By Roy L Hales

Having spent 30 years with Environment Canada, Peter Schwarzhoff is often called upon to speak about Climate Change and the nation’s emissions. He also talks about the need to develop jobs,  forest related industries, the growing Clean Tech sector and the need to respect Canada’s veterans. The Liberal Candidate For North Island-Powell River covers all of those topics in the attached podcast, as well as the need for Canada to have a government it can trust.

How Can We Restore The Democratic Process

“I’m worried about the loss of trust. The loss of trust of governments to their scientists, and I am one of those gagged scientists. To this day, I do not understand why I was no longer allowed to talk about air quality and health. I know that loss of trust in the civil service was probably because all of us were there under previous Liberal Governments and they didn’t trust us to toe the party line, but they should have had more trust because we did understand our duty to our ministers as well as our duty to our country,” said Peter Schwarzhoff.

“What I really want tho talk about is how can we restore the democratic process so that you can trust your government, so government can trust the people and we can all move forward.”

Decentralising Government

The Liberals have traditionally had a dictatorial style government, much like the Conservatives and NDP, but Schwarzhoff insists that Justin Trudeau is different. He is talking about ways to decentralize government, such as empowering committees.

Trudeau recently told his party’s senators that there were two problems with the senate today, partisanship and entitlement. Trudeau said he can do something about partisanship now and kicked them out of the caucus. He told the Liberal senators they were all competent people and should go serve their country.

“When he tells me that I will be able to represent my constituents, I really believe it,” said  Schwarzhoff.

Listening to Schwarzhoff talk about the need for co-operation between the Canadian government, provinces and First Nations, I asked him where Canada’s cities fit into this picture.

He responded, “Justin Trudeau has said that governments can grant license but only cities can grant permission. This is the concept of social license.”

This is only one of many themes in the podcast, which is really worth listening to.