Green Party of Saskatchewan

D’Arcy Hande is a retired archivist, who has lived and worked in Saskatoon for over 30 years. He grew up in a small town in eastern Saskatchewan, then attended the Universities of Regina and Saskatchewan. D’Arcy is married with two adult daughters.

Most people are familiar with the saying, Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. Having studied and worked his entire career in the field of history, D’Arcy believes there are many lessons to be learned and much valuable human experience to be gained. Saskatchewan has a proud tradition of community connectedness that will stand us in good stead as we look to the future. There is much from our past that we can and should value and build on. Being Green means that we are conservatives in preserving what holds us together as a society, liberal in caring for everyone in the society around us, and innovative about embracing sustainable, new ideas for future social development. Saskatchewan people have always seized and upheld these progressive values. The new economic boom gives us opportunities to build on those values, but let’s not forget those fundamentals as we plan for the years ahead. Big business and big government should not dictate their agendas to the ordinary people. Instead, let grassroots Saskatchewanians collectively determine the objectives we want our society to achieve.

D’Arcy is particularly concerned with how the nuclear industry has been trying to dictate our collective future in ways that will never benefit ordinary people, whether in the north or the south, in cities or in rural communities. The Saskatchewan Party’s Uranium Development agenda has allowed corporate uranium interests to exert completely disproportional influence over provincial government priorities and the University of Saskatchewan’s planning processes. In 2009, the citizens of Saskatchewan spoke out loudly and clearly in a public consultation process that we do not want public policy to veer off in this direction. Yet the Saskatchewan Party ignored that public input and continues to commit massive amounts of public funding towards nuclear development, most recently announcing $30 million to an industry-driven Centre for Nuclear Innovation at the U of S. If elected, D’Arcy will work hard to refocus public policy towards renewable and sustainable energy alternatives.