Conservatives look like the appeasement flakes they are. We need to be tough on this or we could lose everything we stand for as a country.

Here’s how the Green's are going to take this on:

• Strengthen our national security and prevent foreign election interference
• Protect Canadian jobs and industries from U.S. economic aggression
• End reliance on U.S.-controlled defence and IT systems
• Create an "economic NATO" with like-minded democracies to counter authoritarian influence

We cannot afford to sit back and watch. Our sovereignty, economy, and future as a free nation depends on what we do next.

Funding the military has never taken on more relevance than now, it's time to do things right.

I'm proud of Jonathan Pedneault and Elizabeth May for taking such a strong stand against the U.S.  The whole policy is comprehensive and worth reading (pdf file), here.

What about his plan to impose huge tariffs?

Fight back with retaliatory tariffs. Direct them at red states and at energy, where they are vulnerable.  It will involve some pain on our side but doing nothing isn't the answer, it will just make it worse.  We will have to rethink our economy, which is what Greens have been talking about for decades.  First and foremost let's eliminate inter-provincial tariffs.  Let's source other overseas markets.  We can forge new economic ties with like-minded countries.  Let's buy local and promote Canadian manufacturing.  Let's keep calm and carry-on being Canadian.

How do you feel about the argument that voting Green is vote-splitting?

I think in a first-past-the-post political system the fear of vote-splitting is going to get a lot of traction.  All the more reason to support some form of proportional representation.  The Liberals lean heavily on the threat of vote-splitting as a tactic here in Kingston and it's worked for them since 1988 (yes, that's 37 years).  And as a result they absolutely take it for granted that they are the natural choice of Kingstonians.  We need to change that narrative, at least for one election cycle.  My argument is that Kingston needs to exercise democracy so that political parties like the Liberals don't get lazy and take us for granted.  If Kingstonians want more effective representation then voting Green - in what is most likely to be a hung parliament - makes a lot of sense and will make Kingston and the Islands far more relevant in parliament than it has been for the last 20 years.

Do you own a house here?

We have been chasing the dream of home ownership since I brought Pinky and the kids here to Canada. We would really love a place on Wolfe Island but this is a brutal housing market for first-timers.  Never mind interest rates, the prices have literally doubled for a house here in Kingston since we came here in 2015.  So we rent, and to be honest it's okay, but rents are going up every day and there is a lot of uncertainty for renters when it comes to things like renovictions and landlords selling off rental properties to cash-in on housing prices. I can't imagine how hard it is for young people trying to save for a home or paying so much for rent.

So what do we do?

• Eliminate foreign ownership and investment in residential property
• Use Crown land for housing projects so that the cost of the land is free
• Close loopholes to stop criminals from using real estate to hide dirty money
• Eliminate the unfair tax advantages for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
• Stop corporations from buying up single family homes
• Build affordable housing

Building more affordable housing is tough if it's not affordable so:

• When public money builds housing, it must be truly affordable. This means an individual or family should be able to pay their rent or mortgage with 30% of their regular income
• Use covenants to make sure housing built with public money stays affordable forever

I haven't given up on the idea of owning a home in Kingston, but there's a lot of work to do to make that happen.

The price of groceries is...

Insane! My wife and I both like to cook so we take turns doing the grocery shopping. We are constantly looking for deals and even the deals are getting expensive. But we don't have it as bad as a lot of Kingstonians. As everyone here is aware, Kingston declared a food insecurity emergency in January with 1 in 3 households struggling to put food on the table.  That's double 2023's numbers and triple 2022's numbers - that's a worrying trend. And in 2025 a family of four will see food prices rise on average $800 for the year. I encountered food insecurity on a daily basis in Africa but never thought I would see it on this scale here in Canada. It needs our full attention if we want to still call ourselves a first-world country.

The experts point out that climate change and geopolitical uncertainty (coupled with nasty tariffs from the US) are driving a lot of the uncertainty with food prices and they are right. Wild fires, flooding and winter storms have an impact on how food is transported and produced. I get that.

So do we need to tackle climate change? Hell yeah.

Do we need to explore other markets than the US for food? Yep.

Do we need to focus on 'local' (within 100km) food production? Definitely.

But if there is a villain in this story, it's the grocery industry.  They put pirates to shame with their unbridled greed and plundering of consumers pockets. Record profits in 2024, huge bonuses to upper management and shareholder dividends are directly impacting our ability to feed our families.  It's wrong.  If any industry needs to be keelhauled it's the current grocery monopoly in Canada.

