I’m so sorry, but for personal reasons, I won’t be able to represent Toronto-Danforth for the Green Party in the upcoming federal election. I’d like to thank everyone who is working so hard on this campaign, and want to urge you to continue. I continue to support the party and expect to offer what help I can in the upcoming campaign. I wish my replacement candidate the very best of luck in winning this riding for the Greens.

Reason to support the Green Party, and confirmation of why we joined:

Business can provide meaning for workers and customers but not until it understands that the trust it undertakes and the growth it assumes are part of a larger covenant. As long as nature, children, women, and workers are abused by institutions espousing free-market theories, the real deficit will continue to grow — the difference between what business has taken and what it has returned, the difference between value added and value subtracted. For most people meaning is derived from just the opposite relationship, one in which one gives more than one takes, where one’s life is intrinsically bound to the promotion of the common good.

Wish I’d written the above. But I’m just the messenger.

Hello citizens of our world,

this morning while walking from the bus through some buildings to my lecture hall, I stopped to buy a coffee in the Fine Arts building and over-heard a heated discussion amongst a group of students. One fellow about 20 y/o said:

when I want I destroy; when I wish I create

I nearly dropped the coffee. 

CB

This is a companion piece to my previous post, where I railed about carbon offsets becoming permission to go ahead with “business-as-usual”.  Well, it is incumbent on us not to have a business-as-usual campaign, then, whether or not we choose to go with carbon offsets.

So here are some ideas.  I welcome more.

1. Our signs will be stored in local depots and delivered on foot or bicycle.
2. Elena from our campaign team has offered her bicycle to be available to campaign staff running errands.  Several other members enthusiastically added that they would be happy to add a bike to the mix as well.
3. We will try to reduce emissions from heating by keeping the office cool (or, if the campaign ends up in the summer, we’ll try to keep the office warm to reduce emissions associated with electricity for cooling).
4. We will use 100% post-consumer recycled paper for our flyers and other materials.
5. We will scrupulously recycle everything we can at the office.
6. We will try to perform as many functions manually as we can.
7. We will try to reduce the energy used on lighting and computers by turning them off when they are not absolutely needed.
8. We will do our best to keep water use low.
9. We’ll try to eliminate disposables as much as possible — no styrofoam cups for coffee, for example.

As campaign manager, I’d like some input into whether we should offset our campaign or not.  Email me or add your comments below, and I’ll let those comments guide the decision.     Read more »