I like to think of the Council of Canadians as a political party in its own right although I understand why it is not and must never be a party. That said, as a force for good it's vastly better than the Conservatives, the Liberals or the New Dems.
C of C members were recently polled on their preferred priorities. 14,172 of us responded and today Maude Barlow announced the C of C's new platform. Campaigns will be organized around the following priorities:
• Protect our lakes and rivers. We will step up our efforts this fall to directly lobby MPs across the country in face-to-face meetings to urge their support for federal water protections to be fully and completely restored.
• Challenge Nestlé’s water grabs. We will challenge the bottled water giant head-on – Nestlé has drawn almost 1 billion litres of water from Ontario on an expired permit – and push provincial governments to phase out bottled water takings altogether.
• Push for NAFTA to be fixed, or Canada must walk away. With NAFTA possibly on the brink of collapse, we will mobilize MP lobby actions and run public engagement campaigns to keep the pressure on the Canadian government to either fix NAFTA so it better protects workers, farmers, the environment and our democracy – or walk away from it.
• Say no to pipelines and yes to the green economy. We will boost our capacity to take immediate action to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline while at the same time advocate for governments to commit to investment in green jobs and the green economy.
• Advocate for national pharmacare. We will amplify the call for the Canadian government to seize the opportunity before it right now to enact a national pharmacare program, which would save Canada up to $14 billion and improve health outcomes for millions of us.
• Challenge Nestlé’s water grabs. We will challenge the bottled water giant head-on – Nestlé has drawn almost 1 billion litres of water from Ontario on an expired permit – and push provincial governments to phase out bottled water takings altogether.
• Push for NAFTA to be fixed, or Canada must walk away. With NAFTA possibly on the brink of collapse, we will mobilize MP lobby actions and run public engagement campaigns to keep the pressure on the Canadian government to either fix NAFTA so it better protects workers, farmers, the environment and our democracy – or walk away from it.
• Say no to pipelines and yes to the green economy. We will boost our capacity to take immediate action to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline while at the same time advocate for governments to commit to investment in green jobs and the green economy.
• Advocate for national pharmacare. We will amplify the call for the Canadian government to seize the opportunity before it right now to enact a national pharmacare program, which would save Canada up to $14 billion and improve health outcomes for millions of us.
Thanks for this information, Mound. So glad someone such as yourself is participant on this Committee and will keep all your fans up to date as things progress.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing in that agenda with which I disagree.
ReplyDeleteMound; good for you with the C of C.
ReplyDeleteMy experience with them is that they are a bunch of buffoons; pot smoking alternates ( can't even call them radicals) that think we can save the world with chemical,dry toilets!!
Thankfully the Commonsense Canadian website is a bit more articulate.
TB
ReplyDeleteDoes this agenda sound like buffoonery to you, TB? It doesn't to me.
Not at all.
ReplyDeleteThe possible problem is the support of the masses.
I cannot imagine for a moment that our local chapter of the C of C could even spell buffoon!
TB
Bottled water ....
ReplyDelete....probably one of the biggest frauds ever committed by industry against the average consumer.
Why do so many people still fall for it?
They could do so much better with their money.
ReplyDeleteI once agreed with you, Tal, but how do you tell that to somebody in Flint, Michigan who can't let their kids anywhere near tap water or in the many other towns and cities that have serious lead or other contamination in their municipal water supply? The age of fracked gas and oil is causing significant damage to groundwater resources.
You have a point there about Flint.
ReplyDeleteBut that indicates, more than anything, that those in charge often don't really know what they're doing---or, if they do, are still not quite knowledgeable enough to know how to go about it safely and efficiently.
Anyong....I am also a concerned Canadian who is a member of the C of C and on the local board.
ReplyDelete