The Kenora Riding's Green Party candidate has no illusions about what she's up against.
Next to Conservative Minister of Natural Resources Greg Rickford, former Liberal Minister of Indian Affairs Bob Nault and former provincial NDP leader Howard Hampton, Dryden teacher Amber McKillop's name sounds green in more ways than one.
"All these guys are career politicians and experience has its advantages but then again, maybe it's time for something completely different," McKillop said after her acclamation last week.
McKillop wants to get in front of a shift she sees coming in the Kenora Riding, where a silent portion of the electorate has started to stir. The ballot boxes, she argued, tend to fill with votes from those comfortable with towing the party line. Waving the Green Party's whip-free pledge, she wants to attract voters who can count on her suppport to represent local issues on the national stage.
Although the Greens support resource development, McKillop believes Northwestern Ontario is "out of sight, out of mind" when it comes to cleaning up those sites. If there's an economy in mining, she deduced, there must be an economy in cleaning it up when the boom turns to bust.
"I think we're looking at how we're going to create jobs for Kenora. Certainly, remediation. We can become leaders in that area. Any new projects going for ward from here need to have that in mind," she said.
"If we're looking at resource extraction as in mining, w'ere not looking at totally destryoing the area for five years of extraction. We're not going to get a lot of jobs out of that."
The most important part of the shift McKillop sees underway is a wave of Aboriginal voters coming to the federal polls in opposition to the Conservative Government's approach to First Nations issues. She says elders and leaders know what the solutions are and wants to serve as a conduit for those solutions.
"I feel personally, we're obligated to help with the solutions but the solutions aren't going to come form an outsider. It has to come from within," McKillop said. "I don't think it will work unless it's support given to people who are in the situation, who live in these communities.
"They have the ideas. They know what needs to happen."
