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Rosslander runs for the Greens

Rossland resident Samanthan Troy is running in the South Okanagan-West Kootenay riding as the Green party candidate.
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Rossland resident Samanthan Troy is running in the South Okanagan-West Kootenay riding as the Green party candidate.

Rossland resident Samantha Troy became the Green party candidate for South Okanagan-West Kootenay on Sunday, Sept. 13. Since then, she's been kept busy filling out paperwork, attending debates and meeting constituents.

Troy was inspired to run when she learned that there was no Green party candidate for the riding. She liked the Green party's platform and decided someone should run for the party.

“With the world as it is we need to start making some really concrete ... choices,” she said. “ I sure like the way Elizabeth May has presented herself over her time in parliament, and not too much research to go look up the Green party platform and go, 'Wow, that really makes sense, and it's actually pretty doable.' And for all those reasons we should have a candidate in this riding, and I can be that candidate.”

Troy is a mother of one, and has been living in Rossland since 1996. She said she tries to be active in the community, and she works at Red Mountain, where she's involved with the union.

As a teen, Troy also volunteered with a local theatre company in Kamloops.

“I learned so much stuff there, and it was a pretty big responsibility,” she said. “It really instilled a good sense of teamwork.”

For Troy, the most important issue this election is changing the election system.

“I think I feel most strongly about working hard with all the parties to get proportional representational voting,” she said.

Moving away from a fossil-fuel based economy is also important to her.

“I'd really like to see us branching out into more sustainable options, embracing new technology,” said Troy.

The Green candidate has spent a lot of her life working outdoors, and she said, “I really get it that our economy and our environment are so intertwined.”

Asked what she thought the elections issues were for Rosslanders, Troy said, “I think I need to talk to a lot more Rosslanders, and just ask their direct opinions as to what their concerns are.”

So far, Troy said she gets the impression that they main concern for Rosslanders is electing a different government than the one that's been in power for the past nine years.

“That seems to be louder than any of their individual issues,” she said.

She also thinks that Rosslanders are generally pretty concerned about the environment.

“We're a tourist town. We need snow on our ski hill, and if it's not coming there's only so much laissez faire, that's just the way the weather goes, sort of perspective before you really need to go, 'No, we want to maintain our jobs, and we want to maintain our place as an active resort destination.' ”

Troy encourages Rosslanders to contact her via email at samanthan.troy@greenparty.ca to share their concerns.