A Green Wave? No, But Possibly a Green Ripple.

It was just a by-election. Even if the governing party had an outside chance (it didn't, the Liberal brand out here rarely is competitive) voters "punish" the part in power in by-elections or so goes the claim.

This is generally reliable NDP territory. Up my way the Conservatives dominated for a while but this riding is also now held by the New Dems.

So perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that the Liberals came a dismal fourth in a seven candidate field.

It's hard to tell whether yesterday's release of the UN report on the looming biodiversity crisis had much impact on the voting but it couldn't have helped the mainstream parties much.

Then there's Trudeau's pipeline. I would love to think the Liberals' drubbing reflected a bit of that discord.

In a blatant display of electoral cowardice the Trudeau government has been tossing around the idea of withholding its decision on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion until after the general election in October. Hmm, I wonder what that's all about? Duh. For that perfidy alone the Liberals should be driven out of every riding in British Columbia.

Sorry, Grits, but your guy had his chance. We even fawned over him when he went surfing at Tofino. Sooo dishy. Only he turned into a dud. He's such a pale shadow of the Trudeau we knew and liked and, even those that didn't like him, respected. Hard to respect this guy with his patronizing speeches delivered in school marm style.

As for the NDP, well Jagmeet did chum the waters for his party's candidate. Even Maxime had his PPC lawn signs everywhere, often eclipsing all the other parties'. Far right lunacy doesn't sell too well out here.

What does this mean for my party, the Greens? It's a morale booster, for sure. It draws attention to the Greens as an alternative to what I call the "old school" parties and inspires hope for much greater gains in October. Too many still think of the Greens as a single-issue movement, a predictable lie spun by party hacks all too well steeped in prevarication.

For me, and I suspect plenty of others, that whole "strategic voting" ploy is over. Don't tell me that a vote for the Greens is a vote for Scheer. No it's a vote for the Greens. Slag the Greens as much as you like but look at yourself in the mirror first.

Washington Post - Could the Green Party Spell Trouble for Justin Trudeau in October?

Justin Trudeau must be so pleased that he reneged on his promise to rid Canada of first-past-the-post elections and the consequent false majorities it has inflicted on the Canadian people. That broken promise, among the litany of his broken promises and outright lies, may be the one that matters most when we go to the polls this October.

Despite that, the Washington Post asks if the Green Party of Canada could be bad news for Trudeau in the looming election.

With the federal election expected to begin in the late summer or fall, Canada’s political parties are preparing to battle for as many of the country’s 338 ridings as they can — and prognosticators are warming up, too. Will the Liberals hold on to government? Will they retain their majority? Which issues are going to dominate the campaign? 

For months, the Liberals and Conservatives have been in a fairly close one-two race — with the latter picking up steam. Most polls have the former in front. Commentators and pundits, me included, have been saying that the smart money is on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hanging on to government, perhaps with a reduced majority. He remains popular — or popular-ish, depending on which polls you read. 

The economy is doing well on aggregate. A start-up party led by disgruntled former Conservative member of Parliament (and former cabinet minister) Maxime Bernier is set to drain support from his old crew. And the New Democratic Party (NDP), with whom the Liberals compete for left and center-left votes, are currently weak. 

But in politics, as in life, there are threats you know about and threats you don’t. And then there are wild cards. Enter the Green Party of Canada. Led by Elizabeth May — one of the hardest-working parliamentarians in the country, a deeply informed and fierce debater, and a long-term champion for doing what it takes to address climate change — the party, for years, has had one seat in the House of Commons. That tracks with the Greens’ success around the country — not much of it. Until recently. 

In the 2017 British Columbia election, the local Green Party went from one seat to three in the provincial parliament, about doubling its popular support from 8 percent to nearly 17 percent. It ran the idealist campaign: saying no to money from unions and corporations, distancing itself from the old punch-counter-punch of the Liberals and the NDP, doubling down on a clean environment platform and the need for, you know, a habitable planet. In 2018, in Ontario, Mike Schreiner made history as the first Green elected to the legislature in that province. In New Brunswick, after a wacky election, the Greens are benefiting from growing public support, drawing from the Liberals. 

And in Prince Edward Island, some are suggesting the Greens could make history by winning the election and forming government — a year out from the race, they are effectively tied for first place. Recently in Maclean’s, Jason Markusoff profiled the party, asking, “Where in Canada will the Greens win next?” 

The Greens are clearly a growing force. 

