Local members have elected Sara Nicola Ruth as Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Colchester constituency and Andrew Canessa as Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Harwich and North Essex constituency. Our candidates introduce themselves below:

SARA NICOLA RUTH – COLCHESTER

I was brought up in Nottinghamshire then lived in East London for 30 years; I moved to Colchester in 2016 after my younger daughter left home for university, and I started my own Bachelor of Arts degree at University of Essex in 2020 during the height of COVID. I graduated this July in BA Social Anthropology and have just started studying towards MA Environment, Society and Culture, a course I was attracted to because it combines ecological priorities
with the practicalities of social and cultural life and connects all of these aspects with environmental politics and philosophy.
I have been a member of the Green Party for over two years and a member of the Colchester GP Executive Committee for eighteen months. I am very proud to have been able to assist in the successful reelection campaign for Mark Goacher this year and in building a strong exec committee of passionate local members. I have been glad to have the support of exec colleagues in managing my needs as someone with mobility impairment, and I believe it is important for the needs of people with disabilities to be represented by those who have lived experience of it. More broadly, I am firmly committed to Green Party policies: to the concept of a Green New Deal, to voting reform and Proportional Representation, to an economy that promotes quality of life and wellbeing, to a Universal Basic Income, and to the reforms to taxation which will fund these policies. The task of a parliamentary candidate is to represent Green policies in conversation with the politicians of other parties and to promote them to voters.
As a multimedia and spoken word artist I am experienced at public speaking and performance, and I also understand the importance of the creative community in making our cities vibrant and welcoming. I have extensive experience of enacting positive change in the community, having taken on the Chair of Governors role in a primary school in Hackney which was on the verge of being placed in the Special  Measures category. In re-building the leadership and management of the school I forged a collaboration agreement with another “successful” school which later became an exemplar of school improvement across the borough and beyond, and within a couple of years our school was given Beacon School status and became a centre of training excellence.
Everyone deserves to have the best services and quality of life possible, and as a parliamentary candidate I hope to advocate for Green Party policies as the most practical and sustainable set of solutions to the extensive challenges we
face. At local level the Greens have been so successful in recent years, and the more visibility is given to Green voices at local, regional, and national level, the greater our success in changing the narrative will be.

ANDREW CANESSA – HARWICH AND NORTH ESSEX

I have been a member of Colchester Green Party for over a decade and will be honoured to stand in the Harwich and North Essex constituency where I reside. With every year green issues become more compelling, and more and more people see that meaningful change is needed to change the world from environmental disaster.
The Green Party speaks most clearly to these issues and also articulates a social vision for change that is inclusive, democratic, and embraces the principles that can lead to meaningful change. Although we have a profoundly undemocratic electoral system that makes change difficult and representation deeply flawed, it is still important for us to stand in every constituency. In standing for election I want to make our voice heard and give people the opportunity to vote Green wherever they live. A few thousand votes can be the difference between winning and losing, now perhaps more than ever, and by simply standing we make the larger parties think of their green policies and constituents who espouse green issues. I want to campaign for sustainable energy, constitutional reform, better housing, cleaner air, cleaner water, and an efficient and affordable public transportation system to name just a few green issues which I embrace and need to be articulated for the many people, Greens and others, who are concerned about these issues.