AMHERST, N.S. — Jason Blanch is confident the growth of the Green Party on Prince Edward Island is not an aberration.
Instead, he sees it as the next step in the party’s acceptance by the voters and gives him confidence a vote for the party in the next federal election will not be a wasted vote.
Blanch, who is presently in his first term as an Amherst town councilor, has been confirmed as the Green Party’s candidate in Cumberland-Colchester in this fall’s federal election.
“I was asked to run by a number of people and I think more than any time ever there’s a possibility I might win and that’s positively amazing,” Blanch said. “You just have to look at what happened in P.E.I. and what’s been happening in other provinces across the country and at the provincial level Greens have been seeing lots of success.”
Blanch ran for the party in the 2009 byelection as well as in the 2011 and 2015 federal elections.
Last time, he received 3.5 per cent of the vote in what was a landslide win for Casey, who got 63.5 per cent.
A professional addictions counsellor, Blanch said in past elections he has run people have told him they would support him but they wanted to support the current MP Bill Casey. Now that Casey has announced he’s not reoffering, he thinks it opens up an opportunity for him.
“In the last election there was a lot of solidarity behind Bill and it was well deserved. There was also a desire for a change of government. There were a lot of people who also encouraged me to keep going.”
Blanch believes his experience on Amherst town council has helped him prepare for this run for federal office and feels his level-headedness and willingness to think outside the box and ask questions has showcased his abilities.
“The Green Party for quite some time has been seen as the environmental party, but there has been quite an awakening over the last few years about the problems the world is facing environmentally,” he said.
He said thinking green is important because the statistics are telling, suggesting 60 per cent of the planet’s wildlife has disappeared since 1970.
There is also a global youth movement that is beginning to lead the older generation.
“Because Greens have been elected in New Brunswick, P.E.I., British Columbia and Ontario people have come realize the party is about more than the environment,” he said. “We’re not left, not right, but we’re always forward. That’s sort of our philosophy. The Green Party is always consciously aware of the environment, but it’s also about making sensible decisions and moving forward in a careful, direct way.”
He said the party is not negative and it’s not against oil and gas. Instead, he said, it supports thinking differently about producing oil and gas here and reducing the reliance on foreign oil. He said that’s his biggest challenge, convincing people the Green Party is not anti-development – it’s in favour of making responsible and sensible decisions.
“What I hope to convince the voters of is if they’re unhappy with the choices they’ve made before, whether they’re Liberals, the Conservatives and the NDP, then it’s worth taking a look and taking a chance on something different,” Blanch said.
As it stands, former Conservative MP Scott Armstrong is the only other confirmed candidate in the riding. Joel Henderson has announced he’s running for the Liberal nomination. It’s not known who will carry the NDP colours.
