The Green Party is the first national party to name a candidate to attempt to unseat 5-time incumbent Conservative Lanark Frontenac Kingston MP, Scott Reid, in the coming federal election.

The candidate is Stephen Kotze, who operates In Balance, an accounting company specialising in small business and not-for profit corporations out of his home in the tiny hamlet of Elphin. He has a long history in social and environmental activism.

Kotze was one of three Lanark County residents vying for the nomination, and won the nomination in the first round of counting the ranked ballots, at a meeting last Thursday (April 11), at McMartin House in Perth.

The other nominees were Doug Barr, a Tay Valley Township musician and advocate of sustainable living, and Kelvin Hodges, a resident of Perth who owns and runs a solar energy and storage business.

In a telephone interview this week, Kotze said that the other two candidates gave very strong presentations at the meeting.

“They were both very good candidates. I did not feel that confident coming into the vote.”

Kotze was born in South Africa, where his parents were prominent anti-apartheid activists. He moved to Europe when he was a young man and eventually made his way to The Farm, an intentional community in Tennessee.

With his wife Rosemary, he moved to the Elphin-McDonald’s Corners area in the early 1980’s to work at Plenty Canada. The Kotzes worked on a project in Lesotho, a country surrounded by South Africa, in the mid 1980’s.

In 1994, Stephen became a Canadian citizen. He worked at the Canadian Environmental Network in the mid 1990’s, eventually serving as the Executive Director. He established In Balance in 1998. The Kotzes have 7 children and two grandchildren.

In a telephone interview this week, he said that the Green Party is ready to take a larger role in Canadian politics.

“[Party leader] Elizabeth May has done an incredible job, but she can’t do it all on her own. We need more Green Party members in parliament to help influence policy.”

As to his motivation to seek the party nomination this time around, he pointed to the urgency surrounding climate change.

“We are in a crisis, people realise that and they also realise that our leaders are not responding appropriately,” he said. “The Liberals are floundering. Trudeau has signed the Paris accord, saying thathe takes climate change seriously, but not really, in my opinion, doing very much.”

As a long-time Lanark County resident, Kotze is certainly aware of how entrenched the Conservative Party is in the riding, but sees an opening this time around.

“There are a lot of people who don’t support the Conservatives in this riding, and I want to give them a voice. Scott Reid does a good job representing his constituency but not representing all of the people in this riding. It’s time to get people into power who will represent the broader public.”

He also argues that the greening of the Canadian economy does not mean the end to economic prosperity.

“As Greens, we don’t want our economy to lose jobs just because we are getting rid of fossil fuels. We are interested in maintaining a strong economy. There are things we can do that are concrete and are based in reality. Other countries have led the way in this area, and we need to make changes in order to catch up.”

(Editor’s note – Stephen Kotze provides accounting services for the Frontenac News)

It looks like Randy Hillier will not be donning green suspenders after all.

Green Party leader Mike Shreiner is denying a report in the Huffiington Post that he made the offer last week in a late night meeting at Queen’s Park.

“I will admit that we have developed a bit of a friendship over the last couple of weeks since we have been sitting together at the back of the legislature together. But talk of any political alliance is very much premature,” said Shreiner.

Shreiner leads a one person caucus as the first Green Party member ever to be elected to Queen’s Park, and Kingston-Frontenac-Lanark MPP Randy Hillier is now sitting as an “Independent Conservative” effectively a one-person party of his own.

The two MPP’s share some perspective on government policy, but differ radically on environmental policies, which is a deal breaker when it comes to offering Hillier leadership role in the Green Party.

“I think that environmental concerns are used, often by faceless bureaucrats, to stop hard working landowners from making legitimate use of their land,” said Hillier.

And even though Hillier’s opposition wind energy projects and carbon taxes would seem to put him at odds with the party, it was the black rat snake and the five lined skink that ultimately led to the cessation of talks between Hillier and Shreiner.

“I said that if we could agree to a more reasonable policy regarding endangered species and the role of the Conservation Authorities, I could see coming on board, but Mr. Shreiner could not make that concession, even though he admitted that he is not a fan of snakes and had never even seen a skink,” said Hillier.

