By Pepper Parr
September 11, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
Deciding to run for public office is driven by a vast range of emotions and ambitions. Some plan for years and have a clear idea as to where they want to go, what they want to be and what they would like to do when and if they get there. Some get there and stay far too long.
And for some – there is a phone call: “Would you consider being the candidate?”
Vince Fiorito got such a call and decided to step up to the plate. The following is the letter he wrote to Green Party officials and friends.
My name is Vince Fiorito. I will be the Green Party Candidate for Burlington. I am still completing the registration process. I have the required 100 signatures. I still require confirming letters from Elizabeth May and my auditor. Then I am ready to file my nomination papers with Pat Barr, Burlington’s Returning Officer.
Vince Fiorito pulling up a fence that had been trampled into the ground by trespassers along the GO train tracks. Several months after his finding the fence down – it still hasn’t been put back up properly.
I believe I was selected to be the Green Party Candidate primarily because of my environmental activism. Two years ago I founded a Halton Region Conservation Authority award winning stewardship group to clean the trash out of an urban ravine in Burlington, known as Friends of Sheldon Creek Watershed.
https://www.facebook.com/sheldoncreek
I am an environmental activist because I subscribe to a growing international movement to recognize The Rights of Nature.
I suppose I am a politician now, but until I was contacted by the Green Party last week to be their candidate in Burlington, I considered myself to be an environmental activist.
I expect that the Good People of Burlington will want to know more about their Green Party choice in the 2015 Federal Election.
For the record, I am NOT ambitious for power. I am ambitious for change. I believe our political system has become dysfunctional and unrepresentative because the decision making power has become concentrated in the hands of too few people.
When I beat incumbent Mike Wallace in this election, I intend to create citizen advisory committees, consisting of citizens from Burlington who are honest, reliable and hardworking, one for each Government Ministry and one for the PMO. Each committee will consist of 6 or 8 trustworthy people with impeccable integrity who will be involved in my entire decision making process from beginning until the end. In general, I will respect the will of the committees and vote accordingly in the House. My power will come from appointing people to the committees, casting the deciding vote in the event of a deadlock as well as dissolving and reforming any committee with new members if I believe that committee has become tainted, corrupted or dysfunctional. Other than that, I will respect the will of the committee and vote accordingly, even if I disagree with the committee’s decision.
Fiorito comes across a piece of rusted equipment thrown into the creek – he has taken refrigerators, vehicle tires by the hundreds our of Sheldon Creek The Halton conservation Authority named him a Steward of Sheldon Creek.
I call this decision making process Distributed Democracy. I feel this decision making process will fairly represent the Green Party’s vision of their MPs representing their constituency first and the Green Party second.
The results of Citizen Advisory Committee votes will be available to the public. The committee will be nonpartisan. My expectation is that my future political rivals will likely rise from the ranks of these committees. I will appoint people to these committees based on their qualifications and merit, not their political affiliation. My only stipulation will be that everyone on these committees will balance the Rights of Nature with the Rights of People when they make their decisions.
After I beat Mike Wallace in this election and after he has had a 6 month vacation, I intend to offer him a seat on one of my citizen advisory committees, provided he can pass a vetting process.
I will act as an honest broker to offer the citizens of Burlington an opportunity to participate in the democratic decision making process and transfer to my constituency real decision making power. I feel this offer to share power with the community will capture the imagination of the Burlington electorate.
I expect that once my decision making process becomes more widely known, it will generate a lot of discussion. To be clear, I am offering the citizens of Burlington real political power. In theory a citizen of Burlington on the Finance Advisory committee could cast the deciding vote on a House non-confidence motion that would dissolve the Government of Canada.
Vince Fiorito, wondering how a piece of equipment this size ended up in the Sheldon Creek – and wonders how he is ever going to gt it out of the creek.
The only Green Party policy with which I disagree is Proportional Representation. I agree that the First Past the Post system is broken. I support a ranked ballot system instead because I feel it would be more fair to candidates who run as independents. Other than that, my viewpoints completely align with the Green Party’s platform.
Regardless, I will always represent the will of Burlington first.
Environmentally,
Vince Fiorito
Green Party Candidate for Burlington
The Gazette has interviewed Vince Fiorito a number of times – he is certainly committed to the environment. it is not our place to endorse any candidate at this point in time other than to say Vince is one of a kind; a unique human being doing what he believes in. One can’t ask for much more than that.
Our practice in past elections has been to follow a specific candidate and tell their story – we did that with Carol Gottlob in the municipal election and we will be doing that with Vince Fiorito in this federal election – telling the story of his trials and tribulations as he goes about trying to get himself elected to the House of Commons where he can advocate for the environment on behalf of the people of Burlington.
For a city that cannot get a private tree bylaw passed – Vince has his work cut out for him
