Jack Pennings

Career-wise, I may be the only person with a Master’s in Social Work who also works in mobile device security—a field I’ve been in for the past 18 years. These are quite divergent paths, but they’ve given me both technical and social insights that I bring to my candidacy. During my time in social work, I worked in the areas of addiction, disability rights, and landlord-tenant issues.

I’m a relative newcomer to the Green Party. If one thing brought me over, it was the fumbling of—or outright attacks on—the so-called carbon tax by the other major parties. I no longer feel I can trust any of them to deliver on our environmental responsibilities.

It is an honour to represent the Green Party of Canada in our riding in this historic election. I remember the 1988 Free Trade election as a moment of passionate national discussion. This election promises to be just as important. I feel the free trade era has gradually made us more complacent and less distinct as a nation. But suddenly, it feels like the time has come to return to a project of nation-building. Above all, I want generational fairness, environmental responsibility, economic boldness, more democracy, and a pro-Canada mindset to be at the heart of that project.

My hobby is amateur astronomy, which leads to many things: above all, an appreciation of science and technology—but also an awareness of the issue of light pollution and the beauty of rural night-time environments.