Federally, in November, Green Party leader May was polling at 11 percent as preferred prime minister — tied with the NDP leader Jagmeet Singh. Now her party is hovering around 7 percent on the aggregate polling numbers. That’s good news for them and potentially bad news for Trudeau. As David Coletto, CEO of Abacus Data, put it on Twitter: “Many, including me, say a weak NDP helps the [Liberals] in 2019. But if the Greens pull 8-10% of the vote, that’s tough for the [Liberals].” 

I think he’s right. He concludes, “I’m starting to think that @JustinTrudeau’s greater threat is @ElizabethMay, not @theJagmeetSingh.” Agreed, again, although I’d add that the combination of the two is a particularly serious challenge for Trudeau, especially if either — or both — parties perform well in some of the 34 ridings the Liberals carried by 5 percent or less in 2015 (out of 70 such nail-biter contests in total). 

The Liberals may not be past their best-by date yet — Canadians typically grow tired of federal governments after a few rounds — but they’ve been in government long enough that running the smiling 2015 “Hope and hard work” campaign will be tricky. They’re no longer the scrappy underdog on a quest to unseat the embattled, mean Conservative prime minister. They’re now the ones who broke a promise on electoral reform. They’re the ones who have struggled to build a pipeline — they had to buy the project from the private sector for it to even have a chance — that opponents claim is inconsistent with the government’s environmental agenda. They’re the ones pushing a (morally right and necessary) carbon tax backstop against the will of several (morally wrong and intransigent) provinces. They’re also the target of routine, increasingly nasty attacks from the Conservatives. And now they’re facing a growing scandal over alleged involvement by the prime minister’s office in an attempt to protect the Montreal firm SNC-Lavalin from prosecution over its alleged business practices in Moammar Gaddafi’s Libya. 

The Greens, on the other hand, are rising across the country. Modestly, sure. But notably. They don’t come with baggage. They can run the optimist, hopeful-crusader campaign underwritten by credibility as guardians of the sacred environmental trust — as the environment, day by day, is becoming a more salient issue for voters. Plus, May (as I said, a strong debater) is set to take part in the leaders’ debates in 2019 thanks to rule changes. She’ll be a force onstage. All of that is good news for the Greens and bad news for the other parties. It’s also good news for voters who want and deserve a range of credible options on the ballot.

Now That You Mention It...

Earlier this month the European Court of Justice issued a ruling that ISDS or Investor-State Dispute provisions in a trade deal between the Netherlands and Slovakia were contrary to European law. It seems that the ECJ found the secret court system invalid. The ruling is expected to call into question other free trade pacts with Europe, possibly including CETA, Canada's trade pact with the E.U.

The EU court decision hasn't created much of a stir in Canada although it's unclear why.

The only party that seems to have addressed it is the Green Party.

“This decision could call into question the legality of ISDS clauses in other EU trade deals, including the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA),” said Green Party international trade critic Paul Manly. “In CETA, the Investment Court System is similarly structured to allow corporations to sue governments if legislation interferes with a corporation’s ability to maximize profits. The ECJ will soon rule on whether the Investment Court System is in fact consistent with EU laws. 

“The Green Party has long argued against trade dispute settlement mechanisms that allow foreign corporations to override domestic laws designed to protect the environment and community well-being. They are inherently anti-democratic and should be removed from all trade agreements and ISDS measures to which Canada has committed. That means NAFTA’s chapter 11 and the ISDS mechanism in the revised Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) must be scrapped as well. Canadian sovereignty is at stake,” concluded Mr. Manly.

What a radical idea that it may offend a nation's laws for its government to bind itself to legal proceedings in secret courts that may impact the citizenry by infringing on labour, environmental or other protections. Hmm, I wonder why we didn't think of that? I wonder why our political caste thought it okay to surrender these essential incidents of national sovereignty without our knowledge or consent?

Just Because They're Hopelessly Corrupt That Doesn't Make Them Real Liberals

We've got an election campaign underway out here on the Left Coast and John Horgan's New Democrats are in hot pursuit of Christy Clark's B.C. Liberal government.

Something about Horgan seems to have crawled up the ass of the guy I think of as the Liberal Loudmouth. He does not like the cut of Horgan's jib and he's racing to the defence of Christy Clark. Perhaps he imagines Crusty as a Liberal. It says as much right on the party's letterhead yet there are damned few B.C. Liberals who harbour any instincts remotely liberal. No, in every way and every day, they show that their roots are deeply conservative.

Now you would have thought that LL, being steeped in all things Liberal, would have realized there is no liberal party in British Columbia. And, besides, just because you're utterly corrupt, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're Liberal although I can understand the confusion.

