Local Greens choose Genest

The 44-year-old Genest, a Mile End resident, won the nomination during the riding association's annual general meeting at the Atwater Library on Wednesday.

The only other contender was Jack J. Locke, 50, a baker and freelance writer from NDG, who was a runner-up in the 1992 Calgary mayoralty election.

Genest was running on a purely environmental platform, in contrast to the more subdued Locke, who also emphasized social issues, including capital punishment. Though Locke spoke of a campaign he is currently spearheading to repatriate Ron Smith, a Canadian sitting on death row in Montana, the riding association's members overwhelmingly chose Genest for the nomination.

Recently, the Conservative government in Ottawa has said they are not going to intervene to protect Smith and probably others who may be in similar straits. This is a departure from what had been the federal government's longstanding practice.

"We need to protect him and ensure that his life is not in jeopardy, which means repatriation — bringing him back to Canada and putting him in prison here," Locke said in a pre-meeting interview.

Genest, on the other hand, said he wasn't at all interested in that issue. "I recognize that we're facing the first civilization-scale crisis humanity has ever faced and that comes first and foremost," he said.

While not in complete agreement with Locke on some questions, Genest said they weren't necessarily at opposite poles of the political spectrum. "I'm of the generation — and there are many more of us — who don't even know what that means to be left or right," he said. "It seems like a redundant, dépassé way of breaking things down."

During his address, Locke took a swipe at Marc Garneau, the famed former Canadian astronaut who will be running for the Liberals in the next election.

"This is really what democracy looks like, Marc Garneau," he said, noting that Garneau was appointed a candidate by Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, rather than by the riding association.

Genest, in his comments, said that one of the biggest hindrances to getting the Green message across is an extremely effective public relations spin on the part of adversaries that solutions to environmental problems have to be enormously costly.

"That's garbage," he said. "In fact, to quote Bill Clinton, it is the biggest economic opportunity humanity has ever known. And it's so blindingly simple. I think it's just the elusive obvious sometimes for people. It's literally as simple as changing a light bulb, it's just that simple. Changing this light bulb will put money in your pocket."

"The word economy means the management of the house, the word ecology means the study of the house," he added. "There is no economy possible without environment and everywhere you look these steps are beneficial to our health, to the planet and to our bottom line."