Eighteen year old New Zealand Green Party candidate hits Canada
6 August 2008
Late last week a young New Zealand Green Party election candidate, Zachary Dorner, arrived in Canada. He is here because of family, but also has a more serious goal.
“With oil prices going through the roof and carbon emissions desperately needing reduction, I want to see as many New Zealanders who can vote in the upcoming national elections use their Party Vote for the Green Party,” said Mr Dorner.
Under New Zealand Electoral Law any New Zealand citizen who has set foot in New Zealand during the last three years, or any permanent resident who has visited New Zealand in the last year is eligible to vote. They can go to elections.org.nz for more info.
As New Zealand has MMP, every Party Vote counts towards the number of seats a party gets in Parliament.“The Green Party in New Zealand has always done well with the overseas vote. In fact, it was the overseas vote that got us over the 5% Party Vote threshold for entering Parliament on our own for the first time in 1999. Furthermore, every citizen of the world has an interest in all Governments taking issues like climate change seriously, no matter where they currently live.”
At just 18 years old Mr Dorner is taking this year off to travel and campaign for the Green Party.“I decided to run in this year's election because I can see that the Green Party is the only political party with positive, practical and principled solutions to the major issues of our time. As a young person these issues are all the more urgent.”
Zachary Dorner will be in Canada until 1 September, and will be back in his home town of Wellington on the5th. He will stay mostly in Ottawa, though plans to do some travel around Canada and help local Greens, including with the Guelph by-election campaign.
The New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has yet to announce the final election date, which must be on a Saturday no later than November 15.
