Conservative McLeod may accept Green challenge

If any of Conservative candidate Cathy McLeod, Liberal flag-bearer Murray Todd or NDP candidate Michael Crawford accepts the challenge of Green candidate Donovan Cavers and succeeds, Cavers will urge his supporters to vote for that candidate in the May 2 election. The challenge? No more than double Cavers' carbon footprint during this election campaign.

Share this story

Tweet

others also read...

Kamloops This Week

• McLeod may accept Green challenge
• Longtime Liberal backs Conservative McLeod

• McLeod among Conservative minority to support bill on transgender rights
• MP McLeod OK with Trudeau ads
• Mrs. McLeod goes to Washington — and New York
• The year-end interview: MP McLeod not yet set to go green

After Green candidate Donovan Cavers threw down a campaign challenge worthy of a Food Network reality show, the response from other candidates has been lukewarm at best.

The two-time Green candidate, who also runs his own catering business, said he will publicly urge his supporters to vote for any one of the local Liberal, Conservative or NDP candidates who can demonstrate their campaign activities produced only twice the carbon emissions as his campaign, with April 29 set as the date to determine if any accepting his challenge succeeded.

Conservative MP Cathy McLeod and NDP candidate Michael Crawford said they are  both cautious of their campaign’s environmental impact, but only McLeod is seriously considering the Green’s challenge.

McLeod said she is  negotiating with Cavers on a formula for the challenge.

She has suggested calculating greenhouse-gas emissions on a per-vote basis.

“We’re having negotiations,” McLeod said, while congratulating Cavers for bringing awareness to the environment issue.

Crawford said he us doing his best to limit his campaign’s footprint, but added he’s running a full campaign to beat McLeod.

He suggested Cavers’ challenge is achievable to some extent, but noted he still needs to use a vehicle to drive around the riding.

“We’re running a full campaign here and that’s probably something Donovan [Cavers] isn’t doing,” Crawford said.

Instead, Crawford contends his campaign has taken measures to reduce environmental impact, including having bikes in the campaign office for short-trip use, carpooling and using materials from previous elections.

Liberal candidate Murray Todd, who labelled the Green’s challenge “weird,” said he might have considered it before the election was called.

However, now days into the campaign, Todd said he has “other things on my mind.

“This is something that I’m not sure I can do anything about right at the moment,” he said, adding he needs to get around the riding in his car.

The challenge was not issued to the local Christian Heritage Party candidate Chris Kempling.

If another candidate accepts the challenge and succeeds, Cavers will urge his supporters to vote for that candidate in the May 2 election.