So let's do this:

• Impose a windfall tax on these profits
• Break-up the monopoly that Sobeys, Loblaws and Metro enjoy
• Increase fines for collusion (remember the bread price-fixing scandal?)
• Revise the Grocery Code of Conduct

There are other things we can do as well:

• Eliminate HST on groceries and food in restaurants
• Provide funding for in-school nutrition programs
• Reduce edible food waste (currently 2.2 million tonnes a year) by mandating that it be made available to food banks

To achieve any of this we need strong voices in parliament, voices that aren't backed by the grocery monopoly.

We need family doctors

Yes we do.  It's largely a provincial issue but the federal government needs to leverage their position to get Premiers like Doug Ford to do more to make health care more accessible.  This is one of those areas where we need to work with our Green MPP's to help them hold provincial governments feet to the fire.

But we also need to make sure that being a family doctor is more than just a labour of love.  On average, in Canada, they spend 18.5 million hours on unnecessary admin, 38% of which could be performed by someone else or eliminated altogether.  Sick notes for employers, filling out federal disability forms and entering data manually are eating into family time and reducing the amount of time doctors can spend with patients.  So before we add more doctors (not an easy process) lets:

• Eliminate fax machines and embrace a new secure email technology (yes, it's insane there are still fax machines)
• Continue to promote the use of AI for data entry and make sure this data is secure
• Have an admin charge for Employers requesting sick notes and let nurse practitioners issue them
• Simplify federal forms or eliminate them altogether

We have a lot of good ideas about health care in the Green Party.  This is a big subject and health care is long overdue for some real reforms.  If you want to know more about our platform on health care (which is extensive) check it out here.

Building bridges

You mean the fact that we have a bridge (the LaSalle Causeway Bridge) which services a big chunk of the Kingston population and it is in the process of being replaced? I have a lot to say about this.  There were 23,000 cars making that crossing a day.  There is a dry-dock, the only one of its kind on the eastern side of Lake Ontario which has strategic importance to Canada.  There is a marina with haul-out facilities and Metal Craft, a boat building company, located on what is now the wrong side of the bridge.  This has had a massive impact on the local economy.  So, I have some questions:

• Who screwed-up?  Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) hired Landform Civil Infrastructures (LCI) and Parsons Corporation, an engineering firm, who were tasked with repairing the bridge.  They made mistakes, so
• At what point will those Kingston businesses directly affected by this mess be remunerated for their losses?
• Why is there no transparency?  Redacted documents and 'no comments' seem to be the order of the day.  Is there a cover-up going on or is this just a continuation of a pattern of ineptitude.
• When will this be fixed?
• Is the new bridge going to be suitable for all parties?
• Where is the Liberal MP for Kingston & The Islands on this file?

Whoever Kingston elects has to work hard and bring pressure to bear on this issue in order to get results.  I hope it's me.  It's the kind of thing that makes politics worthwhile.

What does education mean to you?

Everything. It's Canada's future we're talking about. I have young kids. I know what day-care costs. I know what a babysitter costs. I need to take out insurance for them to play sports. Running shoes are now a luxury item. I have to make sure their snacks have no peanuts in them. But I'm lucky because they like school and their teachers at Sydenham Public School do a great job. Canada has great people doing a great job of educating our kids in a safe and healthy environment at all levels of education.  My kids mean the world to me and having lived outside of Canada I know the value of primary and postsecondary education. So two things:

1. Education at all levels should be accessible to everyone
2. Education should be free

The Conservatives in Ontario have taken a page out of the Republican play-book on post-secondary education, all in an effort to stop the progressive narrative and prevent students from thinking for themselves. In Kingston, that has resulted in the loss of 140 jobs and countless programs at St Lawrence College. This Conservative crusade to dumb-down the kids of the future so they vote Conservative has to stop.

I am also absolutely flabbergasted by what has happened to the cost of post-secondary education in Canada in my lifetime and I'm worried that somehow or some way I am complicit in this sad state of affairs. So let's fix it.  Let's do it now.  Yes, it's largely a provincial issue but the federal government can bring it's weight to bear on this issue and really affect lives.  If we can do transfer payments for health we can do the same for tuition.

Do you have any tattoos?

I'm a sailor, so...

Stay tuned for more Spin by Fin OR please visit the Green Party of Canada website for a more comprehensive dive into Green policies for this upcoming election.

https://www.greenparty.ca/en

Last updated March 3 2025