I'll not defend Horgan for some unfortunate remark that somehow sent LL spinning. In this race I'm not backing either Clark or Horgan. I'm a Green living in the bastion of the Green Party, Vancouver Island. The Greens are polling quite well on the island something that inevitably pisses off the B.C. Libs and the NDP with their grinding crap about vote splitting.

So, just a heads up to all you out-of-province Liberals who may imagine that Christy Clark is one of you. Don't be fooled. Just because her government is mired in corruption, that doesn't make them real Liberals.

So What's Our Excuse?

Amnesty International is urging Britain's Cameron government to stop arms shipments to Saudi Arabia.  Amnesty claims the weapons are being used to deliberately slaughter civilians in Houthi-rebel controlled parts of Yemen.

Amnesty said it found a pattern of “appalling disregard” for civilian lives by the Saudi-led coalition in an investigation of 13 air strikes in north-eastern Saada governorate during May, June and July: these killed some 100 civilians – including 59 children and 22 women and injured a further 56, including 18 children.

Since last March coalition air strikes have hit homes, schools, markets and other civilian infrastructure, as well as miltiary objectives. Saada, a Houthi stronghold, has been badly hit. Thousands who remain in the governorate “live in constant fear of the airstrikes and dire humanitarian conditions”, Amnesty says.

Canada is also on the Saudi weapons of indiscriminate destruction/war crimes gravy train with Harper having inked a $15-billion deal for the sale of light armoured fighting vehicles (light tanks) presumably for democracy suppression patrols. The deal supposedly gags Harper from discussing (having to explain) the sale but seemingly leaves him quite free to excuse it on the basis that, if we didn't sell Saudis its instruments of carnage then some other nation would.

For the radical Sunni Muslim House of Saud, being a Shiite Muslim is enough to qualify you for live-fire target practice.  Fortunately, that exempts the devoutly Sunni al Qaeda, al Nusra and ISIS terrorists/insurgents from Saudi bloodlust. Yemen's Houthi rebels daily fight ISIS and al Qaeda forces while the Saudis, with the active support of Canada, Britain and the US, wage a ground and air war against the Houthis.

If you're interested in this curious murderous mess, check out this episode of VICE TV. The Houthi segment begins at the 17:00 minute mark. It's an eye-opener.



Keeping with the theme of "So What's Our Excuse?" let's talk bitumen and the armada of supertankers that may soon ply British Columbia's coast.  Roger Annis has written an important report, "The Canadian Election and the Global Climate Crisis," for CounterPunch that should be required reading for every British Columbian before they vote in the federal election.  The only party that's even partly standing up for this province and our incredibly fragile ecosystems is Elizabeth May's Green Party and even May is a bit wobbly on bitumen trafficking.

Which brings us to the first segment of the VICE TV episode above concerning the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico and how BP used a highly toxic chemical, Corexit, that, instead of dispersing the oil as promised simply made it far more lethal and sank it to contaminate the bottom and the marine life that is found there. Watch it. It's a genuine call to arms.

h/t Northern PoV

To All You Dippers Who Claim the Greens are Right-Wing

Relax.  You're just going through a bout of separation anxiety for deserting your post and abandoning the Left. You want to be Latter Day Liberals, you've gotta suck it up and learn to get over these pangs of conscience.  It's all part of the process of becoming the very thing that, for so many decades, you reviled.

Now, about those rightwing Greens.  Well this sounds really neoliberal. Elizabeth May would like to make an announcement of a new Green Party policy she calls the the Guaranteed Liveable Income, or GLI.

Our plan will ensure no Canadian’s income falls below what is necessary for health, life, and dignity.

Providing our most at-risk citizens with the resources they need to make ends meet greatly reduces the burden on our emergency and social services, saving our system money, and empowering all citizens to overcome periods of hardship.

Together, we can end poverty in Canada. 

The GLI provides reassurance for families struggling to make ends meet, a vital helping hand for stay-at-home parents, stability for the thousands of Canadians who can only find part-time work, and much needed support for those looking to complete their education and launch a successful career.

Cue La Marseillese and let's storm the Bastille of neoliberalism.  Or, if that's too progressive for you just vote for Tommy Angry Beard.  Hmm.  I wonder what Tony Blair would look like with facial hair?

I'm With George. End the Politics of Fear. Vote Green.

The Guardian's George Monbiot sees the neoliberal consensus collapsing.  This, he argues, is the time to let go of the politics of fear.  He is addressing his fellow Brits who are heading to the polls in May but his message is one that should resonate with all Canadian progressives.

