Archive for 2006 November

As part of the three-part public forum Climate Change and the Coming Energy Crisis, there will be a panel discussion of the best ways to get ourselves out of the twin messes of global warming and peak oil:     Read more »

The next climate chaos organizing / outreach planning meeting will be on:

Tuesday, 2006 November 28, 7:00 pm
Trinity St Paul Centre
427 Bloor St West
(follow signs to the room)

Note: Date may change.

At our AGM we decided that we’d choose our Green Party of Canada candidate for the next federal election on or about Tuesday, 2007 February 6. Exact date, time and location are to be determined. Written notification to members will be sent at least 30 days before. Potential candidates seeking the nomination will need to file all their papers by two weeks before the nomination meeting.

Update: we now have a time and location.

The Young Environmental Professionals [now Connecting Environmental Professionals] are hosting a debate between the PEC‘s exceedingly polite Public Relations guy, Ted Gruetzner, and our own Greg Bonser.

YEP Debate on the Portlands Energy Centre
Tuesday, 2006 November 28, 6 pm
Duke of York Pub
39 Prince Arthur Ave
(1 block North of Bloor at the Bedford exit of St George Station)
$5, food will be provided
RSVP events.yep@gmail.com

Greg was one of our young locals who immediately understood the problem the PEC posed.     Read more »

There’s been much talk in my workplace lunchroom today about last night’s the fifth estate program The Denial Machine. (The synopsis plus whole video is available online.)  The program was on the well-financed and organized attempts to throw doubt on global warming.

What seemed to shock people the most is that it’s not just the same groups that used to deny the dangers of smoking.  It’s the very same “expert” talking heads.

Garth Turner isn’t a Green himself, but he knows we need a Green voice in Parliament, and so he’s canvassing with Elizabeth May in London North Centre.

If he can do it so can you.

Professor Lynn McDonald from the University of Guelph will  speak on “How Democracy Fails the Environment (and what we should do to reform it)”.

Toronto Peak Oil Discussion Group November Meetup
Wednesday, 2006 November 22, 6:45 pm
Frankland Community School
second floor, community room C
816 Logan Avenue (two blocks east of Chester station)
PWYC

Here’s a quote from an article she wrote in the Toronto Star:

An oil company that takes out the oil, sells it, makes enough money so that all concerned can live in luxury, then leaves the land and water systems polluted, can do so with impunity. Its executives, indeed, are featured in business magazines, given the Order of Canada and praised as pillars of the community. They even call what they do production, as if they had made the oil and gas in the first place.

Instead of dealing with this, the great political and constitutional issue, we debate federal vs. provincial rights over resources. And our policies encourage flagrantly wasteful use, such as cheap deals to sell ever more flights, use up more fossil fuels and cause more global warming.

…

The president of the Royal Society in Britain recommended the undertaking of a massive campaign to develop green energy to replace reliance on fossil fuels. In scope he said it needs to be like the Americans’ Apollo program.

I suggest that we need a similar massive rethinking of our political, economic and social systems.

After the meeting, the group moves a block east to Cafe Frappe, 519 Danforth Ave.

You are invited to RSVP.

The folks who brought us the Climate Chaos rally last Saturday are planning on more climate action events.  They need help.  We had a turnout of 200 people.  Other cities had thousands.  I do not believe this is because climate change is a bigger issue in New York and Australia, but because we lack organization, media support, money and advertising.  The event here was under-advertised.

So if you’re available, I recommend that you help out.  I’ll be there for this initial meeting.  We need our Prime Minister to recognize that his refusal to take climate change seriously has real opposition.

Climate Chaos Organizing Meeting
Tuesday, 2006 November 14, 7 pm
OISE, room 4-426
Free

See you there!

Sorry for the delay in putting this up.  Matthew Day, a popular local Green, is running for city council in Ward 6, where it looks like he may well win, and many Toronto Greens have been jumping on his campaign.  Tonight, Elizabeth May is taking time out of her own campaign to add some power to his in a fundraising dinner.  Details are below:

Matthew Day fundraising dinner with Elizabeth May
Friday, 2006 November 10
drinks: 7:30 pm, dinner: 8:30 pm, presentation: 9:15 pm
The Royal Canadian Legion, branch 101
3850 Lakeshore Blvd W (west of Kipling in Etobicoke)
shuttle bus available all evening from Islington Station
RSVP sappho@electDAY.ca or 416 252 5757 for shuttle or carpool
$50 tickets qualify for a $30 rebate for a net cost of $20

On behalf of GTA Greens and even Greens from as far as Ottawa, I would like to thank the Danforth Greens for offering and eventually hosting the GTA Car Pool blog. I went to London this past weekend and was totally blown away from what is going on there. The champagne office is very impressive and more importantly was buzzing with all kinds of election action. A few GTAr’s and myself canvassed the streets of London North and were encouraged to have had very positive responses at the door for Elizabeth.

This blog may be moved as the Elizabeth May web site gets more and more updated. For now I am still accepting emails (ncapra@greenparty.ca) from GTAr’s who would like to car pool to London.

Once again…Thank-you Danforth Greens for your continuing hospitality.

Nick Capra, York West Greens
The Green Party of Canada
www.yorkwestgreens.ca 
ncapra@greenparty.ca
647.212.9403