Lived in BC for 50 years, in Comox Valley for 40 years. I have followed politics since Pearson/Diefenbaker days when there was little room between the 2 big parties and when politicians tended to debate what was in the best long-term interest of Canadians. Unlike now where politics has descended to competitive mud-slinging and vote-buying promises designed by political strategists, the relationships between parties tended to be well-mannered and honest. "Truth springs from argument between friends".

I grew up under the CCF party which did amazing things without unions and without toxic political correctness which started after the labour unions took over the CCF to form the NDP. The farm I grew up on was primarily growing grain which my uncle did. We also had a few beef cattle, 1 milk cow, a few pigs, hundreds of chickens and a huge vegetable garden. These extra things gave us food and a bit of extra income. I didn't know anyone that was on welfare. If you needed money, you tried to find a job. If there were no jobs then you had to figure out another way to make money i.e. a small business. This is such a contrast with today where it seems to be the government's responsibility to do everything for everyone. Although we lived on the old family farm and we did most of the work with the livestock and vegetable garden, my father was a carpenter and did small contracts. My brothers and I would help him as much as we could, as soon as we were able to. When I was in my teens we moved into construction of prefabricated stressed skin steel buildings: at first quonsets for farmers then larger buildings for industry or skating rinks. In contracting, if you bid too high, you don't get the job; if you bid too low, you lose money. So you had to bid just right and then work your butt off as efficiently as possible. Saving a tenth of a second on each bolt can save you thousands on the whole contract. This gave me a life-long appreciation for the efficiency of free enterprise.

When I lived in Ashcroft, I started an environment group called SAGE (Save A Good Environment) to oppose BC Hydro's plan to make a large coal-fired generator in Hat Creek. The local people were mostly drooling over the $ that it would bring into the community but I thought, "no one is thinking about the effect this will have on the air, the animals and nature". Along with several other environmental groups we succeeded in stopping the project. But it also made me think of the bigger picture. There were hundreds of environmental groups in BC but each one was just focussed on one issue. I felt that we needed to look at the bigger picture. When the Green Party started, I saw this as the answer. I quit my job and went to work with the fledgling Greens. In its first election in 1984 I ran as a candidate in Calgary Centre. I became a bit disenchanted with some of the wackier idealistic elements so I decided to try to work for change within a traditional party which already had some power. I had already had enough experience with the NDP to know that I didn't fit with them.

I tried the Social Credit party, the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party. i found the Social Credit party was nowhere near as evil as the NDP would have you believe and even though they never seemed to have leaders with more than a high school education, there were many very smart people behind the scenes and they didn't have the stifling political correctness. And the Social Credit Party was also able to rule in favour of the environment. Even though they mostly disagreed with environmentalists they would recognize legitimate public concerns.

The Liberal party was the most open-minded party. They would engage in friendly polite debate with different opinions from communist to anarchist or libertarians. And the Liberal party had the best record on the environment.

The NDP always claimed to care about the environment but it always came after 20 other social issues with very strong political correctness factors. ( I am using the term "political correctness" because I think it is less inflammatory than the term "woke" which is very similar and very common now. But "woke" seems to be a mostly derogatory term used by people on the right that are fed up with the left.) The NDP's "don't split the vote" argument has succeeded in getting the Green vote even when the Green candidate was actually more popular than the NDP.

So why am I running as an independent instead of supporting an existing party? Because I have gradually realized that the top-down political party system is the biggest problem.

The original parliament back in Britain all MPs were independent. They would chose the PM which they could change overnight if he turned was bad. Now the PM tends to rule the MPs . Parties formed after the first big issue polarized the MPs. Our human brain tends to turn everything into binary choices. But even after the formation of parties, the party leaders were chosen by the party's MPs not the other way around. That changed in Canada in 1919. The Liberal party was bringing delegates from across the country for a policy convention. In the mean time their party leader died. So they decide to turn their policy convention into the first leadership convention. Because it seemed more democratic. the other parties ended up following their example. So now instead of being chosen by the people who you work with daily, the people who know your character and your level of wisdom; the leader is chosen by expensive national campaigns with political strategists who tell you what to say in order to win. People and organizations that have money and power can now buy influence.

The last big step towards our top-down system happened in 1970 with a law that allowed political parties to put their names on the ballots under the candidate. Now the party leader has to sign the nomination papers of all their candidates.

One of the biggest problems of top down democracy is that it becomes much easier for money and power to control our government. To control our government all you need is to have strong influence over leaders of the 2 main political parties. One of them will be prime minister and will dictate to everyone below them.