Former Parksville mayoral candidate Dallas Collis released his first self-published book Revolution Bridge last month.
The 291-page book delves into many of the political philosophies Collis touted during the campaign last fall, including capitalism, development, democracy and social welfare.
Collis, who fell flat in the election with a mere 196 votes, said his book — like his bid for Parksville mayor — is just another platform to speak.
“We don’t have much freedom of speech left in this world,” he told The NEWS. “For me an election (and this book) is a public platform with some freedom to speak, I wish a hundred people would run and say what they think.”
Collis said the main theme in his book, made up of 83 sub-sections, is the idea of convergence.
“Democracy is crumbling, human rights are being abused, inequality is rampant, capitalism is eating the planet and leaving little behind but waste,” he said. “There’s a convergence of things that are happening, it’s all connected — trouble in the Middle East is connected to climate change.”
Collis said “I don’t think people are talking about it enough, there are too many deniers and disbelievers.”
He said he started getting interested in politics at age 19 after a road trip to El Salvador with a group of friends.
“We barely got into the country and saw a tremendous amount of poverty and violence, it got scary and dangerous at times and when I got back home I just had a different view of people,” he recalled.
“I come from this Island originally and it’s very white, middle-class, I think narrow-minded and shortsighted. You step out of that and there’s brown people and red people and different cultures and different food, and what struck me the most is that we’re all the same — we all just want to live a nice life and look after our kids and that’s it.”
Revolution Bridge reads like an activists’ handbook critiquing modern social values. For anyone who followed Collis’ campaign, many of the thoughts will be familiar.
“We have placed all our eggs in one basket… Constant economic growth; a belief that on this finite planet we can grow our way to everything good… And so we win and lose, we get riches and poverty, obesity and hunger, sickness, health and great inequalities,” reads an excerpt from the book.
Collis admits it’s a dark read, but offers: “It’s about getting from where we are now to where we are going… nobody knows what’s on the other side, really, but we’ll figure that out together.”
He said he doesn’t have the answers but wants to start a conversation.
In the last chapter titled “the not-so conclusion,” Collis writes: “Building a bridge towards a post-capitalist future will also involve pain. There is no safe place. Human beings were not built to stand still, to cower, to hunker-down and hold on. Our history is one of never-ending change. What makes us special is that we can direct some of that change; we can have a positive or negative effect.”
Revolution Bridge is available at Real Food located at 321 Wesley Street in Nanaimo or online as an e-book. For more information visit www.revolutionbridge.com or e-mail 1bigstorylive@gmail.com.