Green Party Review

Check out Bill Hulet's great commentary on current issues of substance on the "Green Party Review" link on the right. He has some great things to say and says them very well!

Brent Wood

Get the Greens On the Air

What do Farley Mowat, Preston Manning, David Suzuki, Lloyd Axworthy, Keith Spicer and Mel Hurtig have in common?

They all agree that the Canadian Leadership debates should include the Green Party. The Green Party of Canada was excluded from the first two televised leaders' debates, but there are still two more - on January 9 and 10.

We are trying to get everyone to whom this matters to go to:www.info-greenparty.ca/petition/ and sign the petition for inclusion in the next two debates. So far more than 35,000 Canadians have done just that!

If you agree would you please also forward this message to any of your email contacts who you feel mightshare this concern? Below is a list of brief points that argue for ourinclusion - for a full background paper on the issue go to http://web.greenparty.ca/download/backgrounder.pdf

Why the Green Party should be Included in theTelevised Leaders Debates

* The Green Party of Canada is running candidates in all 308 ridings

* The party won almost 600,000 votes in the last election and polls currently indicate 800,000 voters have already decided to vote Green on January 23, 2006

* This support is just the tip of the iceberg becausein the last election just, two weeks before polling day, 18% of voters said they would vote for the Green Party if they were to switch their minds. Polling research from the summer of 2005 showed that 34% of Canadian voters (more than one in every three) will now consider voting Green;

* The Green Party of Canada is running 4 times as many candidates as the Bloc, which is included in the debate;

* The Bloc won 54 seats after being included in the1993 TV debates without ever having elected an MP under its banner;

* The Reform Party went from 0 seats in 1988 to 52 seats in 1993 when Preston Manning was included in the debates;

* There were 5 leaders in the debates in 1993, 1997 and 2000 - and with the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Parties there i sa spare seat at the table;

* Some 8.8 million Canadian electors did not vote inthe 2004 election - why? Because they didn't see their values and their ethics reflected in any of the old line political parties. Only 5 million voted Liberal and only 4 million voted Conservative. The Green Party is presenting a new vision for Canada - something that Canadian voters respond to, once they hear about it!

* Gordon Wilson, the leader of the BC liberal Party in1991, was included in the debates without having anyseats and, based on his performance, the Liberals won 17 seats and became the official opposition;

* A broadcast consortium of 5 unelected, unaccountable executives shouldn't dictate to Canadians what our democracy will look like or sound like.

Thank you, in advance, for joining the long list of prominent Canadians who agree that the Green Party should be included on the debates.

David Suzuki, Author, Geneticist, CBC Broadcaster
Preston Manning, Founder & Former Leader Reform Party
Bill Loewen, Founding President, National Party
Paul Hellyer, Founder, Canadian Action Party
Senator Shirley Maheu, Deputy Speaker, Senate of Canada
Senator Nancy Ruth
Senator Mira Spivak
Mario Dumont, Leader ADQ, Quebec
Mel Hurtig - Author & Activist, former leader National Party
Judy Rebick, Gindin Chair in Social Justice & Democracy, Ryerson University
Keith C Norton, Chief Commissioner, Ontario Human Rights Commission
John Meisel, former Chairman, CRTC
Keith Spicer, former Chairman, CRTC
Hugh Segal - President Institute for Research on Public Policy
Mark Tewksbury - Olympic Gold Medalist
Very Reverend Lois Wilson, former Senator & Moderator of the United Church of Canada
Peter Desbarats, former Dean of Journalism, University of Western Ontario, author and former CBC journalist
John Williamson, Federal Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Diane Francis, Editor-at-Large, Financial Post
John Sewell, Former Mayor of Toronto
Jed Goldberg, President, Earth Day Canada
Ronald Watts, Principal Emeritus and Professor Emeritus, Queen's University
Joe Jordan, former Liberal MP
Paul Watson Sea Sheppard, founder Greenpeace
Lori Stahlbrand, Former CBC Radio Broadcaster
Larry Gordon, Executive Director, Fair Vote Canada
Michael de Pencier, Chairman of World Wildlife Fund Canada
Michael Adams, President, Environics Group
David Scrymgeour, Former National Director Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
Rosemary Speirs, former journalist and campaigner for equality for women in politics
Elizabeth May, Author & Environmentalist
Irshad Manji, Author & host of "Big Ideas," TVOntario
Peter Trueman, former anchor for Global Television
Rudyard Griffiths, Director, Dominion Institute
Lloyd Axworthy, President University of Winnipeg
Farley Mowat, novelist and naturalist

a message from Mike Nickerson
Sustainability Project / 7th Generation Initiative
2799 McDonalds Corners Rd.RR #3
Lanark, Ontario K0G 1K0
http://www.SustainWellBeing.net

An Evergreen New Year's Message from Brent

The evergreen tree has for centuries been a symbol of survival and hope in the cold of winter.

"Evergreen" values are what the Green Party of Canada stands for in our drive toward achieving the long term survival and sustainability of human culture.

The human species has been incredibly successful. Our population is larger than ever. People live longer than ever and have a higher average level of education. Our arts and science have advanced beyond anything our predecessors could have imagined. Canadian society today is more equitable, progessive and multicultural than it has ever been.

Yet this prosperity has brought new challenges that our old ways of thinking and doing business can no longer meet.

Last month in Montreal the international community turned a corner in recognizing climate change as the greatest threat ever faced by humanity. 189 countries agreed that the time to take action is NOW.

Canada pledged years ago to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6% below 1990 levels. Yet the federal government has done next to nothing to move toward this target. Our emissions are now 24% ABOVE 1990 levels. The oil and gas industry receives $2 billion annually in federal subsidies largely hidden from the public eye, while we have utterly neglected alternative energy sources that are practical and ready to be implemented: wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels.

And if climate change weren’t enough to threaten our fragile northern ecosystems, we continue to encourage unsustainable forestry, agricultural and industrial practices aimed at short-term economic growth.

This double whammy of climate change and distressed ecosystems is putting Canada’s future prosperity in extreme jeopardy.

The fastest and most efficient way to transform our economic behaviour is to implement real-cost accounting through differential taxation. Sustainably produced goods and services should receive tax breaks, while unsustainable ones should be taxed higher so that their real costs to public health and wealth are accounted for.

We have already learned to do this with alcohol and tobacco. We must expand this practice to encompass refined sugar, metals, agricultural chemicals, factory farms, fossil fuels, and clear-cut forestry. In tandem with tax incentives for extended-producer-responsibility programs and renewable energy development, we can transform the way we do business.

Consumers and industry will continue to have choice, but we will no longer publically subsidize unsustainable behaviour. Our health will improve, our resource consumption will drop, and we will save some of Canada for our children and our children’s children.

WE CAN make Canada a better place to live today and leave something for the future. Your support of the Green Party in this election will send a message that needs to be heard in Ottawa. The time for change is NOW.

Brent Wood