NDP leadership hopeful calls for Green Party merger

Bruce County farmer Tony McQuail will run for federal NDP leadership and is pitching to merge the Green and NDP parties. CTV London’s Scott Miller explains why.

Tony McQuail is no stranger to running for the NDP party — The Huron County organic farmer has been an NDP candidate in Huron-Bruce eight times since 1980, but now he has his eyes on a different job.

“After watching the last provincial and federal elections, and having been very concerned about what I’ve seen, I’ve decided to run for the federal leadership of the New Democratic Party,” said McQuail.

According to McQuail, one of the main reasons he’s running is to stop the current vote-splitting between the NDP and Green Party.

He said he plans to lead a union of the two federal parties, into a new party, the Green Democratic Progressives.

“The two parties need to figure out what they can agree on, not what they need to fight about, so that we can start having a political party that has a strong progressive and environmental policy to deal with the crisis we’re in,” he said.

The crisis McQuail speaks about is one of growing economic inequality, and extreme consumerism and capitalism, driving environmental collapse.

“We are the environment. The environment is us. And if we don’t treat it well, if we don’t start regenerating this system, rather than just trying to stabilize it or talk about sustainability, we need to talk about regeneration. And I’m not hearing that effectively. We need to talk about big changes, because we need to get to the root causes of the problems we’re facing,” he added.

McQuail, who founded, and still operates an organic farm near Lucknow with his wife and family, told CTV News, Canada must move towards renewable energy, as soon as possible, as well as focus on simply using less energy and resources. Representation, regeneration, and redistribution, are the three pillars he believes our society must adopt to not only thrive but survive.

“We are an incredibly materially wealthy society, but we aren’t sharing that material wealth equitably. And I’m sorry, I am not interested in creating a system where there are more luxury yachts. I’m interested in creating a system where there are more ecological housing villages where people have enough space to spend time with their family, and have some chance to either have a garden or have someplace to go. I believe, we can do that,” he said.

He believes that will work better if the Green Party and NDP merge into one progressive political party.

“What I’m talking about is the need for the Greens, and the NDP to work together. I know there will be a lot of resistance and people who are entrenched there. So, the people I’m really hoping to reach out to are the people who stopped voting but want a future for their kids and grandchildren. And the Liberals and Conservatives who lost faith in those two parties, which really have served the elites since before Confederation, and they’re certainly serving them now,” he said.