The last time we all went to the polls was for the Federal election way back in the fall of 2015, when the 10 year old Steven Harper led Conservative government was tossed out in favour of the Liberals under Justin Trudeau. This year the 14.5 year run of the Ontario Liberals, during which time Dalton McGuinty was elected 3 times and current Premier Kathleen Wynne one time, will be on the line on June 7th. Riding redistribution, which came into effect federally in that 2015 election, will be mirrored at Queen’s Park after this coming election. Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington Conservative MPP Randy Hillier will be contesting the new Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston riding against Amanda Pulker-Mok of the Liberals, Anita Payne of the Green Party, a still un-named NDP candidate, and perhaps other independent or small party candidates who may come out of the woodwork in the run up to the election.

Our readers in Addington Highlands will be part of the new provincial riding of Hastings, Lennox and Addington (HL&A). Former Conservative Federal Member of Parliament Daryl Kramp, who lost the Federal election in the HL&A riding to Mike Bossio in 2015, was chosen last August as the Conservative candidate in the new provincial riding, and has been campaigning ever since. The other parties have not selected candidates as of yet.

While the local election will not heat up until the writ period, which starts in early May, on a provincial level the contest has been under way for at least a year, perhaps longer.

The thinking as recently as 3 months ago was that the Liberals were headed to certain defeat to the Conservatives, but the polls have tightened since then. We will be watching the provincial election over the next few months, reporting as the candidates surface for the various parties, and trying to get a sense of how riding redistribution will affect the local race.

In the 2015 Federal election, The Lanark Frontenac Kingston riding went to Scott Reid, the long serving Conservative Party incumbent from the former Lanark Frontenac Lennox and Addington riding. While Reid’s margin of victory decreased from earlier elections, that could have been more a reflection of dipping Conservative Party fortunes nationally than the impact of riding redistribution. In Frontenac-Hastings, the riding swung from the Conservative to the Liberals, leading to a surprise victory for Mike Bossio over Daryl Kramp.

We will look at the candidates as they are announced and will provide coverage of the local election in May and early June, when we will publish profiles of the candidates and will hold all candidates meetings at two locations.

The municipal election will be the subject of our attention at the Frontenac News over the summer and into the early fall. There will certainly be a good number of current council members who will be running again, and a smaller number who will be stepping away from municipal politics at the end of the year. The first thing to watch for after May 1st, when the nomination period opens, is whether any current members of council decide to take a run at the incumbent mayors in Frontenac County. If any do it will open up the council vote and create a more competitive race overall. And if the previous election is any indication, running for council as an incumbent can be anything but a sure thing. In Central Frontenac the last time around, only two of the 7 incumbents who sought re-election kept their place. An incumbent lost in each ward, as did the sitting Mayor, Janet Gutowski. The other townships were not as volatile, but there were hard fought races in many wards, and in the mayoralty races. We will also be closely watching Addington Highlands. If Reeve Henry Hogg does indeed step down, the race for Reeve will be pretty wide open, and it will be interesting to see if any of the current members of council decide to step up to the plate.

We began our early coverage of the election this week by polling incumbent heads of council (reeves and mayors) as to their intentions. We will continue to report on the intentions of current members of council and others who are ready to declare their candidacy as they come forward over the winter and early spring. After May first we will report on nominations as they are submitted in the townships, and our coverage will swing into higher gear after nominations close on July 27th. In the run up to the election we are planning to hold all candidates meetings in each ward where our paper is delivered, as we have done in the past, and we will profile the candidates in September and early October. We will also look at the issues that will be contested in the election, from development pressures in South Frontenac, to the septic inspection issue in Central Frontenac, to the fallout from the rebuild of the township office and the onset of the One Small Town initiative in North Frontenac. The underlying issue of taxation and service levels in all townships is another concern will will address in our coverage.

