Archive for Actions

London Centre North will be having a byelection on November 27, and the Green Party candidate will be – our leader, Elizabeth May.  Former Green Party leader and Toronto-Danforth local Jim Harris just announced it in his blog, and explained why we very well may get our first elected Green.

You can wish Elizabeth luck or pledge to donate to her campaign at leader@greenparty.ca.

We now have Green Party supporters running for every position in the upcoming municipal election in Toronto-Danforth. Gordon Crann just wrote to me today to tell me he was running for Public School Trustee. We don’t have time to do a formal meeting with Gordon, but I’ve looked at his website and it looks great. It’s also Green.

Gordon is supported by members of all political parties, and while a financial supporter of the Green Party and clearly aligned with many of our priorities, he’s a member of the Liberal Party.  His longstanding commitments to environmental issues include a period as president of Environmental Defence Canada.  If you have some time and would like to help with Gord’s campaign, please contact Gord.

Yesterday, Garth Turner was kicked off the Conservative caucus the day before Prime Minister Harper revealed his plan for thinking about smog and global warming over the next 5 decades.  It is widely believed that Mr. Turner’s outspoken criticism of his own government’s lack of action on climate change had something to do with this.

Mr. Turner has been called “outspoken”, a “maverick” and “reactionary”.  He maintains a blog.

So, do we want this reactionary as a Green?  As far as I’m concerned, we can’t afford to be turning away any politicians who prioritize global warming.  As Elizabeth May points out in her blog, he states:

…climate change is a defining issue, and this is a landmark time for a generational government. Either we will rise to the challenge, or we will not.

Elizabeth May has said she’s ready to welcome him into the Green Party, and he says he’s ready to talk about it.  The story is widely reported:

• Canada.com
• Canada.com, again
• City TV
• The Globe and Mail
• The Star
• The Star, again

So if anyone out there would like to see Mr. Turner become the first Green MP, contact him at garth@garth.ca and tell him so.

There are serious environmental and health concerns related to the Portlands power plant. As part of my work for TEC (Toronto Energy Coalition, the citizen’s group working to stop the Portlands plant), I wrote a letter and sent it to Minister Broten, outlining these concerns, and requesting that the plant be elevated to a full Environmental Assessment. I also wrote a simpler version, which TEC is urging citizens to copy and send to the Minister as well.

A couple of days ago, I received a response from the Minister’s office,     Read more »

We need a Green foot in the door. They wouldn’t let Jim Harris into the 2006 leaders’ debates. Let’s not let that happen to Elizabeth May.  Sign the online petition to demand that the Green Party be included in the next election debates.