Kendall Worth: Thoughts in my community on the provincial election

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Well, we are into another provincial election. In my early days of writing for the Nova Scotia Advocate I wrote this story here about working on Lisa Robert’s campaign last time around: Kendall Worth on volunteering in an election campaign. 

I am working on an election campaign again this time around, but I will try to be non-partisan when writing this piece.

Anyway, considering that we have just come out of another Covid lockdown,  having the opportunity to volunteer/work on an election campaign is a great way to start things off.

First a reminder that not every human being can live life the way that we all dream of.

We should be able to have easy access to the necessities of life. As I wrote a while ago,  you should not have to rely on charity just to buy some cleaning supplies or over the counter medications. This gives us a reminder as to why we need to see an increase in the income assistance rates.

All three parties in this election are talking about wanting to improve healthcare. People within my community also want to see this improvement especially for mental health. Some people I recently spoke with are saying that they want to see same day appointments as the NDP are promising if elected. These same people are saying, “We want to see the healthcare investments that the PC party is talking about.”  

People in my community are also very interested in what I call a social prescription program, allowing people on social assistance to make friends and be less lonely. I wrote about it here: Kendall Worth on friendship, poverty, and feeling discouraged.

Something that is on the minds of everyone I talk to is the growing need for affordable housing and permanent rent control. The Liberal government is planning to lift the temporary rent control if they get re-elected. 

This has a lot of people in my community concerned. Over these past number of months we see more and more tents getting put up around Halifax with homeless people living in them. Tents and the mutual aid crisis shelters are not real solutions. 

I’ve been hearing in my community that people are getting warned by their landlords that their rents will be increasing by in some cases large amounts once the temporary rent control is lifted. We cannot allow this to happen. Everyone and anyone needs a place to live, no matter who you are. 

The NDP is the only party who wants permanent rent control. Just like the Liberals, the PC’s are making clear they are not in favour of rent control either. 

Kendall Worth is an award-winning anti-poverty activist who lives with disabilities and tries to make ends meet on income assistance.