Angela Keller-Herzog is the Green Party candidate for Ottawa Centre. This is her first foray into politics, having previously obtained a master’s degree in economics from Carleton University.
Keller-Herzog has previously worked with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and now runs her own bed and breakfast, while also sitting on the boards of the Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-operative, and CoEnergy Co-operative.
She spoke to the Charlatan about the Green Party’s plan for climate change, tuition rates and fighting rising living costs.
Climate
Keller-Herzog said she was first inspired to run when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government announced a $1.6-billion subsidy to the oil and gas industry in December 2018.
“It seems like their steering wheel is on lock and they can’t turn the ship, they’re just too beholden to oil and gas,” she said.
The Green Party platform calls for a “New Deal.” Keller-Herzog said countries have lost the ability to make the massive changes required “leisurely,” and that the changes need to be made rapidly.
“But this is also a massive opportunity,” the candidate said. Green retrofits to buildings, electric-engined public transit and revamping agriculture to be less carbon intensive will create thousands of jobs.
Keller-Herzog also said energy production needs to be more accessible to the general public.
“If we change the regulatory system so that people can go buy solar panels at Canadian Tire and get hydro to install them, and then have their own capacity to generate electricity … that would put us in a position to be much more locally resilient.”
Affordability
Linked to the Green’s climate plan is another proposal to make public transit free.
“We would like to see public transit, which is either free or very affordable and efficient, so that people choose to take public transit and it should be electric public transit,” she said.
Keller-Herzog also spoke about the importance of addressing housing affordability, and the ineffectiveness of the 2017 National Housing Strategy, at an all-candidates debate in October, according to a previous article from the Charlatan.
Tuition
The Green Party platform includes the elimination of post-secondary education tuition, forgiving existing student debt held by the government, and removing the two per cent cap on increases to education funding for Indigenous students.
For Keller-Herzog, this means investing in students just as much as everything else.
“If we’re going to invest in roads to drive on, why shouldn’t we be investing in education of our future?” Keller-Herzog said at the all-candidates debate at Carleton on Oct. 2.
Feature image from file.
