For Alex Gomm, the federal election offered some opportunities to learn, but overall he is pleased with the Green Party’s turnout.
“I think it went pretty fantastic,” Gomm said. “As a team, we came together in a really short time and got a campaign together. We managed to double our support from the last election which is absolutely amazing. We have a really strong base and a lot of new supporters, so hopefully, that means new volunteers and I think we will have an even stronger showing next election.”
One of the big talking points heading into the election was climate change. The Green Party has been a party that has prided itself on caring about the climate for a long time, but with this election, the other parties seemed to have jumped on board with that sentiment as well.
“We did it first and I think everyone knows that,” Gomm explained. “A lot of the major parties steal our policies, which is great. At the end of the day, we’re really happy that people are adopting our policies and that the parties are thinking more environmentally and it is really important that it gets done, it doesn’t matter who did it.
“I think people know where the ideas come from, but it is more important that it gets done.”
As for his first campaign, there were some surprises.
“What surprised me is how receptive people are to the Green message. I know for the past few decades it has been real hard to get the environment into the national discussion, and it is really nice to see people changing the way that they think and that they are receptive to what we have to say.”
“I don’t know what I expected. It was a big learning process for me because I have never done anything like this, so I should say that I expected much worse so things turned out better than I expected.”
Gomm did enjoy his time campaigning, however, as evident from what he says his next moves will be.
“I’m pretty motivated to keep going with the Green Party, I think we have great plans. We will see what happens, if a federal election comes up first, I will definitely be running federally, if not I will run in the provincial election.”
