Arthur Green was born in Mission, at the current hospital, back in 1955.
His family is from Agassiz. His great grandfather settled there in the mid-1800s.
After graduating from Agassiz High School in 1973 on an academic-technical program, he became a dispatcher for the BC Forest Service, at Ranger District 3, in Harrison Hot Springs, where he received a vast amount of office training.
It was in 2013, after being with the NDP, that he moved to the Greens. It was an easy transition.
Green believes there are many local issues that need to be addressed in the new riding.
“Personally, I think economy-wise, I think what we really need to tie the valley together and to get it to start to boom again is a transportation system.”
He wants to work on a proposal to get the old BC Railway going as a commuter rail between Chilliwack and Langley. From there, it can tie into the new Langley-to-Surrey line being proposed.
“There’s also that rail line that runs between Abbotsford and Mission and we could tie into the West Coast Express as well.”
Green said it would tie the whole Fraser Valley together.
Another issue close to his heart is the Fraser River.
“All these open-net fish farms on the coast are destroying our salmon stocks. You can talk to any fisherman up and down the Fraser River, all the salmon have sea lice and we believe that’s what it’s caused from, because they are actually farming Atlantic salmon in the Pacific Ocean.
“Between that and climate change, our Fraser River sockeye is in jeopardy.”
On a national level, Green said the money being used to subsidize the oil sands should be moved and invested in clean, renewable energy.
“There are actually already more jobs in the clean and renewable energy sector – like building windmills and solar panels and that sort of stuff – than there are in the tar sands and the oil patch now.”
He believes tens of thousands of jobs could be created.
“We believe we could create the greatest economic catalyst that the country has ever seen.”
The new riding of Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon is huge and Green believes it will be difficult for one man to represent the whole area.
“One man can’t do it. You would need two assistants to do it.”
If elected, Green would have an office in Mission, but would also run satellite offices in other areas, including Lillooet.
He also believes, regardless of which candidate is successful, all the candidates should get together and form a riding association, similar to a taxpayers’ association.
“We could get together two or three times a year and put our views for each party into a central pool and whoever’s elected – hopefully me – could take those ideas back to Ottawa.
“It would be more like a proportional representation riding that way.”