The local Greens have named Anita Payne as the Green Party of Ontario (GPO) candidate for Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston (LFK) in next year’s Ontario election. Payne, who lives in Tay Valley Township, was the Green candidate in the same riding in the most recent Federal election in October, 2015. She is a retired science teacher who has been active in environmental advocacy for many years, most recently with the Citizens’ Climate Lobby.

The local riding has been changed by Elections Ontario since the 2014 provincial election in order to match the Federal riding. Lennox and Addington County is no longer part of the riding. Payne, who has always been easy to identify on the campaign trail because she always wears at least one article of green clothing, will have one advantage over incumbent Randy Hillier in the upcoming election as she is already familiar with the new boundaries. The new provincial riding includes Lanark County in its entirety as well as the County of Frontenac and areas of Kingston that are located north of Hwy. 401.
Anita Payne received 2,025 vote in the 2015 Federal election, which represented 3.5% of the votes cast.

In the last provincial election, which took place in 2014, Randy Hillier was elected in LFL&A with 43.5% of the vote. The Liberal Party candidate, Bill MacDonald, received 29.5%, the NDP (Dave Parkhill) 20.18%, and the Greens (Cam Mather) 6.5%.
The LFK riding recorded a similar result in 2015 as the former Federal LFL&A riding had, with Conservative Scott Reid winning handily. However his share of the vote did drop 12% points (from 59% to 47%) from the 2011 election. 2015 also saw the a large drop in popularity nationally for the Conservative Party, which lost its majority government to a resurgent Liberal party under current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, so that may have been as much a factor as riding redistribution.

The next Ontario election is scheduled for June 7, 2018.

The local Greens have set Thursday, October 26 for their candidate nomination meeting for next year’s provincial election, for the riding of Lanark-Frontenac- Kingston. The meeting, which takes the theme: “You can send a message to the Liberals without voting Conservative”, will be held at McMartin House in Perth, starts at 7 pm. (McMartin House is on the north-east corner of Gore and Harvey streets, Perth.) The local riding has been changed by Elections Ontario since the 2014 provincial election, losing Napanee and area and adding the Mississippi Mills area.

The riding of Lanark-Frontenac- Kingston, now comprises the towns of Carleton Place, Mississippi Mills, Perth, and Smiths Falls, and the townships of Beckwith, Central Frontenac, Drummond- North Elmsley, Lanark Highlands, Montague, North Frontenac, South Frontenac and Tay Valley, as well as the northern part of the City Of Kingston. The next Ontario election is scheduled for June 7, 2018.

The local Greens are getting ready for next year’s provincial election, and are seeking potential candidates for the riding of Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston.
A candidate nomination meeting has been set for Thursday, October 26 at McMartin House in Perth, starting at 7 p.m. (McMartin House is on the north-east corner of Gore and Harvey streets, Perth.)

Potential candidates must be at least 18 years old, a Canadian citizen and a resident in Ontario for at least 6 months prior to the election. More information of the candidate process is available by emailing the local constituency association at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The deadline for applications is October 12, 2017.

At the nomination meeting on October 26, each potential candidate will have the opportunity to speak to the members present prior to the vote taking place.

The local riding has been changed by Elections Ontario since the 2014 provincial election, losing Napanee and area and adding the Mississippi Mills area. The riding of Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston, now comprises the towns of Carleton Place, Mississippi Mills, Perth, and Smiths Falls, and the townships of Beckwith, Central Frontenac, Drummond-North Elmsley, Lanark Highlands, Montague, North Frontenac, South Frontenac and Tay Valley, as well as the northern part of the City Of Kingston.

The next Ontario election is scheduled for June 7, 2018.

Lloyd Helferty is an engineering technologist and the president and co-founder of Biochar Ontario. On March 22 he gave a talk titled “The Landscape of Biochar in Canada: Exciting Opportunities in Biocarbon” to a group of Green Party supporters at their annual fundraising dinner, which was held at the community hall in Maberly.

Helferty spoke at length about the practical applications of Biochar, which he defined as a “fine grained charcoal, high in organic carbon and largely resistant to decomposition.”

