The short-sighted models of the major national political parties have led Aidan Blum to seek a better way to govern our nation and prepare it for the future.

Admittedly a bit of a political junkie since a young age, Blum, 24, says he's disillusioned by how politics has changed for the worse and is personally at odds with our political system.

"I ran because I wanted to be the change that I was hoping to see in past elections. The main reason I'm running is to see if I can be a leader for that change instead of waiting around for it to happen."

He's not particularly a party person, but found his ideas and beliefs closest aligned with those of the Green Party, and is their Banff-Airdrie candidate.

The born and raised Albertan, with familial ties to the oil and gas sector, agricultural sector, and service industry, lives in Canmore. He wants to represent the people of Banff-Airdrie and speak up for the working people that continue to be casualties of an economic meltdown that has persisted since 2014.

"Why I chose a vessel like the Green Party was because they were the best party choice for myself and for my ideologies on how much we need an urgent approach to this and how much we need almost a wartime level urgency to fight the climate crisis and transition workers.

"You need to show people, yes we're fighting the climate crisis, but we're also ensuring the working people from coast to coast are not being left behind in this transition, and that includes oil and gas workers."

He believes the climate crisis is starting to hit home with Canadians after a summer in which we saw 270 wildfires burning simultaneously in B.C. and heat waves that lead to a major drought across Western Canada.

Blum believes many have put all their faith in the oil and gas industry for their livelihood and to provide a safety net for their families. Now they are starting to realize that the same industry isn't pulling us up, it's pulling us down.

Blum says our economic model no longer works.

"I believe that a capital-driven economy that focuses on constant growth, constant consumption and needs to constantly expand and prepare for more and more and more, is resulting in abusing the environment of our politics, the environment of our ecology, and the environment of our society."

He believes current governments at all levels do not prepare working people for hard times nor provide the security and public services they need to adapt. 

"I think the problem we've been seeing from so many parties, especially elected parties forming governments, is band-aids for working people."

He says band-aids are designed to re-elect parties and get their MPs their pension, and what we need are long-term plans of five, 10, and 20 years to make the inevitable transition to a green economy.

"There's no reason why one of the richest countries on earth cannot help transition the same working people into the green jobs we know are there and the decades of work that can be created."

He is disturbed to see workers pitted against each other. 

"Nurses should not be pitted against oil and gas workers, oil and gas workers shouldn't be pitted against the teachers. If you're a working person in this province, if you're a working person in this country, you're going to have a major role to play in the transition to a green economy. I think that's why choosing the Green Party for myself was so important." 

While this election may not have been needed and is short, he does recognize the value in letting Canadians decided if the pandemic was handled effectively and see how workers and businesses are coping.

Blum has kept a hectic pace throughout the campaign and risen above his comfort zone to get his message out by any means possible.

"You have to put it all on the table every day, do what you're asked to do, and try to make sure that you don't leave a single door not knocked on, and a single call not taken." 

He's been in Cochrane on several occasions during the campaign and gave a strong presentation at the Sept. 14 candidates forum.