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Green Party announces candidate for upcoming provincial election

May 5, 2022   ·   0 Comments

The Green Party of Ontario has announced their candidate for the riding of Simcoe-Grey in the upcoming provincial election.

Angus resident Allan Kuhn will be on the ballot for the Greens when citizens go to the polls in June.

Mr. Kuhn works with adults with developmental disabilities on a five-acre organic market farm. He holds a diploma in Organic Agriculture Management from the State of North Rhine Westphalia, and is a board member with several local and national not-for-profit organizations.

This is his first foray into politics as a candidate. He has been involved with the Green Party in the past and has been asked to run in previous elections.

Mr. Kuhn decided the time was right to throw his hat into the ring.

“I am standing with Greens to help communities bring into action solid solutions to social and environmental inequality,” Mr. Kuhn said. “We need to act now, with our families, friends and neighbours to restore peace in our lives and to the living systems of this planet.”

Environmental issues are a big issue for the Green Party and Mr. Kuhn said he wants to be part of a change.

“I think the biggest thing is we do know that there is a lot of pressure on the climate,” he said. “We’re starting to see things break apart – eco-systems are falling apart. There is so much polarity because of the Ottawa protests – we’re supposed to work together. It was very discouraging. I thought I can represent both sides because I can get people together and get them talking again. Climate change is real, we have to deal with it. That’s my big thing, is to get out there and start talking to them.”

Mr. Kuhn said the Green party is focused on three major platform planks.

“There’s three major issues,” he explained. “There’s mental health, affordable housing, and, of course, the climate crisis. For housing, the big plan to stop sprawl. We’re paving paradise for all these single-family dwellings, but there’s other solutions. We can use incentives to retro-fit homes with good green technology, and also to build housing closer together where communities are connected. Mental health is a huge issue. Right now there is such a backlog of service that some people are waiting a long time to get service. We want to bring mental health under OHIP so it’s part of our provincial funding. Climate change will affect the urban sprawl. Uncontrolled rampant growth of building more and more fuels the environmental devastation. The watersheds are disappearing. It’s smarter to look at what have, retro-fit it, and bring in the green technology.”

Mr. Kuhn said the Greens support alternative transportation including bicycles when convenient, and electric vehicles.

They would like to see half of the cars in Ontario be electric vehicles by 2030.

By Brian Lockhart

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