Here is the first rule of politics: if you never vote for what you want, you never get it. We are told at every election to hold our noses, forget the deficiencies and betrayals and vote Labour yet again, for fear of something worse. And there will, of course, always be something worse. So at what point should we vote for what we want rather than keep choosing between two versions of market fundamentalism? Sometime this century? Or in the next? Follow the advice of the noseholders and we will be lost forever in Labour’s Bermuda triangulation.

Perhaps there was a time when this counsel of despair made sense. No longer. The lamps are coming on all over Europe. As in South America, political shifts that seemed impossible a few years earlier are now shaking the continent. We knew that another world was possible. Now, it seems, another world is here: the sudden death of the neoliberal consensus. Any party that claims to belong to the left but does not grasp this is finished.

A survey by the website voteforpolicies.org.uk reports that in blind tests (the 500,000 people it has polled were unaware of which positions belong to which parties), the Green party’s policies are more popular than those of any other. If people voted for what they wanted, the Greens would be the party of government.

Fearful voting shifts the whole polity to the right. Blair’s obeisance to corporate power enabled the vicious and destructive policies the coalition now pursues. The same legacy silences Labour in opposition, as it pioneered most of the policies it should oppose. It is because we held our noses that there is a greater stink today. So do we keep voting for a diluted version of Tory politics, for fear of the concentrate? Or do we start to vote for what we want? Had the people of this nation heeded the noseholders a century ago, we would still be waiting for the Liberal party to deliver universal healthcare and the welfare state.

Society moves from the margins, not the centre. Those who wish for change must think of themselves as the sacrificial margin: the pioneering movement that might not succeed immediately but which will eventually deliver sweeping change. We cannot create a successful alternative to the parties that have betrayed us until we start voting for it. Do we start walking or just keep talking about the journey we might one day take?

Change arises from conviction. Stop voting in fear. Start voting for hope.

Will the Greens Back Trudeau, Shun Mulcair?

Tom Mulcair and the NDP will need all the help they can get for the 2015 election.  It's too bad Tommy burned his bridge to the Green Party.

“Over the last two years, I found Justin Trudeau to be collaborative and friendly,” May told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview.

For the Saanich–Gulf Islands MP, collaboration is important. During the Green party’s convention last summer, she received a mandate to seek cooperation with the NDP and the Liberal party to defeat Stephen Harper and the ruling Conservatives.

Her experience so far with New Democrats has been “discouraging”. Last December, she wrote to NDP and Liberal MPs on the subject of electoral cooperation.

“It was a personal and confidential letter, but the NDP made it public and attacked me for sending it,” May recalled. “And Tom Mulcair prohibited his members from answering my letter.”

Although Mulcair and Trudeau have both stated they are not interested in the idea of an electoral alliance, the Green leader believes she may have a better chance of success with Trudeau.

“I think he’ll be much more open to cooperation…at least with the Greens, than will Tom Mulcair,” May said.

I don't know what it is with Mulcair but he comes across as a guy who has never seen a bridge he didn't want to set afire.

Not Green, For Now

I had to resign my membership in the Green Party to do it, but now I'm a Liberal Supporter.   I didn't join the Liberal Party and I won't unless something radical happens but I registered as a Liberal Supporter in order to vote for Joyce Murray as party leader.

Murray is the only candidate who is remotely progressive.  She's the only one who isn't a bitumen booster.  She's the only candidate who has garnered the support of two people I truly respect - Lloyd Axworthy and David Suzuki.  She's a fellow British Columbian.

That said, I expect Trudeau will win and carry on the Liberals' moribund politics that saw the party go from Sussex Drive to Stornoway to Motel 6 out on the Gloucester Highway.   That's not to say that he won't be able to take down an already weakened Harper in 2015.  He might, but that wouldn't hold much promise for Canada.

Of the rest, the Space Cadet is probably my second choice with the Pipeline Queen, Hall Findlay, dead last.  The Sad Sacks in between?  Nah, I don't think so.

So, I'll keep my fingers crossed for Joyce Murray.   Stranger things have happened.

A Sensible Liberal When the Party Most Needs One

The Liberals are lucky.   They have a leadership candidate that could actually help them and the country.    No, it's not Trudeau and it's not Hall-Findlay or Garneau.  It's Joyce Murray of Vancouver.

Murray, unlike her rivals, wants to restore progressivism to the Liberal Party, something that has been consigned to obscurity since Ignatieff opened shop.   Unfortunately the wanna-be Latter Day Ignatieffs that fill the leadership ranks remain decidedly centre-right.

Here's a Murray idea that deserves consideration.   The Libs could join forces with those of us from the Green Party.   Our leader, Elizabeth May, is for it.

