All posts by Chris Tindal

Conservatives Attack Vision Green

green party,

The Conservative party actually bothered to pay people to go through Vision Green (our 160 page policy document released on Monday) to find stuff they could pick out in an attempt to make us look as crazy as possible. (I’m going to file this under “you know you’ve made it when.”) Today, they’ve posted a large image on their homepage (wait, that means they had to pay a designer too…that’s not cheap) that links to what they consider to be the “highlights” (their word) of our document. Of the hundreds of ideas and solutions contained within, there are four specific points they’ve decided are worthy of more attention, seemingly because they all start with the letter “P:”

PEACE – In addition to their policy of changing the “Department of Defense” [sic], to the “Department of Peace”, the Green Party is calling a “notice of withdrawal” from the NATO mission in Southern Afghanistan, and a review of our participation in NATO and other military alliances (Vision Green, p. 133, 141).

Uh…wait, sorry, was there a non-spelling-related criticism coming there? No, that’s it? You’re just mocking us for our commitment to work towards peace? Ok then. Moving on.

POT – The Green Party will “legalize marijuana” by removing it from the schedule of regulated drugs (Vision Green, p. 107).

Correct. You know what other group of hippies recommends legalizing (and regulating, taxing) marijuana? The Canadian senate. Anyone who’s studied this issue knows that prohibition on pot has failed, and only serves to criminalize a huge number of Canadians while simultaneously financing organized crime and contributing to gang violence.

PROTECTIONISM – The Green Party wants to “immediately provide the required six months’ notice of withdrawal from NAFTA”, and to scrap the Security and Prosperity Partnership with the United States (Vision Green, p. 146, 148).

The six months notice is to trigger much needed re-negotiations of NAFTA, particularly the parts that say it’s ok for American companies to poison our drinking water, so long as they’re making money while doing so. That’s not trade protectionism, that’s protecting Canadians. Besides, it’s not like the US is respecting NAFTA anyway.

AND BELIEVE IT OR NOT…PARKING TICKETS – Attention shoppers, the Green Party wants to force malls and “megastore retail outlets” to charge customers for parking (Vision Green, p. 67).

Believe it or not folks, the Green party wants to discourage out-of-control sprawl and a debilitating dependence on cars. Shocking news indeed. (Attention shoppers, we cannot shop our way out of this problem.)

Look Stephen, last week we found out that concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have already reached critically high levels that we previously believed would take ten years to accumulate. Meanwhile, the arctic is melting more rapidly than even the most pessimistic climatologists predicted. In other words, we should now be in crisis mode, and must take emergency measures. Given our situation, taking action to discourage the most “mega” aspects of our car culture is the least we should do.

Of course, I don’t expect the Conservative party to understand that. It’s clear they still don’t have any understanding of the extremely serious situation we’re in. That makes Harper and the rest of this government Dangerous with a capital D and that rhymes with E and that stands for Election. Canadians, I know you don’t want one right now (at least, that’s what my TV tells me), but you may need one. Soon, at least.

Two Questions…

green party, news media

…for my friends in the media. First, for The Toronto Star. In your report of this morning’s release of Vision Green, you wrote the following:

The party, which also advocates investments in pedestrian and bicycle “infrastructure,” says good transit and high-density housing is the key to making Canadian cities livable.

Say, um, why the quotation marks? Does the journalist consider pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure to be less “real” than other kinds of infrastructure?

Second, for Craig Oliver at CTV. At the end of an interview with my Liberal opponent Bob Rae, Mr. Oliver said “we look forward to seeing you in Parliament,” to which Bob Rae laughed and replied “me too.” Now, I recognize that Rae’s election is highly likely, but just to clarify, it’s still up to the voters of Toronto Centre, right?

Greens Surge

green party

The Green Party of Ontario surged in popular support last night, almost tripling its vote to 8%. In what was a status quo election, we are the only party to have gained ground, and we’ve done so at an incredible rate. In addition, it’s interesting to note that the Greens came second in this year’s Student Vote, beating both the NDP and the PCs. Momentum is clearly ours.

In Bruce-Grey Owen Sound, Shane Jolley made us proud by breaking records and coming second with 33.5% of the vote, more than double that of the third place Liberal. In other ridings across the country–including Guelph and Barrie–we placed third with strong results that affected the outcome of the election. Despite the predictions of pundits and the wishes of our opponents, our support did not evaporate in election day. We’ve reached the tipping point where the Greens are a serious party that a large cross-section of Ontario is proud to support.

Update: We came third in 16 18 ridings (including Don Valley West where John Tory ran) and had 21 campaigns finish north of 10%. I’m very impressed.

Here in Toronto Centre, Mike McLean pulled an impressive 9.67% of the vote, a huge increase that represents almost half of either the NDP or PC support. The Green Party is now a serious factor in this riding, and my optimism for the next federal election, be it general or by, has been solidified.

As for the referendum results, I’ll comment on them in a separate post once I stop swearing and throwing things.