Flin Flon will have another candidate to choose during the upcoming provincial election. Saara Murnick, who ran for the Manitoba Green Party in 2011 and the federal Green Party in 2008, will be on the ballot for the Manitoba Greens this year.
Murnick joins incumbent Tom Lindsey from the NDP, Progressive Conservative Theresa Wride and Manitoba Liberal Party candidate James Lindsay as candidates for the Flin Flon riding.
Murnick said she decided to run so residents had more options at the ballot box.
“People need more than two options,” she said in an interview before Lindsay’s nomination.
“I’m not running against Tom [Lindsey] or Theresa [Wride], per se. I’m running because last election, less than 35 per cent even bothered to vote. Less than 3,400 people voted in our riding. It’s ridiculous. Voter apathy is huge. I figured if there’s only two choices, a lot of people are going to put up their hands and go ‘not this time, I’m not even gonna bother,’” she said.
“If people want to vote NDP, if they’ve always voted NDP, that’s great – go vote. I’m happy you’re voting. If people want to vote for Theresa, she’s a great lady, but a lot of people are not interested in voting conservative… Not having somebody to vote for was a bigger issue for me.”
Murnick said she was energized by the Greens when she was a voter and drawn to their member driven policies.
“As soon as it became a possibility to vote Green, that was my that was my thing,” she said.
“Their platform really struck me as very hopeful and very grassroots. They are not like every other party where, the people at the top decide what’s going to happen. The Greens are grassroots.”
Murnick said the Greens were not just a one issue party.
“Environmental worries will bleed into absolutely every aspect of everything, but the Greens touch on everything,” she said.
“Jobs and taxes and the economy, that’s all part of it. Healthcare is part of it. Everything is included in there.”
In 2016, the Manitoba Green Party committed to implementing a universal basic income program as a way to fight poverty in the province. The federal riding which includes Flin Flon, Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, was found to have a 64 per cent child poverty rate by anti-poverty organization Campaign 2000, using 2016 census data. The average rate across Canada was only 17 per cent.
“Our federal riding has the highest poverty rate in the country rate for childhood,” Murnick said.
“I think that in our three ridings up here, that guaranteed annual income means even more to people then it would anywhere else in the province.”
Murnick is also aware of the challenges running in a minor party can bring. When she ran in the 2011 provincial election, she spent no money on her campaign. The three major parties each spent over $10,000 on their campaigns. Murnick expects a similar situation this time around.
“This is me running because I feel like I should. It’s not like there’s a big machine behind me, generating income. It’s just me. I will do what I can, I will get out as
much as I can.”
Murnick is planning on attending the candidates debate at Flin Flon City Hall
Aug. 26 alongside the other candidates.
Manitobans are likely to head to the polls Sept. 10.
