Elizabeth May rally's in Calgary
Green Party leader Elizabeth May came to Calgary on Friday and spent the day talking to young Calgarians, supporters and volunteers about transit, climate change and Alberta's future.
In the morning, Green started her Calgary campaigning at the Sunalta CTrain station, and told a crowd that she wants to create a high-speed train link between Alberta's two largest cities.
May says all Canadians need access to reliable and affordable transportation, and she wants to shift quickly away from methods that depend on gasoline power.
"We can reduce greenhouse gases while making life more affordable for Canadians and we do it through a major investment in transit," May said.
She says the high-speed train link between Calgary and Edmonton would result in lower emissions as travellers move away from flying and driving.
"Edmonton to Calgary high-speed rail would be competitive in time and certainly in dollars," she said.
May said the Green Party would double the municipal fund using money from the GST so that communities could use it for infrastructure and transit.
Global Climate Strike
Over the noon hour, May attended a rally at city hall for the Global Climate Strike. She told the crowd she was happy to be in Calgary to kick off the global climate-change week and applauded the young Calgarians fight against climate change.
"Calgary is the heart of a very important sector of our economy and we want to engage and talk about it," she said.
One attendee, Katherine Arich, 15, says she came to the rally today because she feels a lot of stress about what the future will look like.
"I think it's important to have people listen to the science because it's there, and right now we have the opportunity to do something," she said.
Arich says it's hard to get politicians to listen since she's underage, but hopes if everyone comes together they will have to listen.
"The support is growing because people are realizing we have to do something...but if someone is not going to listen and if they don't believe by now it's hard to get them to believe," she said.
Green Party rally
May and her team also held a Green Party Rally Friday night so she could meet with supporters and volunteers.
She says despite what some may think, Calgarians care deeply about the climate crisis and are looking for solutions.
"The future for all of us, including people in the fossil fuel sector, is far scarier if we don't act ... This province is not immune from what will happen if we don't act," she said.
Green Party supporter Cassandra Higgs was at the rally with hopes for change.
"I looked at what everyone else was saying and i didn't really feel motivated and then I read the Green platform and felt a lot more connected to what they were saying," she said.
"I just think neither one of them even has a climate plan while this is a very feasible and thought out climate plan."
