Don’t get mad (get even)

“I came to the province as an independent man and I will leave as an independent man.” -Don Woodstock

My interview with Winnipeg environmental activist Don Woodstock for Issue 22 of The Uniter was a great insight into the life and political views of an intelligent and down-to-earth guy. I was impressed by his prominent grassroots activism but, more than anything else, I was pleased that Woodstock doesn’t shy away from partisan heckling.

I was fascinated by his commentary over what he sees as Manitoba’s expansive and secretive NDP political machine. He maintains that there are significant ideological divisions in the NDP party, signified by the stark split (centrist and socialist) in support between the two candidates (Greg Selinger and Steve Ashton) in last year’s leadership race.

“If the staunch differences between Selinger and Ashton came out, the NDP would be seen as a farce,” he said in an interview at the Dandelion Cafe, a small restaurant in Organza Market, an Osborne Village environmental and organic store. “I don’t have any faith in a government that looks at any issue and plays around with it for their own political gains.”

Woodstock believes that if the government refuses to pass an outright ban on plastic bags out of fear that the party would resemble the Liberals and would lose the support of their huge electoral base. As a result, they their environmental policy is lax and flimsy.

“The NDP have been pretending to be something else for years and people are loving them,” he said, referring to the fact that they pretend to be progressive while governing firmly from the centre. “Don’t hate the Liberals, don’t hate Jon [Gerrard]; you can’t hate the Liberals when your government is right down the middle.”

It seemed like Woodstock was at first surprised by his relative fame. He attributed his prominence to his willingness to speak out, while others hold their tongues to keep well-paying jobs with the provincial government.

“Hats off to Gary Doer,” he said. “The best way to keep a man or woman silent is to give them a job…we have two forms of welfare in this province, the guy who gets $1,000 a month and the guy who gets $5,000; they’re both waiting for a cheque from the government.”

There is more to Woodstock than a series of political ruminations and other commentary, however.

He has been active as a Jamaican culture organizer and is an established Jamaican cook. Since coming to Winnipeg, Woodstock has marketed his own combination of ingredients to create a Jamaican jerk spice, a spice used to flavour meats to be prepared in Jamaican jerk style cooking. The spice is distributed and bottled by the Winnipeg-based Spice World.

According to Woodstock, his jerk has been featured in Flavor Magazine, the only Jamaican jerk spice to be included in the publication.

“I’ve managed to find a concoction that just works,” he said.

Woodstock further claims that he was able to convince Rita Marley (widow of the late Bob Marley) to donate something out of musicians personal collection for the soon-to-be-opened Canadian Human Rights Museum.

“Bob Marley IS human rights,” said Woodstock.

Check out Don Woodstock’s documentary “Your World and Mine” on YouTube. I urge you to watch episodes of his hyper-local green tenchology series U, Me and the Environment that have run on the Shaw Cable network.