The Foothills riding now has a sixth candidate for the upcoming municipal election.

Canmore Resident Brett Rogers will be running as the Green Party nominee.

Rogers has dedicated much of his life to developing "Mind Body Spirit Health and Performance Enhancement Strategies," authoring several books on the subject.

It's something he'd like to directly advocate for in parliament.

"I believe that our government should make that the number one priority. Yes, what they're focusing on are facets of that, but they seem to have lost touch with the most fundamental facets, which are mind, body, spirit, health and performance enhancement. We can do a lot to improve our education system, the functioning of Health Canada, the functioning of research Canada, as well as how our economy behaves."

He also found himself drawn to the party's plan to address climate change.

"They recognize that climate change is the number one thing we need to address. Everything else is going to be compromised by extreme weather patterns."

With that said, Rogers does openly differ from the Green platform when it comes to their goal of removing fossil fuel vehicles from roads over the next ten years and in his belief that coal and pipeline projects should move forward.

He's glad the Green Party doesn't require its candidates to constantly tow the party line.

"Political puppet problems are coming from this and they are destroying our democracy. When people's hearts aren't in what they're fighting for, they don't fight for those things very well and they become susceptible to negligence and even corruption... If you're scared to speak up against your party's platform, against your leader's behavior, or anything like that for any consequence at all, then you could be suppressing valuable information for making the best decision."

Rogers also plans to develop a "global Debate Website" to be used for more easily disseminating information on a broad range of topics and aiding in making decisions on a wide scale.

He gives the example of economic reform and the kind of transparency that would be needed.

"Taxing the mega-rich is difficult because they've got their finger in our government. It's challenging, in general, to do those things because a lot of people, even candidates, there's a lot of rich members of parliament, not to mention the senate. Even if we had great tax ideas, it's hard to get it through because the people in control don't want to give away their own money."

Again, that's something that drew him to the Green Party, which also highlights democratic reform in its platform.

Click here for more information on Brett Rogers and the Green Party.

 

Questions, comments, or story ideas? Email news@okotoksonline.com