William Neville says that political reform is the answer for Mount Pearl North — as well as the rest of the province.
Reform is the mantra of the newly minted NL Alliance, of which Neville is both Director and Mount Pearl North candidate.
“It’s not my goal to be a politician. It’s my goal to change politics so that government represents the people, not the party,” he said. “I’m just really tired with some of the decisions previous governments have been making on our behalf.”
Neville told The Pearl News that he doesn’t view himself as a politician, or even a very political person. He says he’s just an average citizen who wants to see change in the system.
Mount Pearl North NL Alliance candidate William Neville.
“I’m just an average voter, an average citizen of Mount Pearl who is not seeing any way out of the mess that we’re in other than to shake up politics,” he said. “I’m stepping out of my comfort zone, I’m standing up. I’ve never been a political advocate or anything that, but I look at the upcoming ballot and say “I can’t vote for any of these people,’ because it’s the same old same old. I’m not a career politician. I’m brand new to this. I’m only throwing my name into the ring because we need to change things”
And he thinks voters are ready too — so long as they get out and hit the polling booths on May 16.
“The time is right for people to maybe vote for a new party,” he said. “You see the number of ‘undecided ‘in some of the recent polls is actually quite high. So, I’m actually a little concerned that you may get your staunch PC voters and your staunch Liberal voters, they will get out and vote, but I’m also worried that there’s a bunch of voters who are just kind of fed up and don’t feel they don’t have an option. And that’s one of the reasons we’re here, because we’re hoping to give them a new option. They’re tired of voting for the same parties.”
He was also critical of the Liberal’s calling an election just before the long Easter weekend, saying it leaves other parties — particularly a newly formed party like NL Alliance, who were only recognized as an official party April 12 — scrambling to secure candidates and hit the campaign trial.
“They’re the one choosing the date. They have inside knowledge. They know they got to have their candidates in place by a certain time,” he said.
Neville lays much of the blame for the province’s situation on what he calls partisan politics in the House.
“Today it’s very adversarial in the House of Assembly. You got someone from the Liberal party who brings something forward, and everyone in the Liberal Party, regardless if they think it’s a good idea or not, is going to say it’s a good idea. And the PC’s and NDP are going to look at that and say it’s a terrible idea,” he said. “The voters’ voices are not being heard… Political reform, I think, is the only way that we’re going to change that.”
He noted that a vote for the NL Alliance is a vote for a member who listens to his constituents. And if not, those constituents can give them the boot.
“If a person is elected under NL Alliance and the constituents don’t feel that their voice is being well represented, or the person that’s been elected is not holding up to certain standards, there’ll be a process where they can recall that person.”
As of Tuesday, April 23, nine candidates were running with the NL Alliance party across the province.
