Long-time Yellow Point resident Murray McNab is running as an Independent candidate in the Nanaimo-North Cowichan riding in the May 14 provincial election.
McNab’s political history includes running in a by-election for the City of Nanaimo about three years ago, but this is his first time entering a provincial election.
“I’m not impressed with either leader of the three other parties,” he said. “I’ve seen too many goofy things lately, like the temporary foreign worker debacle that’s going on and the Colliery Dam issue in Nanaimo, which really brings into play municipal spending that’s out of control. Municipalities say the province is downloading onto municipalities, and that may be true, and if that’s the case, the province needs to quit downloading, but our municipalities need to stop using that as an excuse to run wild with their spending. The province did take a step toward approving a municipal auditor-general’s position who is going to look into municipal budgets.”
McNab has lived in Yellow Point for more than 50 years, except for a brief time when he went around the world travelling and studied at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, earning a diploma in mining technology. He operates McNab’s Corn Maze with his brothers and sisters.
McNab feels that as an Independent, he would have the freedom to vote for the best idea, regardless of the party suggesting it.
“I think, as an Independent, if elected, I could vote with whichever party had the best proposal or idea at the time,” he said. “I think the Liberals have some good ideas, the NDP have some good ideas, the Greens have some good ideas and even the one that came from the Conservatives about some sort of rebate for people who use BC Ferries and toll bridges seemed like a reasonable idea to me.”
McNab describes himself as “about as green as David Suzuki’s underwear,” and he doesn’t agree with carbon offsets and the Pacific Carbon Trust.
“At the corn maze, I would never try and say I’m carbon-neutral by buying some scam carbon certificates off what now has been proven an outrageous ripoff, the Pacific Carbon Trust, forcing school boards and other public institutions to buy carbon credits so they can be carbon-neutral,” he said. “So, instead of the Nanaimo school board spending the money on upgrading a building with better insulation or better heating, they’re spending money on buying carbon credits. I’m afraid the only green thing about that is the money somebody is making on carbon credits.”
One thing McNab does believe strongly in is supporting local businesses and belonging to local credit unions and co-ops.
He says the current economic model “is not working,” and he thinks globalization has been “a disaster.”
“The top few people in the corporations are taking in all the money, while … the average person has less disposable income now than they did 10 years ago,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with corporations, but they should be run sustainably and ethically, and ethically means helping out the local economy.”
For McNab, the hiring of temporary foreign workers is a big issue, and he feels that if a company needs to hire foreign workers, they should pay those foreign workers 15 to 20 per cent more than they pay the average local worker so that their position would be temporary, and they could train the local workers.
McNab feels the pensions for MLAs have gotten “out of control,” and he is eager to do something about it.
“If I was lucky enough to be elected and be in for two terms, I would give half of my after-tax pension money to charities within the riding because the pension is out of control for MLAs, and MPs,” he said.
“If I got any donations, I wouldn’t accept a donation higher than $100 from anyone,” he added. “I would take no donations from unions, no donations from corporations.”
McNab is working on getting a website up and running, and for now, people can contact him at mcnabscornmaze@gmail.com.