Dan Kashagama

Photo: 

dankashagama2008b.jpg

Candidate Highlights: 

• A Better Plan for Surrey-Green Timbers

We need a Green Urban Surrey and a More Just British Columbia.

What I am providing is a clear and coherent strategy for improving the lives of the people in British Columbia...of people in Canada, and of people everywhere. Your vote has consequences not only for you personally, but for everyone on Earth. You have to think for and about everyone else, not just yourself or your community. At the core of all of the violence and greed in our society, is the lack of faith among many that anyone else cares for them or their concerns. Corrosive fear spawns the pervasive selfishness that each one of us singly has to fight for anything and everything we need because no one else will help or share with us, or look out for our interests.

We are living in times when every election, municipal, provincial or federal, is vital for the future of humanity. We have learned in the last century and the last decade that the actions of a few people in one small area on the planet can have repercussions everywhere...the environment knows no borders, failing economies and governments have consequences globally. Everyone has a stake in the business of everyone else, especially when it comes to pollution or human rights.

We cannot hesitate in our resolve...to travel the great path and do the great things that need to be done for the Earth that has given us so much. If we don't do this now, when?

One of the great things that I have had the privilege to experience as a result of becoming a candidate, has been to engage in discourse with young people...and I can promise you that every single one of the hundreds of kids I have met in elementary and high schools all over Canada is an environmentalist who is committed to human rights and who wants to do good for humanity. The vast majority of people in Surrey Green Timbers are young people who are concerned about the environment and who are technologically savvy.

Having done lots of seasonal work in forestry industry, I know many families in Surrey are dependent on the most dangerous and backbreaking seasonal work where the rewards are meagre and unreliable. I will fight for their rights of marginalized and exploited communities that are over represented in industrial ghettoes, I will fight for better working conditions, and for better jobs.

The electoral process in BC doesn't accommodate young people, minorities, women or marginalized Native and immigrant communities. It is in the interest of the 30,000 voters in Surrey Green Timbers to vote Green. Voting Green, goes a long way in guaranteeing reforms that will make it easier for young people to afford housing, especially housing that will accommodate people who are trying to start families or keep their families together. Many young people in Surrey have young families and have to support parents or younger siblings. If I am elected I will fight to make rents more affordable [by reforming the municipal funding structure that is the source of high property taxes and high rents]. Surrey is almost entirely dependent on property taxes, and that dependency drives up property prices, and encourages predatory behavior by the real estate and construction industries at the expense of communities and the environment. Surrey also lacks adequate subsidized housing. I will support access to multiple-generation households; and I will fight for job accessibility and stability, as well as high quality jobs.

Surrey needs an ecologically friendly and more coherent infrastructure and housing development plan. The South Fraser Perimeter Road, and other current plans to build more bridges all pose threats to the Surrey Bend and Burns Bog, both of which areas contain the last wetlands in Surrey, and are vital habitats for wildlife, and for fish. In addition, these areas contain important Native heritage sites that are thousands of years old.

I have been advocating for turning Surrey/Vancouver into twin cities. The major employers and institutions in Vancouver and Burnaby need to move to the Surrey side of the Fraser. This is a coherent plan to deal with the urban sprawl and congestion, and the growth is happening opportunistically, threatening farmlands and wetlands and historic sites [e.g.., burns bog, surrey bend, green timbers, and the farmlands out in Surrey, langely, coquitlam and mission]. A properly planned Green Twin City will cut traffic and reduce the unplanned urban growth that is eating up the last wetlands. Instead of building more bridges to shunt traffic through farmlands and wetlands, into the cul-de-sac that is Vancouver, we need to spend the billions of dollars slated for Portmann in building better work facilities in Surrey, light rail and transit [reducing traffic], and cleaning up the Fraser's banks to increase parks and augment ecosystems, and extend wetlands and agricultural reserves. Surrey must become a green city. Being pro-environment makes good business sense. There's a lot we can do thats good for business and the environment and for the community.

Candidate's Background:

Community Activities: Administrator with the Canadian Network for International Surgery, which runs medical and education projects in the African Union. Has served in various executive positions, including as chair of the board of directors, with the African Canadian Association of British Columbia, advocating for international aid reform, cross-cultural and inter-community relations, social work, community development, employment equity, immigration, and resettlement of displaced people, and helping victims of genocide and war. Currently director on the board of the African Peace Forum, which promotes peace in Africa; member of the board of the B.C. branch of the African Diaspora Association of Canada; and member of the executive committee of the African Unification Front, which has observer status at the UN. Works as a consultant with organizations, including the UN, that are concerned with human security, and with transnational crime.

Profession: Journalist, artist and actor.

Education: Studied politics and international relations at the University of Toronto; International Baccalaureate - Nairobi, Kenya.

Career Background: In journalism, has worked as production and assignment editor, news researcher, producer, and television reporter. Has worked with Kenya Television Network and with British Columbia Television.