Joyce Murray: the progressive leftist

By Amanda Hein

Joyce Murray is one of the nine candidates running to be Canada’s Liberal Leader. Murray, from Vancouver, is the only candidate whose home is in a province west of Ontario.

Murray is standing out of the crowd as a progressive left Liberal Candidate. The other candidates made appeals to the center-right of the political spectrum.

Murray was born in South Africa in 1954. Her family immigrated to British Columbia in 1961.

She began her politics career in 2001 after being elected to the B.C. legislative assembly.  Murray served as the Minister of Environment and Parks.

In 2006 she switched from provincial to federal politics. She was elected as MP for Vancouver Quadra, British Columbia, and was re-elected in 2008-2011.

Murray has served on many standing committees including: health, fisheries, environment, sustainable development and international trade. Murray focuses on environmental issues.

She has three children and is married to Dirk Murray.

Murray wants to build cooperation with the NDP and the other progressive parties. She hopes this will help bring down Stephen Harper and his Conservative party.

She believes that the Conservative’s policy on crime is out of date. She wants to focus more on crime prevention.

Murray doesn’t want the Northern Gateway pipeline to happen. She doesn’t like that the pipelines are going to the coast of Canada, which could cause an oil spill.

Murray also thinks that the government should be consulting with First Nations before making any decisions on resource development.

Murray is also an advocate for the legalization, taxation and control of marijuana. She also believes in putting a price on carbon.