Cambridge Greens: Vote Lux Burgess

“I’m running because my family’s future—and the future of all families—means everything to me. I want my loved ones to grow up in a world that’s safe, healthy, and full of opportunity. But with rising costs, and growing inequality, that future is at risk.

“I can’t just sit back and hope things get better—I want to be part of the solution. That’s why I’m fighting for real climate action, a fair economy, and stronger support for families.

“This isn’t just politics — it’s personal. It’s about protecting the people and places we love for generations to come.”
— Lux Burgess, 2025 Cambridge Green Party candidate

Even though time constraints prevented Lux from making it onto CKMS this time around, you can still catch his appearance in the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce Debate below. I especially like the fact that we’re *still* talking about #Electoral Reform. And that the lack of it inspires excellent candidates like Lux Burgess to seriously challenge complacent incumbents like MP Bryan May. https://luxburgess.ca/campaign/index.php/blog/

Hey Kitchener Centre: don’t forget to ReElect Mike Morrice!

If you haven’t already voted at one of the Advance Polls, do not forget Monday, April 28th, 2025 is ELECTION DAY 2025.  Just because you know Mike Morrice is the best Member of Parliament Kitchener Centre has ever had, it is no reason to be complacent.  

Not so long ago, an incumbent city councillor in this very community lost an election by a single vote. It wasn’t even that people felt it was time for a change. It was that everyone expected her to be re-elected by a landslide, so her voters felt no real sense of urgency to get out and vote.

One vote is really the difference between winning and losing representation in countries still using terrible winner-take-all voting systems like ours. Don’t let your opportunity to vote slip away!

It took a very long time to get a local Green MP elected locally. Help make sure he is re-elected!

Like any Green MP, Mike doesn’t just represent the constituents in his own riding, he provides a voice to otherwise disfranchised Greens across the country. I’m in Kitchener—Conestoga, yet he supported and presented my Petition e-4802 in Parliament. So even if you’re not exactly in Mike’e riding, there is still time to help out by volunteering or donating. Mike’s team will keep working as hard to re-elect Mike as Mike works for us in Ottawa until the very last minute. If getting to the polling station is a problem, you can even call the office and they’ll arrange transportation for you… no matter who you ‘re planning on voting for. And if you haven’t already, you can listen to Mike on CKMS radio:

Kitchener—Conestoga Greens

Kitchener South—Hespeler: Vote Ethan Russell

Kitchener South—Hespeler candidate Ethan Russell will make another excellent Green MP for Waterloo Region. The photo above was taken just after Ethan’s CKMS “Meet The Candidate” spot, with show producer (and former Green Party candidate) Bob Jonkman. The air time time was made available to all Waterloo Region candidates, and it is interesting to see which did (or didn’t) show up.

Check out Ethan’s Green Party Page and, of course, listen to his CKMS broadcast here:

Waterloo Greens: Vote Simon Guthrie

We have yet another great Green Party candidate running in Waterloo.

And of course, check out Simon’s CKMS spot!

Find out more about Simon at https://www.simonguthrie.ca/

REMEMBER: Monday April 28th, 2025 is Election Day in Canada

[Because the following op-ed was written in haste, it had to be edited for content and clarity. ~llr]

While I would obviously like to see you cast your ballot for the Green Candidate in your riding, I sincerely hope you choose to vote for the candidate who will best represent you. Since my own riding is without a Green Candidate, after checking out the available candidates, I have decided my vote will go to Maya Bozorgzad, the excellent NDP candidate running in Kitchener—Conestoga.

Overall the opinion polls seem to indicate the Liberals are on track for another majority government. As far as I’m concerned, that would be an unfortunate outcome.

Winner take all voting systems like our own Single Member Plurality, or First Past The Post, are designed to deliver a winner. Every one of Canada’s first eight elections held in the 19th Century were won with a majority. In the 20th Century we had a total of 8 minority governments and 20 majorities. Despite the unfair advantage our Single Member Plurality voting system gives the winning party, it has become increasingly difficult for Liberal or Conservative parties to win Majority Government. They’ve only managed to get 3 Majority governments out of the first 8 federal elections in the 21st Century. it’s clear they need extra help.

No wonder the calls for “strategic voting” have grown louder as campaigns promoting it proliferate.

The status quo parties will accept the help “Strategic Voting” campaigns offer if that’s what they need to win. Such campaigns are generally justified as a way to protect the public, so the two status quo parties usually choose paint the other Party as the boogieman and themselves as savior.

The idea is to convince right wing voters to vote Conservative to kick out Trudeau block a Liberal landslide, even though the Libertarian, Greens or People’s Party would do a far better job of representing your concerns in Ottawa.

The idea on the left is to convince progressive voters not to notice Mark Carney has moved the Liberals so far right they can’t even be considered Centrist, so instead of casting our vote for the NDP, Green or Animal Protection Party candidates who’s policies actually align with our values, we are supposed to hold our nose and vote Liberal to save us all from a Pierre Poilievre.

If Strategic Voting campaigns delivered what they promised, we would only have had to do it once. In reality, every election is always the one that is so important we just have to vote for the lesser evil to save us from the greater evil. And pretty soon, the only choices left

What Strategic Voting really does is:

• prop up the status quo that underfunds and privatizes our cherished Universal Healthcare
• allow industry to threaten farmland and food security
• allow the super rich to get even richer while most struggle to buy groceries,
• prioritize war to enrich our munitions industry
• pander to the American military industrial complex by throwing more money at NATO
• subsidize the fossil fuel giants fuelling Climate Change
• keep far too many Canadians in poverty
• forget to uphold Canada’s obligation to International Law
• continue to inadequately fund disability
• invest billions in “defense” aircraft unfit for Canadian terrain
• invest billions more in rescue aircraft needed when those defense aircraft go down ,
• fail to protect our environment
• send the RCMP to criminalize and brutalize Indigenous women land defenders
• support apartheid and genocide,
• eliminate the consumer carbon rebate, transforming revenue neutral carbon price into a tax
• permit the suppression of independent thought and free speech on our university campuses
• further undermine our weakened democracy by driving out the small parties and independent candidates essential to a healthy representative Parliament.
• fail to implement affordable housing and homeless policy
• invest even more tax dollars in expanding fossil fuel exploitation
• absolve government of accountability

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

We’ve been told over and over that majority government is strong government. But it’s not. Majority government may be autocratic, but that doesn’t make it strong. When governments rely on polarizing the public to win more power than they deserve, their power is transitory. It drains away when the next government replaces it. Strong government doesn’t have to turn the people against each other, it derives its power from the support of the people.

Even with our inadequate unrepresentative First Past The Post voting system, Canadians could get a lot closer to a representative Representative Democracy by voting for the independent candidates and small parties we actually want to vote for.

If we vote for what we want— regardless of the Opinion Polls, Op Eds and big money ads with which which defenders of the status quo successfully dominate our political discourse— the diverse Canadian electorate would actually have the power to elect nothing but minority governments.

If all we elect are Minority governments, they will have to start listening, and even start representing Canadian voters eventually. It will make governing a lot harder for our elected politicians because they will have to learn to work together instead of painting each other as boogeymen. Most important, this is the only way (short of Proportional Representation) we can achieve truly strong government supported by most Canadians.

I truly believe in democracy. I trust Canadians to do the right thing. That starts with voting. And just as important, it starts with voting for what we want.

Regards,
Laurel Russwurm
Kitchener—Conestoga Greens