This blog is for the Green Party of Canada.  The Green Party of Ontario, while sharing the same principles, and being part of the same global Green family, is a separate organization, with separate membership, separate policy, separate leadership, separate financing and a focus on provincial issues.

I’ve been thrilled to watch the Green Party of Canada undergo a significant expansion in Toronto-Danforth over the time I’ve been involved.  The Green Party of Ontario, however, has not experienced the same growth.  Riding president Paul Charbonneau left the presidency following his run in the byelection in March and the constituent assembly has been disbanded.

Because the two organizations are linked and strong associations and candidates help each other at both levels, it is important to the development of the GPC in Toronto-Danforth that we also have a strong GPO presence.  Doug Wright, a very hardworking member of our executive at the GPC, is willing to take on a central role in the GPO, but he can’t do it alone.  So if anyone out there has been wondering how you can help, there is lot to be done at the provincial end.  Please contact Doug Wright at doug@danforthgreens.ca if you are interested.  We need to start getting this organization into shape for the scheduled provincial election in November 2007.

My husband Charlie is lying in bed unable to move.  He’s a baby when he’s in pain, so today I’m not taking my customary long walks, but rather just hanging out to feed him painkillers and muscle relaxants.

All this began on Saturday, a day that I promised to spend with Charlie, having returned a few days before from Ottawa, where I had spent most of a week at the Green Party convention.  Now, we don’t have days together when Charlie travels for a week, which happens with some regularity, but me being gone for a week is unusual enough that a day together was deemed necessary.

We spent our day romantically handing out flyers for Frank de Jong’s campaign in Parkdale-High Park in the rain.  I cannot say I recommend this as a date.  Coming down a sleek set of stairs with no handrail, Charlie flipped onto his back, breaking off the lower step and quite possibly cracking a rib.  We walked home very slowly on Saturday, with Charlie romantically grabbing my shoulder in his pincer-like grip every time he had a spasm.  Yesterday, properly medicated, Charlie was okay for most of the day.  Last night, every movement was painful.

This morning, Steve Downie, our friend and Charlie’s coworker, arrived for a breakfast appointment to which he had specifically requested that Charlie wear his pants, and was disappointed that pants were not an option and really, neither was breakfast.

Charlie has been instrumental in organizing the Danforth Greens website, this blog and much of the database.  He’s also incredibly tolerant of the fact that I don’t seem to have time for him anymore, often noting with satisfaction that he actually enjoys watching me get involved with things again after almost two decades of watching children.  He doesn’t complain that the house is turning into a pigsty, and he actually sometimes gets more excited than I am about my various causes.  He’s an important force behind the scenes who deserves some recognition.

If anyone reading this is a Parkdale-High Park voter, remember Charlie’s sacrifice for the Greens and vote for Frank de Jong in the provincial by-election.

We are in the middle of a byelection in Parkdale-High Park, where Green Party of Ontario leader Frank de Jong is running.  He has agreed to make the Portlands power plant an issue in his election, and I’ve offered to help on his campaign.  I’ll probably be distributing flyers for him next weekend.  If we could get a crew from Toronto-Danforth, it would spread a lot of goodwill.

Jim Harris has asked me to mention the campaign for clean energy in Ontario.  Greenpeace, Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund and Toronto Environmental Alliance have joined together to make clean energy an election issue.  They are concerned that the Province is promoting nuclear power, and failing to close the coal-fired power plants, and they are using the byelection in Parkdale-High Park to make it an issue.  Go to their site at www.cleanenergy4ontario.ca to read more and to sign on to the campaign.

If you want to get more deeply involved in the energy campaign, they are meeting at 7 pm Thursdays in August and September for strategy sessions at the Tinto Coffee House at 89 Roncesvalles Ave, 2 1/2 blocks north of Queen St W.  Call Sarah at 416-537-3966.

To get involved in Frank de Jong’s campaign, contact him directly at fdejong@greenparty.on.ca.