Sarah Kraynick, Green Party of Canada

Personal details. Name, age, hometown

Sarah Kraynick, 38. Born in Vancouver, live in Christopher Lake on an acreage.

Tell us about yourself

I am a small-business owner and serial tech entrepreneur. I have spent my time since my graduation from Simon Fraser University in ’07 working in tech, software engineering and cyber security. In between jobs, I was starting various tech companies, most notably a health tech company. I currently make my home outside Christopher Lake on an acreage in a tiny home. I also spend time at my partner’s farm “down south.” I have two stepkids who I adore and try to get into tech at any opportunity. I am failing so far. When I am not with my little family, or running my business, I am usually found outside in nature or in the kickboxing gym sparring (yes, I have fought before in the ring).

What’s a little-known fact about you?

I train in Muay Thai.

Why should voters hire you?

I am running for the people of our riding, for average people like me who are trying to make a living and support our families, run their businesses. I want to leave the world a better place. I want to leave a legacy that I will be proud of, that I did all I could to make life better for all people, not just myself and my family. We all live on the same earth. We all have to share the resources that we were given. We only have so much. It is up to us all to be good stewards of our planet, country, province, and community. If we don’t, we only have ourselves to blame. I want to be a part of the positive change we need, away from big business, away from politics as usual. We need ordinary citizens in government to represent the interests of the ordinary citizen, not of the rich, privileged and career politician but of the person who is struggling to pay bills as a single parent, or the student who is self-funding her studies, or the person on reserve who is trying to start a business. No matter who or what our story is, we should have equity and equality of opportunity to thrive. If we have the ambition, nothing should stand in our way.

Who should we call for a reference?

A friend?

What is your greatest strength? What is your greatest weakness?

I am easy to talk with, so I am told. I’m probably too trusting of people sometimes.

Where do you stand on:

Gun laws? I am personally fine with firearms for rural folks and hunters. If you want to buy a .22 and go shoot cans, I don’t want to stop that, or the farmer who has a rifle to protect their livestock or a hunter going for deer, elk or others. I am against guns used for crime and against firearms that serve no purpose other than to kill other people, like automatic weapons. I honestly sit on the fence about handguns in general, but if used for target shooting only, then I have no issue. I do not support open carry, or concealed carry. I do not want our society to go down that rabbit hole and be in the same position as the U.S. where there are regular school shootings and a mass shooting almost weekly, if not daily.

The need for more pipelines? Pipelines are not the best for the environment. This is the stance of the Green Party. I am generally against them as well. That being said, I understand much of our economy is based on oil and gas. And while there is still demand we should find an efficient way (both cost and environmentally) that can get our product to market.

Western alienation? I am a proud westerner, born and raised. I have never felt alienated by the east. I do feel our election process needs to change to proportional representation so both small parties and all votes count. This would be better for our democracy and all Canadians, especially in terms of the west feeling alienated.

China? What should our approach be with some of our markets blocked? This was out of our control for the most part, if you are referring to the case of the Huawei executive. We honoured our extradition agreement with the U.S. If we want to stay in good terms with the U.S., we should honour our agreement or we will have other trade issues. It comes down to who we trade with more. And at this point that still is the U.S. (US$338.2 billion), so it would be more prudent to keep them happy. That being said, we should be seeing what else may make the Chinese government happy and hash out a deal that takes the Huawei issue off the table.

Are we facing a climate change crisis? Is carbon tax the answer? We have a changing climate. We clearly have environmental issues that need to be addressed: Water/air pollution, deforestation, acidification of our oceans. By cleaning up our built and natural environments, many of the climate issues can be mitigated. Carbon tax, or carbon pricing as it is more formally known, is one tool in the shed to help with mitigating and controlling carbon output. There needs to be other mechanisms in place. It is a system problem, not a component problem. In other words, we also need incentives for innovation. We need to control negative externalities. We have an environmental, for lack of a better word, disaster up north at the old Gunnar mine. This happened because the lack of accountability of who exactly is responsible for cleanup/maintenance of the mine during and after operation. The project should never have got off the ground without determining who would be responsible for any negative externalities and bear the cost of cleanup and decommissioning. This site could have avoided the current state or at least the authorities could have put in mechanism that would have seen a fund pool created (for example from a pollution charge to the mining company) to help with clean up costs later.

In conclusion, we need to encourage green choices, but also make sure those that pollute are held accountable. Investments into technology and other solutions that provide consumers and company green choices at affordable costs need to be encouraged and supported.

It’s a day off and you can do anything you want. What would it be?

Either in the gym kickboxing or out in nature hiking or biking.

Who inspires you?

My mother. She has always been a rock. Never one to judge, she shows me what real compassion and love looks like.

What is your hidden talent?

I play the piano/guitar.

What do you wish you could do but can’t?

Sing.

Who are the three people, dead or alive, that you’d love to have dinner with?

Rosa Parks, Pink and Amelia Earhart.

How do you take your coffee?

I drink tea. I am not a coffee drinker. I take milk and some sweetener in my tea. Only black tea.

What’s the one album you’d take with you on a desert island? What embarrassing song do you admit to on your playlist?

Abbey Road. Embarrassing song is probably Nickelback’s Rockstar. 😉

What is your guilty pleasure?

Reading all day in my PJs. Hardly have a whole day to get lost in a good book.

What is the last book you read?

Messing with the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terrorists, Russians, and Fake News by Clint Watts.

What is your favourite TV show? What are you binge watching?

Heartland. Binging on Glee at the moment.

What is your all-time favourite movie?

Old Yeller; makes me tear up every time.