Simcoe-Grey’s Green Party candidate is new to politics but felt compelled to push for change when she became disillusioned with what was happening at a provincial level.
Sherri Jackson said the final straw was education cuts by Doug Ford’s provincial government.
Her husband is a high school teacher. She has two teenage boys, and she had just sold the Montessori school she was running with her sister in Stayner.
“I couldn’t watch it happen. I needed to do something,” said Jackson. “I felt like this is a really important election and it’s time for us to be the change we want to see in the world.”
While education is typically a provincial issue, she said this was the first election that came up, and it wasn’t just provincial government she thought needed to change.
“One of the major things I feel is a problem is we don’t have politicians who actually represent what people want,” she said. “I’m in it because I really want things to be different. I want things to change.”
Jackson is an entrepreneur, having started both the Montessori school and a publishing company. She worked as a legal editor for 22 years and helped authors develop manuscripts through her publishing company. She lives in Creemore and joined the Green party this year.
For her, the federal election is important because it’s happening at a time when, she said, Canada is at a crossroads.
“I really think politics the way we’ve been doing it for the last 150 years has had its day, it’s time for us to evolve into the 21st century,” she said. “Canada has to decide what kind of a country it’s going to be … The rest of the world thinks of Canada as clean and fair and polite and tolerant and inclusive and lovely. We have a lovely reputation around the world. we need to make sure we’re living up to it here at home. We can’t be closing our borders and trying to create all of this division and suspicion among each other.”
Climate is a big issue for Jackson and the Green Party in general. She said Canada and the world don’t have four years to waste “calling into question whether not this is a reality.”
The Green Party of Canada’s slogan for the federal election is “Not left, not right, forward.”
For Jackson, that means an end to partisanship at a federal level.
“The best-case scenario is a minority coalition government where the Green Party holds the balance of power,” she said. “We’ve said we’ll work with any party who has a serious plan to attack climate change … How do we solve this crisis together?”
Federal Green Party leader Elizabeth May and one other BC MP (Paul Manly) are the only two Green Party members elected to the federal government so far. In Simcoe-Grey, voters have elected a Conservative MP since 2004, and Liberal before that.
Jackson acknowledged there has been a trend for people to vote strategically for one person out of fear that any other vote would help the candidate, whom the voter doesn’t like, win.
“I think anytime you vote for something you don’t believe in, you are throwing away your vote,” said Jackson. “We’re missing a reality and an honesty in our political structure and we’ve let people tell us that you can’t have what you want because it’s going to hurt the economy and it’s going to damage jobs, but that’s ridiculous … I don’t believe you ever go wrong by standing up for the things you believe in. I think that’s critically important and I think we need more of that, not less … Our votes all count for the same amount: one.”
Jackson is a big fan of her party’s leader, Elizabeth May.
“She’s a genuinely caring and compassionate person and she’s also wicked smart and she’s wicked determined,” said Jackson. “She’s demonstrating that women in politics have a unique voice and they have something to say and they have something to contribute and we need more of that.
Jackson is running for the MP’s seat in Simcoe-Grey against Conservative candidate Terry Dowdall, Liberal candidate Lorne Kenney, and NDP candidate Ilona Matthews.
