Archive for Participatory democracy

You are invited to attend the Toronto-Danforth Federal Green Party Association and the Green Party of Ontario’s Toronto Danforth Constituency Associations’s 2009 Annual General Meetings.

Thursday, 2010 January 28, 7 pm (1 hour)
Pape Public Library, 701 Pape Ave (south of Danforth)

All members, supporters and the public are welcome.     Read more »

Registration is now open for the Green Party of Ontario leadership contest and annual policy convention.  You can find a detailed agenda here.

Fri – Sun, 2009 Nov 13 – 15
London, Ontario

It was my friend William who first pointed it out to me.  The eligible voters who are declaring their intention not to vote in this election are coming from a most unlikely group.  We expect a good percentage of newly eligible voters to declare a lack of interest in politics.  But there are huge numbers of seniors now saying they are so confused or disgusted with politics that they don’t know how to vote and intend not to.  I’m hearing this more and more.  And seniors are generally regarded as the most reliable voter group by age.     Read more »

Green Party of Ontario Summer Summit
Friday – Sunday, 2009 August 21 – 23
Peter and Patti Ellis’ Farm
4615, 10th Line RR 2, Beeton, ON

Follow the link above for more all the official and up-to-date information about the event.

I get asked a lot about the garbage strike.  While there’s not a lot I can do to settle a municipal labour dispute as an aspiring MP, and people recognize this, as a Green MP I could do rather a lot to help Toronto achieve its stated goal of zero waste, which would make a garbage strike a lot less unpleasant.     Read more »

The Canadian Health Coalition is concerned about new threats to our universal public health care system.  They are concerned that the new head of the Canadian Medical Association, who owns private clinics himself, is promoting a mixed model of health care delivery.

I applaud the goals of the Canadian Health Coalition, which has just launched a website to address this new threat, and urge everyone to sign the pledge online, which I appear to have signed twice in my enthusiasm.     Read more »

Here’s today’s press release from the Green Party of Canada regarding the coup in Honduras:     Read more »

Apparently, Stephen Harper is once again contemplating removing the per-vote party funding which nearly brought down his government last year.  And this time, he might just succeed, since the Liberal Party at this stage relies less on the mechanism.  This would be a tremendous step backwards for democracy and needs to be fought tooth and nail.

I’m wary of fighting for policies that benefit the Green Party, because they open us up to charges of promoting only what’s best for us.  But in this case, it’s so obviously a toxic policy that I find it easy to fight.

PM Harper will undoubtedly suggest that this is needed as a cost-cutting measure.  But there are at least five ways that our government finances political parties.  Stephen Harper wants to get rid of only one – the one that is the most representative of democracy, and also the one that proportionally benefits him least.  If he really wants to save money, why doesn’t he instead get rid of one of the other, less democratic, methods?     Read more »

In late March 1964, my parents went to visit the newly unveiled Brazilian capital of Brasilia.  My mom, pregnant with me, returned to Uberlândia, where my father’s family lived, to their great relief.  Brazil had just suffered the military overthrow of their elected government, and my mom and dad, seeing the sights in the capital city, hadn’t even noticed.

Like the recent military coup in Honduras, Brazil’s coup was bloodless.  But it ushered in twenty years of political repression, journalistic censorship, disappearances, a pattern of torture, and even amid a time of burgeoning economic growth known as the “Brazilian miracle”, a rise in infant mortality, the collapse of the education system and the polarization of society into a small group of ultra-rich and a huge class of desperately poor.  The Brazil that I came to know as a teenager was a Brazil teeming with urban poor clustered in shantytowns of unimaginable squalor.     Read more »

Once again the Portlands are being threatened with being used as a dumping ground for unwanted development.  This time, the TTC wants to use them as yards for sleeping streetcars as they expand their fleet.       Read more »

Explaining my introductory postcard: “Ensure every vote counts by increasing voter access and implementing proportional representation.”     Read more »

I encourage everyone to sign the Kyotoplus petition.  Then go and get your friends all over Canada to sign it, too.

