Everything about Mike Nagy is saying
“chill” today. The Green Party candidate has just come from John Galt Day
festivities, including a couple of hours of canoe-related activities in the
river. His t-shirt says “Be Cool” and he kicks back in his campaign office with
his feet up. Is the perpetual also-ran getting complacent? Not actually, Nagy’s
finally waging the campaign he’s always wanted to.
“Since we’ve been on hold for two years,
its given us time to plan,” says Nagy, who hasn’t been able to plan more than a
few months ahead for the last few years out of his desire to throw himself into
this campaign full time. “We’ve learned a lot of lessons from the other
campaigns and that means we’ve become very organized and disciplined. And with
that, it’s attracted some very skilled people.”
But Nagy’s third go on the ballot was never
an assured thing. Green support has been growing steadily in Guelph over the
last decade on both federal and provincial levels. But it was Ben Polley’s
third place victory, garnering 20 per cent of the vote, in last October’s
Provincial election that finally swayed Nagy in favour of running. That
combined with the prospect of a by-election rather than fighting a national campaign
locally, got him excited with the real prospect of a Party breakthrough. “With
this election the enthusiasm is high because they can taste a win and they know
that one [Green MP] can lead to five or ten”
Unfortunately, that victory will have to
come without the help of the Greens’ biggest base of support: students, many of
won’t be able to vote on September 8th due to Elections Canada rules
regarding by-elections. Nagy says he’s disappointed, but regardless of the fact
that its summer vacation, the Greens reached their goal in total number of
volunteers. Now they’re focused on doubling that number, according to Nagy, who
adds that even his main campaign staff, from campaign manager down, are
volunteers.
Much of the growing support for Green is
attributed to increased concern generally about the environment. Nagy explains
that a lot of this has to do with the fact that people are coming to see the
correlation between the environment and a host of other issues; from the economy
to international relations. “Green’s believe in their vote,” he adds. “It’s not
something that they take for granted or randomly do. A lot people go through
the colour spectrum, land on the green, and that’s where they’re going to stay
for a very long time.”
That’s something Nagy can understand first
hand. During his youth and years in university he was a staunch Liberal. He had
friends and family working in the party and even got Christmas cards from
Pierre Trudeau. Nagy says that it’s always been his dream to go the House of
Commons as an MP, but his dream has since been amended to get there under the
Green banner. “I might have taken the easier route and gone through one of the
three major parties, but none of them spoke to me,” he adds.
Victory isn’t a foregone conclusion though,
and Nagy knows that this is going to be a hard fought race for all candidates
and their parties, but that doesn’t mean he’s not looking towards the future.
The Green candidate says that, if elected, he wants to be an honest broker in
Parliament and help break the partisan deadlock. “The Green Party does not have
all the answers, but we have a lot of new answers,” explains Nagy. “A lot of
the other parties have answers and we want to work with them to. But right now,
a lot of good answers are stalled. They’re locked up in vacuums and vaults.
It’s about who yells loudest in Question Period.”
Nagy says that he knows some people see his
idealism as naïve, but that attitude has spurned him to prove that he can do
more. It’s what’s led him here: the cusp of a potential Green seat in
government – the first in North America. “This is the hard path, but it’s a rewarding path. I’ve made so
many friends in many different communities out of this over the last couple of
years, friends that I’ll have for the rest of my life. People have humbled me
with their commitment and their love and support. If I win, I’ll do everything
to not let them down.”
Come
back next week for the final candidate profile and head over to my blog at
http://guelphbyelectionbeat.blogspot.com for daily election coverage.
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