Green Party in Carleton Mississippi Mills

Congratulations to the newly elected executive of the combined Carleton—Mississippi Mills Green Party of Ontario Constituency Association and Federal Green Party Association. Also, a deep thank you for working towards better government of our province and our country.

The new executive is:

· Carleton—Mississippi Mills Green Party of Ontario Constituency Association

o President Jim McKenzie

o Treasurer Rick Lorenz

· Carleton—Mississippi Mills Federal Green Party Association

The recent budget implemenation act, C-10, included several non-budgetary items including changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act (NWPA). This 100+ year old act enshrined the right of citizens to unobstructed navigation of Canada's waterways and was a trigger for envrionmental assessment (EA) of projects affecting those waterways. Changes under C-10 have taken away that right and given control of our waterways to the Minister of Transport, who will decide which waterways are to be protected and when EAs are required.

An interesting tidbit about Conservative nomination process.
Bolg post:
http://www.medhatblog.com/?p=527
Related CBC story:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/03/17/conservative-calgary.html

http://www.todaystrucking.com/news.cfm?intDocID=20989

I didn't look into this very deeply, but this 2 cents/litre cut seemed like the sleaziest of campaign promises: No real economic impact, the wrong type of policy, but got cheap press and problably votes from some.

Not suprizingly its dying a quiet death...

I was contacted this week by a Green party member (not in our riding) who is advocating the above, and contacting EDA's to marshal support and action by way of supporting the concept to GPC Council. We had a very good discussion, not necessarily in agreement on tactics and priorities, but good exchange of opinions. I've posted an excerpt below by permission, that was Richard's response to my comment that our party was percieved as far "left of centre" and this was not the nature of the party:

In this video, George Monbiot interviews Fatih Birol, the chief economist for the IEA. For the first time ever, he (The IEA) gives a solid date for Peak Oil, and states that if we do not embark upon a Global Energy Revolution immediately, we will face "much more difficult days" than what we are currently facing. Birol also states that the only way to make up the shortfall will be to exploit non-conventional oil projects like the Alberta Oil Sands. He states that he expects production in Alberta to go from it's current production (approx.

Over the past years and months, you and thousands of other Ontarians have successfully convinced our provincial government to pass legislation banning lawn and garden pesticides.

The detailed regulations are being finalized, but industry lobby groups are working hard to water down these rules, to put private profits ahead of public health and the environment.

Please act NOW to support and to improve the regulations.

Subject: Justice

This was sent to me via the cmmgreens@greenparty.ca e-mail contact on the GPC site. I had a very good exchange with Karen. She was ticked off, but very rational, and despite my initial doubt she told me she had voted Green (for Jake) in the last election:

"I have just freaked out about the OC Transpo bus strike so I might as well continue the tirade. The Canadian people have spoken and we elected Harper. Get over it. Work together to make Canada strong.

For those of you who like to eat, Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food, An Eater's Manifesto is a good read. If you read it before Christmas, it may affect what you consume over the Holidays. But it makes a great gift since it may affect what you consume for the rest of your life. His summary is short "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." PDF of the Introduction is attached.

When Prime Minister Harper called the October 2008 Election, he said it was needed because Parliament was dysfunctional. His answer to this apparent problem was to call an election so that he could get a majority government. Most Canadians realized that this would not work – and it didn’t. He did not get a majority and now he simply cannot govern as if he has one. In fact, it seems highly likely that Canadians will be electing minority governments for decades to come. If our Parliament can’t work in minority situations, this is indeed bad news for us.