With the Aug. 9 primaries fast approaching, Vermont News & Media sent a questionnaire out to candidates with three questions: 1) What qualifications make you the best candidate for this office? 2) What are the three most important issues or challenges going forward and how would you address them? and 3) What Vermont traditions do we need to preserve in the Green Mountain State?Peter Duval, Independent candidate for governor
Qualifications: Red and Blue teams play ping pong for political power using the same rhetoric: “climate crisis,” “housing crisis,” “demographic crisis,” etc. Both teams lose the ball. Vermont needs to break out of that game and echo chamber, to think differently about its problems and opportunities.
Issues and challenges: The PeterForVermont.Earth campaign looks for underlying problems and connections. One example: our consumption connects many “crises” and the war in Ukraine. Every time Vermonters fill up a tank (car, home, or farm), our demand for oil increases its price, affecting all global commodities and increasing inflation. That puts money in Putin’s pocket. Through coordinated conservation, we could reduce fuel use while doing less to prop up Russia. We did it before and can do it again. I would lead the state government to make that effort — right now.
My transportation, land use, and energy experience is good preparation for necessary change as Vermont confronts multiple problems. Computer scientists work with complicated challenges every day. I would use that training to look for simple, comprehensive solutions to seemingly isolated problems. Livable wage, grade 13, and parent stipends have good potential to resolve multiple issues now, not in 10 years.
Vermont traditions: Open primary voting is a Vermont tradition that needs exercise to be meaningful. With open primaries, the PeterForVermont.Earth fusion campaign seeks write-in votes – “Peter Duval” for governor – on all primary ballots. And for voters who care most about our environment, writing in “Peter Duval” for governor on the Progressive Party ballot is an effective vote to keep Earth front and center in Vermont politics.
Vermont’s billboard ban is another tradition that needs to be refreshed. I pledge to never, ever print lawn signs, which are distracting roadside blight. Even though the Secretary of Transportation regularly warns them, it seems like every candidate illegally places signs along our roads. When politicians break the law, it sets an example for the rest of us. I would work to restore respect for Vermont’s sign law.
Half of the Earth, including half of Vermont, needs to be restored to wilderness. I didn’t decide that; smart people who know ecosystems — like E.O. Wilson — determined that. Everyone who visits the west coast of Vermont looks across Lake Champlain at one of the best examples of wilderness restoration on the planet, Adirondack Park. It would be my job to make that happen in Vermont. Fortunately, that is also the way toward a sustainable, steady economy as we prune uneconomical infrastructure. And it would help restore Vermonters’ liberty to roam on foot, termed “hunt and fowl” in Vermont’s 1777 constitution, a tradition that predates settlement and reflects Vermonters’ understanding of the importance of the natural environment.
Of all the Vermont traditions, progress toward “inhabitant” suffrage may be the most important. So, on Aug. 9 and Nov. 8, wield that power. Vote!
