Guelph will be one of 26 cities across Canada that will have an official candidate from the Communist Party of Canada.
Tristan Dineen, who ran in Guelph in 2015, has been declared the candidate for the party in the Guelph riding.
Dineen is a student at the University of Guelph, formerly an ESL teacher, and said he has an extensive background campaigning for labour rights, social services, indigenous solidarity, the environment and world peace.
“There are so many things that really tie together right now, indigenous struggles, talking about the environment we see B.C. burning up right now, we see conflict around the world, obviously the pandemic itself, the many mistakes that have been made that cost lives,” said Dineen.
According to Elections Canada data from the 2015 election, Dineen secured 0.2 per cent of the vote with 144 votes.
In the 2019 election, the Communist party with candidate Juanita Burnett picked up 0.22 per cent of the votes with 166 votes.
“One of the reasons I am running is we have a comprehensive strategy of dealing with the healthcare system in this country, with regards to jobs in this country, with regards to the environment and approaching that from a human-centric perspective not a profit motive of business interest,” said Dineen.
According to the party's website, they will also campaign for immediate reduction of carbon emissions, not by increasing the price of emissions as proposed by the Liberals, but by shuttering the fossil fuel industry and moving decisively to a publicly owned and democratically controlled renewable energy sector.
In May of this year, the Communist Party of Canada celebrated the 100th anniversary of their founding in Guelph.
