Peter Kent is currently the Member of Parliament for the riding of Thornhill.  He was born on July 27, 1943, in England. Later on his family moved to Canada. Both of his parents; Parker and Aileen Kent are deceased. Kent has five siblings; two brothers and three sisters. One of Kent’s sisters, Susan died in 2014.Both of his brothers have been involved with journalism, a field that Kent worked in for more than 40 years before joining politics. Kent’s wife Cilla was also a print journalist, who worked for the Argus newspaper group stationed in South Africa. Kent and his wife have a daughter who has indulged into writing and published her first novel in 2009. It is evident that Kent’s family has dwelled in a similar career path. It is either one becomes a writer or a journalist. This is a typical form of a conservative family that intends to develop some form of continuation. This aspect tends to build a reputation through which a family might be recognized through.

Before dwelling into politics, Kent was a journalist by profession. He spent more than 40 years in this occupation.  Over this period, he had worked for different organizations in different parts of the world. He covered various stories that shaped the 20th century like uncertainty and hope in the Middle East, decades of conflicts, Cambodian and Vietnam conflicts and the overthrow of Idi Amin among others. Kent’s journalism career began in the early 1960s where he worked for a radio station. In 1965, Kent moved to television working for CFCN-TV. During the same year, he also worked for Christian Science Monitor; as a newscast, CTV, CBC and NBC television. In 1966, Kent was on the move again. He relocated to South East Asia where he was expected to report on the Vietnam War, which lasted until 1973. He acted as a foreign correspondent whereby he worked on his own discretion and sent the relevant news to desired stations via postal letters. As a correspondent, it meant that he had the autonomy to include his own views regarding the news he was sending. In 1976, he was back in Canada and worked for CBC as a producer. Later on, he was involved with presenting news when one of the television’s leading anchorman moved to another organization. From 1984 to 1991, Kent was involved with NBC where he worked on several agendas. He later came to conclude his career as a journalist in the early 2000s while working at Global television.

Through his time as a journalist, Kent won several awards. Among them are the four Emmy nominations that he won while working at NBC. Kent also won the Robert F. Kennedy award as a result of his feature report series that documented the challenges faced by Americans residing in the inner cities. He was also inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame.

Since joining politics, Kent has been involved in several activities. Among the main activities that he has been involved with is the preservation of the environment by way of limiting green house gases emission. At the time he took office as the country’s environment minister, limiting green house emissions was a necessity. This is because the levels of green house emissions were becoming unbearable. The main reason attributing to this factor is the growth of the economy. As the economy grows, the demand for petroleum products increases in order to sustain the growing industries. Kent initiated the establishment of the GHG policy that sets sights on reducing the levels of green house emissions by 2020. The main industries being targeted include oil and gas, electricity, transportation, land use, manufacturing, agriculture, buildings, and waste among others (CBC News, 2012).

Kent cited that the increase in green house gases was attributed to a variety of factors. Among them being the change in population, economic growth and the country’s physical geography. These aspects tend to increase the level of green house gases being emitted into the atmosphere in one way or another.

Kent was afraid of the severe consequences that would befall the country if immediate actions aimed at rectifying the situation were not implemented. The negative effects would accrue on the environment, human health and the economy. The environment would suffer as a result of global warming. The annual temperatures would rise resulting to the melting of ice, which would probably cause a rise in sea levels. The ultimate result of this occurrence would be increased flooding in the coastal areas. Human health on the hand will be affected in that increased temperatures would result to death from heat stroke and dehydration. Air pollution emanating from the emissions would also cause various cardiovascular and respiratory problems. On the economic aspect; forestry, tourism, recreation and agriculture would be affected negatively due to the changing weather patterns (CBC News, 2012). Extreme weather conditions also have the ability to damage the infrastructure, and this would have an impact on resource development and local populations.

These negative effects were among the reasons why Peter Kent stressed the need of initiating policies that would help curb the levels of green house gas emissions.  Kent did not make much progress on this issue when he was the environment minister. Certain sectors like the oil and gas industry did not see a lot of changes. Several diplomatic issues arose since this industry is dominated by foreign companies. However, Kent helped in ensuring that favorable frameworks to deal with this issue have been instituted. This was by ensuring various policies that would help meet the 2020 goal for emission levels have been enacted.

Another goal that Kent desires to fulfill is the enhancement of community development. He strives to actualize this goal through community involvement. He supports several charitable organizations directly. At one point, he served as a mentor at Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council. During this period, he tried to nurture immigrants in a way that would help then benefit from various opportunities available in the country. Being a key personality figure, this had an impact on various individuals involved. Currently, Kent is still involved with Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the Royal Conservatory of Music. All these organizations are meant to help the community in one way or another. Their main agenda is to bring development in areas that they have ventured in. Kent shows his desire to spearhead community development by involving himself with such organizations.

References

CBC News, (2012, August 8). Kent saysCanada ‘halfway’ to 2020 emissions targets. Retrieved November 26, 2015, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/kent-says-canada-halfway-to-2020-emissions-targets-1.1192869

Kent, P. (2015, March 30). Peter Kent | Member of Parliament Thornhill. Retrieved November 26, 2015, from http://www.peterkent.ca/home#latest-menu

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