Archive for Fun

Peter Bevan-Baker is running for the Greens in Malpeque, PEI.  He understands that it’s a marathon.     Read more »

The Xof1 solar car is not allowed to drive on public roads.  So its creator, Marcelo da Luz, pulled it all the way as he walked the distance from Niagara Falls to Toronto.  His ceremonial end point was Queen’s Park.  After arrival, Adriana walked with him and the car back to his home in Toronto-Danforth.

Young Greens around the country will be drawing out lines to the advance polls tonight.  When people wake up tomorrow morning, green chalk lines will have appeared on sidewalks all over the country, leading to advance polling stations.

A large group of Young Greens in Toronto will be meeting at     Read more »

Tuesday, 2011 April 26, 7 pm – 10 pm
Gabby’s in the “Library Room”
729 Danforth Ave, east of Pape

Adriana will be there from 7 to 8 pm and then she’s off to Rogers TV for a live all-candidates debate. Watch the debate live, starting at 9pm, with your fellow Greens! We meet the last Tuesday of every month – come join us!

Just had a Portuguese language interview with Sandro Miranda of PanTV.  He pointed me to a Brazilian campaign to reduce water use.  I have been impressed with the creativity of public campaigns in Brazil on AIDS, abuse of women, nutrition among the poor and other areas.  Brazil routinely achieves tremendous progress on the cheap.  Here’s how they are reducing water use:

We’ve had to revise our sizing chart:

… with love from Adriana.

This moving video was made for Rebecca Harrison’s campaign.  Rebecca is busy as both the Green candidate in Whitby Oshawa and the Green Party’s Ontario Organizer.

Watch this video created by a Green Party supporter.

Yesterday

At a talk I attended on Friday afternoon with constitutional scholar Peter Russell, he pointed out that of the 51 democracies in the world today, 48 are led by either coalitions or minority governments acting with the support of other parties.  If Stephen Harper rejects coalitions, he rejects democracy, because democracy is all about coalition building, partnership, working together and finding solutions.

Morning

This morning at an interfaith breakfast organized by Greening Sacred Spaces, I ran into a colleague who pointed out that Stephen Harper got the vote of 22% of eligible voters – that’s 38% of the 59% of the electors who bothered to vote.  So many people are disgusted with government they don’t vote at all.  And with the support of  less than one quarter of voters, Harper thinks the right thing to do is ignore other parties.

At the interfaith breakfast, I was very impressed with Rabbi Miriam of the Danforth Jewish Circle, who said that whenever she thinks about the environment she is reminded of Genesis.  She quoted in Hebrew but paraphrased in Jewish the phrase:

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Afternoon

Zito Hellas! I spent the afternoon at the Greek Independence Day Parade on the Danforth with two supporters and my young son carrying a Greek flag.  Then we bought some spanakopita and brought it back to the office we had just claimed at 1338 Danforth.  From now to election day, it will be open daily from 10am to 9pm.

The office was bustling all afternoon.  We have some very energetic local supporters who were helping move things around.  Thanks to Kashkoush and all his friends.  Six supporters went out with more window signs.  Our signs are up on Danforth, on Gerrard, on Donlands and Coxwell now.  My daughter and some young supporters made some progress towards a big sign over the office while office manager Jo Oppenheimer supervised the delivery of office furniture.

Evening

Our lawn signs are in print.  Our first flyers are in print.  Supporters and passers-by walked in and talked.  At 9pm, we were still talking to neighbours who had recently moved to the riding and wanted to know more about the Green Party.

You can find more endorsements like these on the new video endorsements page.  Hilary and Ed have fuller videos there.

Parts of this are eerily familiar.

It’s exciting to see various faith groups taking action to protect all creation, like the Green Choices for Faith Communities forum happening in Toronto later this month.

Visit ecosikh.org for more information.

Tuesday, 2011 March 29, 7 pm to 10 pm
Gabby’s in the “Library Room”
729 Danforth Ave, east of Pape

We meet the last Tuesday of the month. Come by and join us!

Annual Green Awakening Network
& Greening Sacred Spaces Forum
Saturday, March 26, 9 am – noon
Sunday, March 27, 8:30 am – 3:30 pm
Eglinton St George’s United Church, 35 Lytton Rd

Come and join faith communities from across Toronto and region for a day of inspiration and practical help on March 26. The event is for faith communities wishing to seriously take their commitment to ‘live with integrity’ in creation.     Read more »

Congratulations to all women on this centenary Women’s Day when we celebrate one hundred years of progress for women. I’ve been listening to Peter Gabriel sing his wonderful song Shaking the Tree with Youssou N’Dour in celebration of Women’s Day. Would be even better if it were written by a woman, but it’s hard to complain about men singing in celebration of women’s achievements.

Here is Elizabeth May being her usual eloquent self,      Read more »

The Green Party of Canada calls for an end to smear campaigns and attack ads.  Let’s run an election trying to win hearts and minds on the strength of our own policies and principles.

View their attack ad on attack ads and ask representatives of all parties to stop the negative campaigning.

A clever site called People for Corporate Tax Cuts does a brilliant job of highlighting the impact on Canadians of a corporate tax cut.  Although it’s designed for an Ontario audience, it works well at all levels of government.  Governments only have so much money.  If they cut the corporate tax rate, either they have to increase the tax burden on individuals, or they have to cut services.  This might make sense if we had outrageous corporate tax rates that made it difficult for businesses to compete in a global economy, but that’s not the case.  Corporate tax cuts are just welfare for the rich.

A few years ago, Elizabeth May said that we need to plan cities around the child, instead of around the car.  There’s now a movement around 8-80 cities that calls on cities to be planned with two groups of people in mind – 8 year olds and 80 year olds.  The theory is that if you take care of the young and old, the able-bodied in between will be able to look after themselves.  It’s a compassionate approach to community building with the goal of safe streets, local economies and cohesive neighbourhoods, rather than maximum mobility.  And it’s very much at the heart of what the Green Party is all about.

Mark Kennedy reports that:     Read more »

Happy Family Day 2011 to all.  It’s beautiful and bright, and there are lots of things to do.  My family will be spending the day mostly at home because my son has the chicken pox, but we might get out to a park for a while.

Tuesday, 2011 February 22, 7 pm – 10 pm
Gabby’s in the “Library Room”
729 Danforth Ave, east of Pape

We meet the last Tuesday of the month. Come join us!

The Green Party is looking for student volunteers to work near your secondary school in the Toronto-Danforth riding. This fun opportunity can be used toward your required 40 hours of community service.     Read more »

Monday 2011 January 24, 5:30 pm – 9:30 pm
William Doo Auditorium, University of Toronto
45 Willcocks St

Attend a special screening of ‘The Economics of Happiness’, a new documentary film by Helena Norberg-Hodge about the worldwide movement for economic localization.

The film features a chorus of voices calling for systemic economic change, including: Vandana Shiva, David Korten, Michael Shuman, Richard Heinberg, Rob Hopkins, Juliet Schor, Zac Goldsmith, Bill McKibben, and Samdhong Rinpoche, the Prime Minister of Tibet’s government in exile. If you can’t attend the launch event, there are other ways to be involved.     Read more »