A full slate of candidates from Canada's represented political parties in Ottawa is complete after the Green Party of Canada announced realtor Laura-Leah Shaw would be its candidate for Steveston-Richmond East.
Shaw moved to Richmond in April. She ran for the Greens in 2011 in Vancouver Quadra.
Shaw, who cites active volunteerism (animal welfare and charity) as one of her main hobbies, said inequality in Canadian society is her primary reason for challenging for a seat in Parliament.
"There's always going to be people who do well and always going to be people who need a hand up, and lately it's been feeling like the less you have, the less you matter, and that's not right," said Shaw.
When asked for her top priorities this election, Shaw cited better housing affordability, energy sector diversification, safeguarding food security and providing more funding for post-secondary education.
As a realtor, Shaw said "more controls" need to be placed on the real estate market vis-a-vis foreign investment.
"Now that the dollar is so low Canada is really on sale, so you want to stop people from making huge profits off people who want to make this their community," she said, adding large short-term real estate profits need to be "heavily taxed."
She added Canada needs a federal housing strategy like other OECD countries have.
As a single-parent who raised two daughters, Shaw said tax breaks for parents who help pay for their children's tuition fail to help those most in need, who cannot afford to save money.
Asked if the Greens would balance the next budget, or whether that was important at this time, Shaw deferred to the upcoming release of the Green platform after Labour Day.
She said she puts her trust in leader Elizabeth May's common criticism of some of Canada's recent free-trade deals, especially with China.
When asked about marijuana law reforms, Shaw said the drug should be legalized and Canada needs to move to harm-reduction methods. She added that doing so would remove revenue opportunities for oragnized crime.
In 2011 Shaw garnered about 5.5 per cent of the voting constituency, which was a three per cent dip fro the Greens in that riding compared to 2008.
Shaw said she must still get signatures from citizens in her riding for Elections Canada to officially appoint her a candidate.
