Shannon Hawthorne, Green Party candidate for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner (Photo courtesy Green Party of Canada)

By Charles Lefebvre

Federal Election

Green Party names candidate for upcoming election

Aug 26, 2019 | 4:14 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The Green Party of Canada has nominated its candidate for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner.

Shannon Hawthorne has been selected as the candidate for the election which is set to take place this fall. She says addressing climate change and dealing with the environment as major issues this election.

“Medicine Hat is my hometown, so I think it’s really important that I go back to my hometown and be able to advocate for the community and the constituency,” she said over the phone on Monday. “Ultimately, it’s just with the current climate change crisis, I think it’s important that we have strong advocates, and we’re starting to think about our future and what that looks like in terms of a sustainable economy, and responding to the climate crisis. That was very important to me, and i think it’s important that Medicine Hat has a very strong advocate that’s thinking about those things.”

Hawthorne now lives in Calgary, where she currently works as a volunteer coordinator with the Brenda Stafford Centre for the Prevention of Domestic Violence. She has obtained a Bachelor of Arts diploma in Law and Society from the University of Calgary, and holds a legal assistant diploma from SAIT.

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She says she chose the Green Party because they’ve stuck to their values over the years.

“While they’ve obviously never formed government, I know they have pushed strongly against the Liberals and Conservatives throughout these years to very much include climate in all of their platforms and really push for that,” she said.

While The Green Party of Canada has fielded a candidate in the riding in every federal election since 2004 (when it was known as Medicine Hat), they’ve never finished higher than fourth place.

The party currently has three seats in the House of Commons (leader Elizabeth May, Pierre Nantel and Paul Manly), with Manly becoming the second Green Party MP elected following a May 6 byelection.

Hawthorne says the party is hoping to use that momentum to have a strong showing during the federal election.

“I think that the momentum with the Green Party, and people really paying attention to climate change and the climate crisis will give the Green Party huge momentum,” she said.

Hawthorne says she plans to be in Medicine Hat next week, and will be in town during the campaign. She can also be found on Facebook.

Declared candidates

Hawthorne’s entry into the race brings the total number of candidates to three for the riding of Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner.

Glen Motz (Conservative) is seeking a second term after being elected in a 2016 byelection. Andrew Nelson is representing the People’s Party of Canada in the riding.

CHAT News has reached out to both the Liberals and the NDP, who say they are both currently working through their nomination processes to select a candidate for the election.

By law, a federal election must occur on or before October 21.