Gerl aims to improve on third-place finishes

Gerl aims to improve on third-place finishes

News

If Sylvia Gerl is tired of campaigning for the NDP in the past three federal elections in York-Simcoe, she’s not showing it. She also competed in the provincial election five years ago in the York North riding, where she placed a strong third.

Third place has been the traditional finish for Ms Gerl, 49, but she said she takes heart in the fact she pulled in close to 2,000 more votes in 2006 over the previous election.

With party Leader Jack Layton polling higher among Canadians than Liberal Leader Stephane Dion when it comes to who would make a better prime minister, this could be a breakthrough campaign.

Ms Gerl outlined her party’s environmental policy, which she said is the most comprehensive of any party, including a cap and trade carbon pricing system.

She pointed to the Clean Air and Climate Change Act, based on the NDP’s polluter-pay plan, that was praised by environmentalists.

The NDP also has its green collar jobs plan, designed to make Canada’s transition to a low-emissions, new energy economy.

The NDP policy is environmentally strong and economically responsible, she said, noting big polluters will pay.

“You have to be able to check and see how much everyone is polluting. It’s very sensible and necessary to start putting the onus on the creators of the pollution. I don’t think the (Liberal Party’s) Green Shift is strong enough and it’s not simple to explain.”

She said the Green Party is more of a single-issue party.

The Harper Tories’ environmental policies have been a failure, she said, noting they abandoned the Kyoto Accord emission targets and continued to subsidize companies developing the Alberta tar sands, Canada’s biggest polluter.

Ms Gerl said Canadians are lucky to have universal health care, thanks to her party.

“I was talking with a nurse today who was from the States. She told me she once had to take a man off the operating table — luckily they hadn’t cut him yet — because the insurance company decided he wasn’t a good enough risk. She said ‘You guys don’t know how good it is here.’ We need to preserve that.”

Ms Gerl has been a community activist, participating in anti-poverty rallies, an advocate at a shelter for abused women and children and a residential counsellor for dually diagnosed handicapped adults.

She is a member of the board of directors of an addiction treatment centre, a volunteer with a pioneer museum and the Eaglewood Folk Festival and a member the Poverty Action Coalition for Change, the Council of Canadians and Greenpeace.

Ms Gerl has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto. She and husband Bob Ridley are the former owners of a health food store in Sutton. have three sons.

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