David Neufeld, Green Brandon-Souris

Why do you want this job?

I believe that Brandon-Souris deserves a good representative, somebody who can and will represent the region assertively in Ottawa. I just feel the waydecisions are being made needs to change in Canada.

What's the biggest issue for the country and in your riding?

The state of our democracy. At this point, we need to change howdecisions are being made and how representation can happen. The prime minister's office is dominating all decisions that are made nationally, and we need to change how that happens. Elizabeth May has insisted that all the Green members of Parliament must represent their ridings instead of representing their leader to their ridings.

Infrastructure is huge. Even though we export a lot of grain, seeds, pork, beef and oil, our roads are in really bad shape. Getting funding to repair and improve our communities is very difficult. There are a lot of people who want to live rurally, but our infrastructure in our towns is deteriorating to a point where a lot of our communities are no longer attractive to young people.

What would you do with the Senate?

We have to take appointing senators out of theruling party's hands. The Green Party is suggesting we replace it with a different kind of sober second thought institution, a council of Canadian governments that would take over that role.

Winnipeg was described as the most racist city in Canada. What would you do to combat racism?

We see it also in Brandon, and it certainly requires leadership from the top. We would allow for religious expression and certainly encourage diversity in society and tolerance and acceptance and mingling of different groups. I think leadership is number 1 in modelling that pluralistic society. For example, if there is any need at all for a woman to take herniqab off (during citizenship ceremonies, etc.), then it has to be done in private.

What role should the federal government play in dealing with climate change?

It has to be bold. This is the biggest threat there is to humanity right now. We have to understand that humans have had a natural affinity with nature for thousands of years, but we've been distracted of late. Large corporations that are resource-extractive have convinced ourgovernments to work more closely with them than with people and with nature. We would correct that relationship, where the people who are closest to the land are the people who are affecting what the government policy is with the land, and then take bold action to transition away from an oil-based economy to one of renewable energy. Our economies are totally dependent on our environment, and we have to make sure that those two concepts are married and remain together. We can't further one without the other.

If there was one government policy you think is done better in another country, what is it?

The purchasing of renewable energy. Germany, in the year 2000, decided that their power companies had to prefer purchases of energy by private owners, small contributors. Because of that decision, just about every roof in Germany is covered with solar panels, and the price of the solar panels came way down, and people could actually make money selling power to the grid, and Germany is 50 per cent reliant on renewable energy. This is totally possible for us as well.

Under what circumstances is deficit spending a good choice?

When an economy needs to be given some stimulus. The Green Party has a balanced budget for the next five years, based on today's realities. There could be situations like massive storms, massive disruptions thatrequire a particular infusion of cash, which the Green Party is not against doing, but it certainly is never planning for a deficit.

What do you believe is the single most effective way to fight crime?

Dealing with poverty. The biggest cause of crime is poverty, and the income gap in Canada between the rich and the poor is growing ever wider, and it has for decades, under both the Liberals and theConservatives. It's really important for us to focus on that. The Green Party suggests the guaranteed livable income as experimented with in Dauphin inthe 1970s.

What should be done about homegrown terrorism?

Strengthening communities, so that we ascommunitiesare taking care of poverty, as well as radicalization, right at the source. If an immigrant family coming from, let's say, Iraq has been here for a few years and there are not enough opportunities for the family or for the youth in that family, there's a much higher chance that they're going to be listening to radical elements that are coming from the Middle East, and therefore radicalized. But if that youth is highly involved in the community and there are jobopportunities and education opportunities, the chances are much less. Poverty and powerlessness are two causes of radicalization that we can take care of on the community level, as long as the community is motivated and has the capacity to do so.

If there was a gay pride parade in your riding, would you go? Why or why not?

Yes, Iwentto the first one in Brandon, and it was a wonderful event. Of course I would go. It's very important to ensure that every individual feels safe and valued for who they are. The choice between male and female never has been a credible one. We are quite the spectrum as human beings, so let's affirm gender diversity.

Have either you or your family had a frustrating experience with the health-care system, and what would you do to fix the problem?

The health-care system is fairly well designed to deal with traumabut not for chronic ill health. First of all, we would wantthereto be more nurse practitioners, especially in rural areas. These are people that could be trained or funded to be trained by us as communities, and then they might be more likely to stay in our communities, particularly rural communities. The training should alsoinclude preventative treatments and try to encourage wellness, ratherthan healing with trauma, so we're trying to prevent illness in our entire population.The other thing isacknowledgment thatthere are toxins in our environment that need to be cleaned up and perhaps used morecarefully. Try to encourage the whole community to look at wellness and all aspects of it.

What would you do to get morepeopleto vote?

We've initiated a Rock the Vote event here in Brandon, and we have a youth congress that meets in our office. The Rock the Vote event was non-partisan, and our youth congress isnon-partisan. We are having a big event on Oct. 16 also non-partisan to getout the vote. We are very involved in that. We feel that's the most important thing that we, as candidates, can do together to encourage people just to vote. We're not telling anybody how to vote, just that it's really importantthatyou get out to vote.

Forty per cent is what we had in the byelection of people voting, and 60 per cent of the people are saying it didn't matter whether they voted or not, which is, of course, ridiculous, becausethat 60 per cent could have made allthe difference for any one of theparties.

What's a better use of federal dollars: fixing roads or building rapid transit infrastructure?

Rapid transit. I dobelievethatsocieties all over the industrialized world are moving increasingly towards public transportation and away from the individual in his or her car kind of transportation, and that is a good thing as we transitionaway from oil and towards renewable energy.

Would you support legalizing a small amount of marijuana?

Yes, the Green Party and I have no problem with people growing a certain amount fortheir own use. When it comes to selling marijuana or distributing marijuana, then that needs to be legalized and regulated, in order to get crime out of the situation. The other thing is we need to start talking about drugs with our children, not only in families but in schools, so that thehistorical use of drugs is understood and to try to encourage students and youth to be more alert to long-termdistraction, long-term injury or effect on their brains, as well as addiction.

Have you ever tried it?

Of course, yeah.