Crease will carry federal Liberal banner

Skid Crease

A well known Bolton environmentalist hopes to spread the real word about climate change as the area's next MP.

The Dufferin-Peel Liberals nominated Skid Crease as their candidate in the next federal election. The event was held in Mono Mills Thursday night and Crease is gearing up for the fight.

"I want to go to Ottawa to ensure that Canada's national and international responses to climate change honour the work of the scientific community and our commitments to the Kyoto process to provide responsible policies that will work towards a healthy environment and sustainable development. I want to rekindle a vision of a united Canada, celebrating diversity and sharing our resources with empathy and integrity."

He said what motivated him to seek office was a feeling of anger - that we're being betrayed and lied to as a nation about the seriousness of impending climate change issues.

"The voices of my students, fellow educators and scientists had not only been dismissed, but that an international agreement of profound importance (CoP11 - Montreal 2005) had been rejected by our current 'leader' who simply does not believe that climate change is a concern, nor that is has any association to human causes. To see this same 'leader' promote offensive ads denigrating the very minister of the environment who had brought together international consensus and included our Youth Declaration in the document, was the final straw.

"There is no room for an environmentally illiterate government in the 21st century - and nobody lies to my students!"

Locally, Crease said he believes Dufferin-Caledon constituents have had an "absentee landlord" representing their voices over the past two terms.

"I am a storyteller and I intend to listen to the stories and needs of the people of Dufferin-Caledon and tell those stories powerfully, and wisely, and well in Ottawa. Equally, I intend to bring back the stories of the nation and the world and tell them to the citizens of our riding so they have an understanding of our place in the big picture."

Crease said he intends to ensure that any grants, incentives; programs available to provinces, m u n i c i p a l i t i e s , manufacturing, agriculture and individuals are made available to this riding.

"Caught between Greenbelt legislation and international food markets, our farmers especially need to receive the incentives to help them transition to, and become leaders in, a new energy economy where they become self-sustaining in energy production through biodiesel and ethanol alternatives and clean wind power generation."

His first environmental policy would be to inform residents of the riding of the "real climate change story" and its projected impacts. He would like to pass the Green Book/Carbon Budget/revised Clean Air Act policies, which would be a decisive movement toward fulfilling the triple bottom line - environmental sustainability, economy prosperity and social justice.

"I also want to expose the lobbyists who have brought our current government (and past governments) to a virtual standstill," he said. "I want to pass legislation to ensure that that kind of corporate pathology has its power greatly reduced or eliminated."

The teacher specialized in out-of-classroom quest experiences with his students, which took him to Greece, Spain and North Africa through adventure programs.

He served as program leader and site manager in outdoor education at Mono Cliffs and Bolton Outdoor Education Centres and from 1998 to 2001, he was course director and environmental science advisor at York University. The president of ecoNexus was primary consultant for Earth Rangers' programs.

In 1990, he was selected as one of 25 Canadian educators who travelled to Costa Rica to advise the IDRC on a joint education venture between the two countries. In 1999, he was selected to be a member of the Global Climate Change Institute program in Aspen, Colorado. In 2005 he travelled from Iceland to Greenland to Nunavut to study climate change.

Crease is an internationally respected educator, author, keynote speaker and workshop leader.

In 1991 he founded ecoNexus, an educational organization devoted to the development of an environmentally literate society through awareness, knowledge and action in dealing with environmental issues.