Several people have asked me about the Green Party’s stand on Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) representation, which will be put to a referendum simultaneously with the provincial election this October 10.  I urge everyone to consider voting for Patrick Kraemer and strongly suggest that everyone vote YES to MMP.

The Green Party supports proportional representation and mixed-member proportional is among the best democratic systems available.  To explain why, I asked my friend Sharon Howarth, who is devoting every moment of her time to promoting MMP.  Here are her comments:     Read more »

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.

Our outgoing leader, Jim Harris, is one of the members of our EDA (Electoral District Association).  Actually, it is only at this convention that I discovered that we have another former leader in the riding, Chris Lea, who was leader from 1990-1996.

Jim has some superb qualities.  He’s an unparalleled fundraiser and he’s a moving speaker.  He pushed the party to field a candidate in every riding, which led to enormous growth in visibility, in votes, in membership and in party finances.  He has also been very helpful to me personally, responding to my questions and addressing my requests.

I wanted to thank Jim at the convention.  But I also wanted to make it fun.  I remembered Jim’s “Order of Green” award.  He carries these things by the dozens in his pockets.  They are small lapel pins with the Green Party logo.  He hands them out liberally, always with a degree of solemnity that somehow leaves you moved, even though the recipients are legion and it is, after all, just a pin.  He compares it to the Order of Canada.  He calls the recipients his heroes.  He extols their contributions above and beyond the call of duty.  Quite often, he cries when he’s handing these things out.

So I decided to create a Green Order of Danforth in Jim’s honour.  It is a green paper clip.  It is given to anyone who contributes to the EDA above and beyond the call of duty.  If you put up a lawn sign, volunteer, show up at an event or contribute money, you are definitely eligible.  You can collect them and make a necklace.

Jim got the very first one at the awards dinner at the convention.  His wife Lee Anne got the second.  And a funny thing happened to me on stage as I tried to speak in the same serious voice that Jim uses when handing out little bits of metal.  I actually started getting into it.  A wierd part of my brain actually started to take this seriously.  So while there’s definitely an amusing aspect to the Green Order of Danforth paperclip, I think it does serve as an effective token of appreciation.  It isn’t large and cumbersome.  It isn’t something that somebody’s going to have too much of already.  It’s something most people can actually use.  On the last day of the convention, I gave them out to all the delegates of our riding association who were still there, and noticed, with a certain satisfaction, that some were displaying their paperclips attached to their shirt collars.

So, what began as a bit of a joke is probably here to stay.  And your first opportunity to get your Green Order of Danforth will be Monday, at Union Station, 8 pm.  See you there.

The big message of this convention was to build up a grassroots community, to engage our supporters and to give them a voice.   That’s what inspired me to start this blog.  Our entire executive are authors and can all contribute.  We invite your opinions.  You can add comments to any blog entry by clicking on the word “Comments” that appears below each post.

If you have an existing blog you want us to link to, we’d love to do that.  Right now we’re linking to Chris Tindal (the former Green Party candidate for Toronto Centre, who has a very good blog) and Elizabeth May, as well as to Green Bloggers.  If you don’t have a blog and want to start one, we suggest you do it through Green Bloggers, but any blog connections are welcome.

If you want to open up a topic for discussion that isn’t on this blog, please contact me at adriana@danforthgreens.ca and I will try to open up that discussion for you.  Any ideas on how to improve this blog or the main www.danforthgreens.ca site are also very welcome.