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I had the pleasure of sitting down and chatting with scientist Dr. Chris Maxwell, who has taken a quick turn from the science world to see what the political spectrum has to offer as the BC Green Party Candidate for the Victoria-Swan Lake riding.
We start off talking about this switch and the things that influenced the decision, including his family history & raising a young son. He tells the great little story of how he “Joined” the BC Green Party… sometimes an email is all it takes… Let this be a lesson that acting on those gut feelings in the moment ‘Can’ lead somewhere, so dive in people.
After dabbling in science – talking about the importance of ‘evidence’ and ‘truth’ as he puts it, and the March for Science, we then tackle the politics topic… Here Chris talks about some of the issues he’s concerned about… childcare, healthcare, mental health, the Massey tunnel/bridge issue and the Site C Dam, Party donations, and more.
He then shares his views on what he sees as some of the main differences between the major BC political parties and their platforms, as well as the Greens dedication to the “Proportional Representation Voting System” as an alternative to our current “First Past the Post” system.
It was a fun and interesting chat, which exposed me to a bunch of new information I’ll need to dig into. I will say though, I’m very interested in this voting system switch.
Thanks for listening & I hope you enjoy!
– Show Notes Below
*If you like what you hear and you think it’s important, please share it with as many people as you can… hopefully we can all become a little more aware and involved.*
– Until Next time… Stay Curious – CJ 🙂
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*SHOW NOTES*
2:45 – Dr. Chris’ decision to make the politics jump & his science background
5:30 – Trip to Vimy Ridge & Scotland (to see the Maxwell family castle)
7:45 – Remembers seeing video of his great grandfather from 1983 where he talks about his ware experience at Vimy Ridge
10:25 – Email to Green Party & his experience joining the party
15:50 – BC Green Party no longer accepting donations & the issue with donations in politics.
18:15 – Decision making view on NDP & Liberals
20:40 – Back to joining Greens & deciding where to run for MLA
24:45 – Science – “importance of evidence and truth…” & the March for Science
26:20 – Science and economy and the difficulty with grants and funding – how it’s becoming more competitive, which he believes is pushing it further away from discovery and innovation.
30:20 – Current research program – “Childhood Cancer & Blood Research Group” at BC Children’s Hospital
31:50 – What would happen with his position with his lab if he was elected
33:45 – View on the differences between the major political parties in BC & Trickle Down Economics and his view of it’s role in the Liberals focus
36:30 – Taxes = services, leading to view on Liberals lowering taxes = less services
38:45 – View on NDP – “… stuck between two poles.”
40:25 – Clayoquot Sound – Forestry & NDP’s decision making process
44:15 – Site C Dam – Liquified Natural Gas (Liberals)
45:55 – Massey Tunnel Upgrade, or Bridge Issue (Liberals)
47:35 – View on the Liberals – Their vision & the decisions for it, “…to make corporations wealthy and to reduce taxes.”
48:25 – Creating Jobs (Liberals) … and how much those jobs would “cost” – Site C Dam & Woodfibre LNG Plant
50:05 – Green Parties Vision “Maximize the health and wellbeing of people”… vs NDP & Liberals; types of Green Party Candidates (careers etc); Green does want a strong economy – but “… fill from the bottom up not the top down.” (re: corporations)
52:05 – Instead of a $10 Billion Dam – re-appropriate the money to education, for example
53:25 – What needs to change in BC – current issues… BUT, the most important thing is, in his view, changing how government makes decisions – change to making them without corporations or unions involvement, and hovering overhead.
54:40 – Change what’s going on in the Legislature… Majority/Minority Gov. … who’s in charge created by First past the post current voting system
58:00 – No Party has all the answers
59:00 – Proportional Representation & the BC Greens commitment to it
1:01:00 – Problem with referendums (Re: Voting)
1:04:20 – His view of the perfect job description for an MLA… get rid of the word “Politician” and replace again with “Public Servant”
1:07:40 – Percent of People getting out to vote …50-55%
1:11:00 – A great analogy… “Seeing Politicians as Gardeners”
1:13:30 – Outro: I talk about how each major Party has a detailed Platform online that you can download and read. It’s super helpful for getting a good understanding, and an honest view of the nuts and bolts of how they plan to roll things out – essential perusing for making an educated vote.
In this episode I got to sit down with Victoria City Councillor Jeremy Loveday. I found it pretty enlightening how the city runs itself, and our level of input or lack thereof (which is on us), not to mention how his job has a very minimal ‘actual’ job description.