Helferty said that Biochar is not the same product as the charcoal that people burn in barbeques nor is it the chunks of charcoal one finds in the ash of their wood stoves. Rather, it is produced by a process called pyrolysis, which he defined as the “thermal degradation of biomass in the absence of oxygen.”

The result of pyrolysis is that the carbon in the plant matter becomes “fixed” in carbon structures that do not easily degrade. According to Helferty, Biochar's most beneficial applications are as a soil amendment due to its enhanced nutrient retention properties and its ability to reduce fertilization requirements while also protecting soil from the negative effects of climate and environmental impact. In the information that accompanied his presentation, Helferty said that “Char-amended soils have shown 50-80% reductions in nitrous oxide emissions and have reduced the runoff of phosphorous into surface waters as well as reduced the leaching of nitrogen into ground water”.

Helferty stated that Biochar can offer “potential synergies between enhanced soil fertility and food security, the production of green energy and the reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide”.

He said that the long-term applications of Biochar can be used to “transition to long-term sustainable soil management practices while simultaneously enhancing the biological fertility of soil since Biochar increases porosity in most soils and can also increase the absorption rates of water in soil, thereby reducing the effects of water runoff”.

He said that Biochar also acts as a filter, thereby helping to protect and purify water sources.

Helferty's aim through Biochar Ontario is to source out and apply the various environmental and industrial uses for Biochar, many of which he highlighted in his presentation.

These included uses in agriculture as a soil conditioner and fertilizer substrate, uses in water filtration systems, functional clothing, insulation, civil engineering, energy storage systems, feed supplements in animal husbandry, as well as applications in the agro-forest industry.

Regarding its long list of possible applications Helferty said, “I consider carbon to be one of the most versatile atoms in the world and it has this capacity to be used in so many beneficial ways. It's kind of like a Lego building block in that it can be used to build so many different things at a micro-scale.”

Asked what he sees as the most ideal development and use of the product in Canada Helferty said that ultimately he sees the Biochar being used in the Canada's mining sector.

“Canada has a very strong mining industry and if we could develop a mining project, perhaps in a foreign country where mining practices can often have serious negative impacts on the land, utilizing Biochar would be a greatly beneficial, particularly in the case of open pit mining.”

Helferty went on to say that on a international level, Biochar could be used to reclaim much of the desert lands that are spreading rapidly in many countries around the world.

Although Canada is set up potentially to benefit from the many applications of Biochar, it has yet to kick start the industry, although a number of studies and research programs carried out in the 1980s showed promise. That and the fact that most of the land in Canada is fertile means that the product has yet to be explored in depth.

However, Helferty said that companies and organizations all over the world are making headway in their own studies regarding the potentials of Biochar and that he hopes to see Canadian companies and industries in the near future increase their explorations into this product.

Supporters and members of the Green Party of Ontario gathered at the Maberly hall on March 22 for an anual fund-raising dinner. Cam Mather, who is running as the Green Party of Ontario candidate for Lanark, Frontenac Lennox & Addington, was not able to attend the event. Rolly Montpellier, who is a member of the Green Party and who helped organize the event, was pleased with the turn out and talked about a new strategy for the expected election this spring.

Montpellier said he and his members are pleased at how well Mike Schreiner, the leader of the Green Party of Ontario, is currently doing in the polls. Schreiner will be running in the Guelph area and Montpellier said that his own association will be channeling some of their fund-raising dollars to help Schreiner get elected. “We're actually trying to use the Elizabeth May model where federally a lot of resources were devoted to her campaign so that she could be elected and that strategy certainly worked. So we are trying to use the same principle to get Schreiner elected to the legislature in Ontario,” he said.

Cam Mather lives in an off-grid house on 150 acres near the village of Tamworth. 
With his wife Michele, he runs Aztext.com, which publishes books on sustainable living. He has written a number of books, including "Thriving During Challenging Times", and most recently, "Little House off the Grid".

The minority Liberal government under Premier Kathleen Wynne will face a confidence vote later this month when they table their 2014 budget.