As I’ve become a candidate, I was worried that I couldn’t do more to help the Kyotoplus coalition, which is an extremely vital component in the battle against climate change.  I’ve now started campaigning door-to-door with my new postcard, which I’ll introduce online soon, and I’m carrying the Kyotoplus petition with me and urging every Toronto-Danforth resident to sign on, no matter what party they support.  It’s the least I can do.     Read more »

As a young woman, I heard the story of the Danish people wearing armbands marking them as Jews in solidarity with the Jewish people when their country was occupied by Nazis.  It turns out this detail is false.  Danish Jews were saved through the courage of their countrymen, primarily because a transport to neutral Sweden was arranged, not because Danish non-Jews also wore yellow stars.  But I find it inspiring to think of facing injustice by insisting on imposing the same limitations on yourself as those suffered by the people you are fighting for.  It is a powerful image.     Read more »

The Ralph Thornton Community Centre, Ryerson University and the South Riverdale Community Health Centre are presenting a community safety forum for South Riverdale residents.

Safety in Riverdale Community Forum
Thursday, 2009 May 28 6:30-9pm
Ralph Thornton Centre
765 Queen Street East (east of Broadview)

RSVP Joanne Fisher at 416-392-6810 ext. 231

Thanks to Andrew James for alerting me to a Bike to Work Day event this Monday, May 25, sponsored by the Toronto Bicyclists Union.  All participants get a t-shirt.

Bike to Work Day
Monday, 2009 May 25, 7am
meet at Woodbine and Danforth
free

Update: There is better information available on the City of Toronto site.  Ride begins at 7am at Woodbine and Danforth and should arrive at Broadview and Danforth about 7:15am.

Play-In at Riverdale Park
Saturday, 2009 May 23, 10am
Riverdale Park by statue of Sun Yat Sen

Walking back from a wonderful talk by Thomas Homer Dixon tonight, I walked through Riverdale Park and was shocked to see that at least half a dozen mature, seemingly healthy trees had been felled in the area that has been fenced in for the last couple of weeks.  It looks barren and forlorn.  They worked quickly.  This afternoon, the trees were all still there when I met my son’s schoolbus.

I was informed only after the orange fence went up that the St. Matthew’s Lawn Bowling Clubhouse was to be relocated there.  Later, I read the article in the Toronto Community News about the project, advising that 13 trees would be removed so that the structure could be moved through the park so as not to disrupt traffic.  So in order to keep traffic flowing for a day, the city has decided, in its wisdom, to permit the felling of mature trees that take decades to grow.  The priorities are all wrong.     Read more »

The Dalai Lama has signed a strong statement supporting a target below 350 ppm of atmospheric carbon.  This target is supported by a number of eminent climate scientists and is rapidly becoming the new consensus target.  It is, however, a very difficult target to meet because the current concentration of atmospheric carbon stands today at 390 ppm or possibly more.  It is good to see religious leaders recognizing and embracing the science of climate change.

Here’s a Buddhist website devoted to climate change.  It includes a statement to sign.

I know that ardent environmentalists and climate change deniers alike accuse Al Gore of not living up to his own standards, but he does compile some very graphically compelling images of the problem we are facing.  Here is his latest:

Elizabeth May will be interviewed about her new book Losing Confidence: Power, Politics and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy and will be signing copies.

Elizabeth May book signing
Friday, 2009 May 8, 5:30 pm – 7 pm
215 Spadina (between Dundas, Queen)
Admission $20. Register online.
Given space, walk-ins are welcome.     Read more »

I spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon being filmed on iChannel for an @iSSUE segment about Elections Canada reform.  Gary Dale of Fair Vote Canada was quick to promote the benefits of proportional voting systems, leaving me to speak about party financing, encouraging voter engagement, stemming disenfranchisement, the challenges of electronic voting and the effects of the current system on the Green Party.  The Panel was rounded out by Xing Chiu of Student Vote Canada, who was concerned about student rights and a better voting system in the future.

The show will air October 5 on iChannel:     Read more »

Yesterday I was nominated as the Green Party of Canada candidate for Toronto-Danforth for the next election.  I’m honoured and humbled by the supporters in this riding and their enthusiasm for starting the campaign.  Our success in the next election will depend on what the Green Party does best — building a community of people dedicated to building a better world and working respectfully together to achieve their goals.

In the next few months, I hope to be getting out and introducing myself to the neighbourhood.  I’m asking everyone who is interested in learning more about the Green Party to do one or both of two things.     Read more »

Elizabeth May is publishing a book to explain proportional representation to Canada, timed in the hope that it might help British Columbia this spring become the first large province to replace our traditional style of election with genuine democracy. Leading Canadian publisher McClelland & Stewart announced the April, 2009 release of Elizabeth May’s challenging new book, Losing Confidence: Power, Politics and the Crisis in Canadian Democracy.     Read more »