Had Liberals and Greens united behind a single candidate in last November's byelection in Calgary Centre, Murray says they could have prevented Tory Joan Crockatt from eking out a narrow victory with just under 37 per cent of the vote.

The Green Party actually has a robust policy platform that Liberals and uncommitted voters alike could embrace.   They're actually the very sorts of things you might have heard from Liberals of twenty or thirty years ago.  If the Libs insist on hitching their wagon to sub-prime fossil fuels and what even Allison Redford calls the "bitumen bubble" they're heading down a dead end road.  It's time for them to wake up, do themselves and the country a favour, and go Green.
 

Vancouver Islanders Have Spoken

Vancouver Island's round of  faux public hearings into the proposed Northern Gateway bitumen pipeline have wrapped up.   The panel heard 253 presentations.

When they were done, the tally was 253 opposed edging out 0 in support of the supertanker initiative.   That's 253 to nil.   Sort of gives you an idea of what awaits the island's Conservative MPs in the next federal election.   Liberals need take no comfort in the Tories' plight.  It's a safe bet that ridings on the island and coastal mainland will be divvied up between the Greens and the NDP.

Then again, maybe that's just what the Liberals need - to be shut out of British Columbia entirely.

Orange Won but the Real Winner was Green

New Democrat Murray Rankin won the by-election in Victoria last night but only just.   With the powerful and experienced federal and provincial NDP machines churning away in the previously New Democrat riding, Rankin was all but pre-ordained to triumph.   Yet that triumph eluded him as he barely squeaked through past the Green Party candidate, Donald Galloway.    During the night the lead changed hands several times between Rankin and Galloway.

At the end of the night, it was Rankin by the skin of his teeth.  The message for the Greens was crystal clear - we can have these guys with a little more time and a little more effort.

Chris Hedges Votes Green - For the Same Reasons You Should Too

Chris Hedges has declared his choice for the upcoming American elections.   He's voting Green.   You should too.   Here's why.

"The November election is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats. It is not a battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It is a battle between the corporate state and us. And if we do not immediately engage in this battle we are finished, as climate scientists have made clear. I will defy corporate power in small and large ways. I will invest my energy now solely in acts of resistance, in civil disobedience and in defiance. Those who rebel are our only hope."

You just can't put it any plainer than that.   Hedges is right.   Certainly in his homeland but also in Canada it's time to take the tough decision whether to back corporatist politics or stand for your country and people.

We Need More Andrew Weavers, A Lot More

Leading Canadian climate scientist, Andrew Weaver, will be running for the British Columbia Green Party in next year's election.

Here's hoping Dr. Weaver inspires his colleagues to follow his lead.  It would be great if the Greens could put up a scientist in every riding, federal and provincial, to put the environment and global warming on the debate agenda and to discuss these issues intelligently with the voting public.

It would be terrific to see other candidates, not just Conservatives but also Liberals and NDP, squarely under the gun defending their parties' climate change policies against a credible member of the scientific community.   We get plenty of electoral greenwashing these days, far too much, and our nation is running out of time and options.

The Tories have already taken Mulcair to the woodshed over his carbon policy and the Libs seem divided, wobbly and unable to present a coherent, meaningful climate change policy.   The Conservatives, despite EnviroMin Peter Kent's poorly manicured denials, is in league with Big Oil in the creation of a true petro-state.

We'll have to wait until next year to see how effective Professor Weaver proves to be in shaping the debate in the riding he contests.
Even if he doesn't win, campaigning for the Greens and shaping the debate can be a genuine victory for the Greens and for Canada.

Even if the Greens can't get enough scientists to run everywhere they could run strategically.   Imagine having Andrew Weaver run in Calgary against Harper and challenge him to debate his government's record on climate change and its policies for the future.   Target Harper, target Kent, target Mulcair and whoever winds up leading the Libs.     Get into their ridings.   Force them to deal with reality.

Who Knew? I'm Green!

I finally took the CBC's Vote Compass test.   All these years I thought I was a centre-left Liberal.  Apparently not.

The Vote Compass verdict?   I'm a Green.   Not a near Green but an "on the money" Green.   Not that it's the same as coming out of the closet or anything but I've had a nagging feeling in recent years that I had Green inclinations.

Which is not to say that I'll never be a Liberal again.   In fact I believe the Green movement is naturally suited to the Liberal Party if it wants to embrace sound environmentalism.  If, however, the LPC intends to remain resolute Bitumen Boosters they're politically unacceptable to me and, I'm sure, plenty of others.

It's unfortunate the Green movement is forging ahead at a time when the Libs desperately need every vote they can find.   If Ignatieff would champion the environment instead of the Tar Sands he might find those extra votes handy.