Candidate Profile - Stephen Kotze

Jeff Green | Oct 17, 2019

The election campaign for Stephen Kotze began early and has been ramping up ever since. Although the Green Party candidate (Anita Payne) only received 3.5% of the vote in Lanark Frontenac Kingston in 2015, there were three people contesting the nomination in early April. Kotze, who runs an accounting business, in Balance, out of his home in Elphin, near the border between Frontenac and Lanark Counties, came out on top.

Ever since he has been hard at work visiting every corner of the riding, and setting up a core of volunteers to get the Green Party message out, talking to voters of every stripe about the climate crisis that the Green Party is dedicated to addressing, and about the rest of the party platform.

“I’ve learned a lot about, certainly about the Green Party’s platform. It was totally foreign to me beforehand, but I’ve had to get to the meat of it and it is a comprehensive platform.

“The whole campaign has been an education. The good thing has been getting out and meeting people, hearing peoples’ passion. There are always new things that come up around issues of concern to people,” he said.

At the door, at all-candidates meetings and at events that the Green Party has organised, he has been asked about a huge range of issues.

“People have asked about NATO, about trade with China and Hong Kong, which are definitely outside of my area of expertise, and I have to say that. I obviously have a lot more to say about climate change, climate policy and social programs.”

Since the campaign began, he has seen a lot of momentum towards the Green Party nationally, and in the Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston riding.

“Not only have we had many, many people come out to join our campaign, we have also been able to bring many voters to the Green’s as well. I know that people who have voted for the NDP in the past, for the Liberals in the past, and for the Conservatives in the past, will be voting Green this time. I know that our vote will increase substantially in Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston,” he said.

Other candidates have noticed that the Green’s seem to have momentum as well. The number of signs, not exactly a scientific measure and one that is skewed this time around because the NDP has not put out signs, indicate a lot of Green support, particularly signs on private property.

But just as the Green’s, in Kotze’s view, have taken votes from other parties, he is more than ready to work with those parties when the election is over.

“If other parties who are in a position of power have ideas or policies that move the bar on climate or other areas that are important to us and to Canadians, we will support them. The Green’s are committed to collaboration, not adversarial party politics.”

That being said, he is quick to point out that an analysis of the climate change proposals form the four major parties, which was reported upon by the CBC on October 11 (https://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/confronting-carbon2/) indicates that among the four major parties, only the Green’s climate change proposals would result in reducing carbon emissions to below 2005 levels by 2030, the goal that the government of Canada took in the run up to the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference.

While the Green Party plan would also result in the lowest level of economic growth of the four that the report looked at, the report says that under the Green’s plan growth will remain at 1.25% (the others are NDP, 1.5%, Liberals 1.75%, and Conservatives 1.8%).

For Kotze, this election has been all about the conversation about climate change and economic growth, and the experience has heightened his political commitment.

“We may not get the votes we need to implement our policies in this riding or across the country, but this will not stop us from continuing the conversation about climate change. My commitment towards that goal has only be heightened by the election campaign,” he said.