Margaret Tusz-King says she’s never had any huge political aspirations. As an educator, environmentalist, community volunteer, parent, and most recently a Sackville town councillor, Tusz-King says she’s always concentrated her efforts on simply “working in the community for the community good.”
But when she kept getting asked over and over to run in this provincial election campaign, she says she began to really ponder how she might be able to make a difference.
“That’s when I started to think ‘what do I really care about?’” she says. “And what I really care about is for us to integrate our valuing of the environment in all that we do – in public policy, in programs, and in how we direct ourselves as we approach the results of climate change and the impending peak oil crisis.”
So it didn’t take her long to decide she would be campaigning for the new provincial Green Party in the Tantramar riding, even though she had also been asked by the Liberals and the NDP to run in this election.
“I don’t think the other parties are championing this enough. We do have to value the environment in all that we do. And I think we need to bring that into our public decision-making,” says Tusz-King.
She says she’s particularly pleased to be a part of a Green Party team that runs under the campaign slogan, “It’s about the next generation, not just the next election.”
“The environment is reaching the end of its rope. We have to change direction. We have to turn away from an economic model that is taking us to our own demise,” Tusz-King says.
She says she’s confident the province can be put on a better path towards sustainability.
“We have strength and resilience and these are opportunities for us to achieve even better lives,” she says. “We, as humans, have the capacity to change, to transform ourselves, to still lead good and fulfilling lives even in the midst of radical change.”
Tusz-King, who has degrees in health sciences and education, is a program director of Tatamagouche Centre and a founding director of EOS Eco-Energy. With skills in management and community development, she is a strong supporter for economic development in green industries and community social enterprises.
Elected to her first term on town council in 2008, she advocated for stronger accountability, transparency and sustainability, which she says she has delivered. Sackville and Tantramar are working on developing sustainability plans, the town has enacted a municipal ban on bottled water and uranium exploration, and council discussion meetings have now been opened to the public.
Tusz-King has also voiced her concerns over the recent plans by Petroworth Resources to conduct seismic testing in the Sackville basin area in a search for natural gas deposits.
“The frustration of being a local community with really good people and being literally powerless to be self-directed in this, to protect ourselves environmentally the way we want . . . it shows an obvious need for revisiting our regulations for natural resources.”
A Green government would put a moratorium on fracking projects, she says, until proper regulations and safeguards are put in place to protect municipalities.
“We need to revisit extraction industry regulations for the province. I don’t believe we’ve kept up with the complicated technologies that the mining companies are using, and we need to make sure that our regulations keep up with what those companies are willing to risk and to do in order to extract shale oil and gas.”
Green Party policies are based around “localization of decision-making and strengthening communities at a regional level,” values that are important to Tusz-King.
For instance, she points out the Green Party would turn away from an economic development mandate that gives millions of dollars away to large out-of-province corporations.
“Could you imagine if we gave those millions of dollars instead to people in communities to start localized businesses, to employ people, to develop local economies? If we have a stronger local economy, we will circulate the same dollars and generate wealth among smaller communities. We’ll be able to maintain rural areas better, we will be able to produce local food, we will be able to redevelop rural areas for sustainable agriculture, and, in the long term, when we do have to confront the issues of peak oil and climate change, our communities will be stronger and more resilient to be able to cope and for people to live well and transition through that change that will be required.”
