Trev Miller is running for the Animal Protection Party of Canada in Kootenay-Columbia.
Miller, disenfranchised with the major parties on the right and the left, found a home in the Animal Protection Party after reaching out to leadership.
He decried the ‘business-as-usual’ approach from the main parties to climate change, citing the issue as one of the primary motivators for stepping into the political arena.
“I feel like right now we are in the middle of an emergency that experts predict will result in a huge number of deaths,” Miller said. “I contacted the Animal Protection Party several months ago as they seemed to be the only group willing to put together real plans to deal with this issue. They had no one running in this riding and endorsed my candidacy.”
If you haven’t heard of the party, it’s because it’s still relatively new.
Founded in 2005, the party currently is fielding 17 candidates in ridings across the country for the 2019 election. It is led by Liz White, an animal rights activist who has led campaigns against urban deer culls in Cranbrook and the East Kootenay in the past.
“What we’re doing in this election has two parts,” said Miller. “We’re building a support base for the party as a group that’s willing to work with anyone else who is moving forward in areas that the party considers to be important. These are protections for animals, for people and for the environment.
“Our second aspect is it’s important that we’re starting conversations that could potentially lead to real change. None of the other four parties are taking this very seriously.”
Miller also argued for stopping subsidies for ‘tens of billions of dollars’ that the federal government provides to ecologically unsustainable corporations, and using it to invest in a basic income structure that supports people, he said.
Miller, who has lived in Cranbrook for the last seven years, has a degree in psychology and works in the Key City.
He noted that tackling and reducing climate impacts means making individual and consumer changes.
“Personal change is climate change,” said Miller. “It’s important that every person takes a look at their actions and whether or not the decisions they’re making on a daily basis are sustainable or ecologically damaging.
“For us to produce one pound of beef, it requires 1,800 litres of water as well as 35 square feet of forest that’s destroyed in order to make room for grazing land.
“If we chose plant-based options, both personally or when we’re organizing events, we greatly minimize that impact.”
trevor.crawley@cranbrooktownsman.com
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