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The Oakville Beaver, Friday January 13, 2006 - 5 Laura Domsy From stuffing envelopes to running for office By Krissie Rutherford OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Green candidate for Green Party By Krissie Rutherford OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF In less than two years, Tina Agrell went from wanting to stuff envelopes to wanting to stuff ballot boxes. The 60-year-old school psycho-educational consultant attended an NDP riding associa tion meeting in 2004 thinking she could "stuff envelopes, or volunteer in some small way," she said. By the end of that meeting, Agrell was pres ident of the board. And after two years as head of Oakville' s NDP riding association, having been re-elected in 2005, Agrell won last month's riding nomination and now she's on the campaign trail. "It happened pretty fast and it was very strange at first," said the mother of two, who has lived in Oakville for the past 28 years with her husband, Michael. "But gradually, as you work your way through you think, T can do this. This is important and I should be doing this. I can make a difference'." Agrell has been thinking about making a difference since she was a child. "When I was 11,1 wanted to be a Member of Parliament and here I am these many years later, thinking the same thing," she said, laughing. A native of a small town near London, England - you can tell right away by the accent - the former teacher and professor says she's "always been a little more left-leaning than the Liberals, especially in this neck of the woods." It was her work in the Halton School board, helping students with a variety of diffi culties, that opened Agrell' s eyes to some things she'd like to change in Oakville. "There are a lot of people living in poverty. That's one of the reasons why a lot of those students I'm working with have difficulties, directly or indirectly. So I thought, this is a chance to do something about it," she said. "I thought I'd be starting much further down the ladder at doing something about it, but I think wherever you find opportunity, you have to take it." In addition to addressing the pockets of poverty in and around Oakville by looking at education, jobs and mental health, Agrell's other big concern is physical health. "I think as a geographical area, the pollu tion level is quite significant and people suffer from respiratory problems in this part of Ontario," she said. "The environment, clean air, reducing the amount of pollution in the atmosphere, those are things we need to be looking at, and the NDP has been releasing ideas, things it' s going to do to address those problems." Agrell believes many others in Oakville share those concerns, and wants to give them a voice in Ottawa. "I think there are lots of NDP voters living in Oakville who have been here for many years who just aren't apparent, who don't make a blip on the landscape," she said. "I think their votes ought to count for something." And while the NDP has never won a seat in Oakville, which has traditionally been a con test between the Liberals and Conservatives, BARRIE ERSKINEI OAKVILLE BEAVER Oakville NDP candidate Tina Agrell Agrell says this election is different. "It seems to be time for a change," she said. "I think the riding is up for grabs, it' s open to competition and I think the NDP has some thing good to offer, so it's not as daunting as it looks." She also pointed to strides made recently by party leader Jack Layton, such as the recently released NDP Better Balanced Budget, which promises $4.6 billion towards affordable housing, public transit, post secondary educa tion and fighting global poverty. "I think we have a good leader and that's really made a difference. He' s really made quite a splash this time and that's really helped," said Agrell. She' s finding evidence of that on her campaign trail, too. "People want to hear from the different parties and they're interested in everybody and what they've got to offer," she said. "Everybody wants to talk about what the NDP is going to do for them - it' s been quite overwhelming." Agrell also mentioned that NDP support in Oakville has been slowly, but surely, climbing. In the 2004 federal race', Alison Myrden gar nered 7.3 per cent of votes cast in the riding, compared to 2.7 per cent of the vote won in the 2000 election by local NDP candidate, Willie Lambert. Also, this was the first time in more than 30 years that the NDP candidacy was contest ed for in Oakville - Agrell had to beat out two other candidates. "I think these are signs that the NDP is being re-awakened," she said. "It seems to be very positive." Tina Agrell's NDP office is 226 Randall St., Unit 2. Call 905-845-9328 or visit www.oakvillendp.ca for more infor mation. While many recent university grads are focusing on paying off debts and landing a job, Laura Domsy has a Federal election her plate. The 23-year-old, fresh out of Laurier University, is Oakville's Green Party candidate. "It's been amazing so far, I've learned so much from the process," said Domsy, recently moved to Midland after spending a decade in Oakville, which her family still calls home. A financial services representative at TD Bank, she says she's getting "a lot of atten tion" from the public and media - they're all wondering why this 23-year-old decided to run for Parliament. "When I was in school, I knew I wanted to be part of the political process, but I didn't think, `Oh, I might be a candidate some day,"' said Domsy, who graduated last year with a degree in political science. "It just kind of fell into my lap, but maybe it was something I was supposed to do." It all started a few months ago, when her father told her the Green Party was looking for a local candidate. "I didn't know a whole lot about the Green Party at first, but I started reading their plat form and realized it's really good," she said. "I agree with most of their poli cies." Domsy says she was impressed with the plat form's forward-looking stance. "They look generations into the future, and I've always wondefed whether we're going to be able to sus tain what we have now," she said. "Preserving green space is something I feel strongly about. I think Canadians need to be better educated on the environment, so that people know why this is important, so we can guaran tee that our grandchildren are going to have fresh air and clean water." The Green stance on preventative health care, equality in the workplace and support for the Kyoto Accord are other major issues for Domsy, and ones the Green Party keys in on. That's why, after some consideration, she committed to be the party's Oakville candi date. Even though she's going through the elec tion process for the first time, Domsy says she doesn't find it intimidating going up against experienced politicians more than twice her age in the Oakville riding. "The fact that they're all older and more experienced kind of puts me a little more at ease," she said. "When I think about doing debates, that's when I'm a little more nerv ous. They have so much more experience, but at the same time, this is what I'll learn from." Domsy also isn't intimidated because she's trying - but not expecting - to win the riding. Oakville Green candidate Laura e In the 2004 Federal election, Oakville's Green Party candidate, Tania Orton won just over five per cent of the vote. "It's probably not realistic, but if I did win, wouldn't that be amazing?" she said, smiling. "I think that because the Green Party hasn't won a seat, it makes it more exciting because you want to push that much more to win that seat." Her main goals on the campaign trail, she says, are to rally support for the party in Oakville, ensure the Green Party platform is better known - so that Canadians don't con sider the party "tree huggerish" with "no eco nomic policy," she says, and finally, to find supporters to create an Electoral District Association (EDA) for the party in Oakville. An EDA would be able to rally support, fundraise and offer a volunteer base to assist the Green Party before and during elections. "I've been really, really busy," she said. "Just answering e-mails takes three hours on some nights, and I don't have anyone I can delegate to or pass things off, too." Her father - also her campaign manager and Dreen Party member, Andrzej Chlobowski, are basically her campaign team, in addition to some help she receives from the Green Party EDAs in Toronto ridings. "Right now, I think I need to be more out there. If we could form an EDA in Oakville and actually have more time to rally the younger voters, that would be ideal," she said. It's those younger voters Domsy can relate to and is finding are "taking to it a little bet ter." But overall, she says the response on the campaign trail has been positive. "A lot of people were really positive about the whole thing and happy that a young per son was trying to get in to office," she said. "I've found that people here seem to agree a lot with what the Green Party has to offer and seem to want the Green Party to have a voice in Ottawa." To contact Laura Domsy, email ldomsy@greenparty.ca.