Rounding out the ballot for the Oct. 21 federal election is independent Terry Grimwood of Sechelt.
Grimwood, 67, is no stranger to politics, having served two terms on North Vancouver city council at the age of 20, as well as mounting a bid for a federal seat in Burnaby South's byelection last year (eventually won by NDP leader Jagmeet Singh).
Now, he's spearheaded Canada Fresh—a brand new political party (though one not yet officially registered with Elections Canada).
"I've been working on [Canada Fresh] for a couple of years now, and I've been across Canada three times in the last 12 months ... I believe Canada needs a new political party," Grimwood said.
"There's just so many issues that aren't being discussed, even at this election time. Nobody's talking about the north, nobody's concerned about balancing the budget. All the parties seem to be in lockstep with the status quo. In my opinion, they don't have any ideas."
As for Grimwood, he has plenty of ideas. One of them—for Canada-wide "transportation hubs" every 50 to 100 kilometres—was sparked by his travels across the country.
"If we do do the hubs, we'll support transit, and that's the big thing. Not everybody has a vehicle," he said.
"Greyhound wondered why their usage was slipping, and it was because they weren't really engaged with the customers that wanted to ride the bus. They were a parcel service."
The Canada Fresh platform (which can be found at www.canada-fresh.ca) is full of ideas, including tanker trucks and pipelines for water distribution, capping the cost of gas prices at $1 per litre in every province and supporting rural Canada.
"The biggest highlight is our [policy on] pension funds. Canadians do not realize that their pension funds are 90-per-cent invested offshore," Grimwood said
"It's so simple to build housing for seniors and students and workers, and affordable housing, but we don't make the money available for them, and we have that in our pension funds."
Grimwood proposes reinvesting Canadian pension funds in Canada's "own backyard" for a better return on investment.
He's also proposing a floating bridge to the Sunshine Coast, and would like to see Canada's armed forces retrained to deal with civic issues like flooding or power outages.
As for how he'll address these issues if he's elected, Grimwood said it's about "bringing it to the public's attention."
"That's the biggest [thing]. The general public does not know what I'm saying. Even the candidates in this riding don't know what I'm saying," he said.
"Being an independent, the majority of people at the debates are already committed. Their vote is cast in stone, and that's the audience you're talking to," he added.
"But it's been a good learning experience for me, and I am trying to get my message out there. I've tried to use a little bit of humour to make it a memorable experience for myself."
Grimwood joins the Liberals' Patrick Weiler, the Conservative Party's Gabrielle Loren, the NDP's Judith Wilson, the Green Party's Dana Taylor, the People's Party's Robert (Doug) Bebb and the Rhino Party's Gordon Jeffrey on the ballot for Sea to Sky voters in 2019.
