Category Archives: green party

Greens crowding into Toronto Centre

green party,

Crossposted from greenparty.ca

Today, Chris Tindal’s campaign office in Toronto Centre was home to volunteers from Barrie, Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo, St. Paul’s, Beaches–East York, Etobicoke–Lakeshore, and the Ryerson Greens. The momentum was palpable! We’re hearing great news back from across this diverse riding. People are ready for change, and excited about the progress the Greens have made since the last election. All of the volunteers who supported the campaign today plan to be back as soon as they can. If we are able to muster this kind of support moving forward, we are well on our way to achieving our goal!

Thanks to Jason, Jeff, Clare, Erich, Warren, Mary Ann, David, Denis, Scott, Lisa, Dave, Glen, Samuel, Cathy, Kathy, Matthew, Jeff, and all the other wonderful people who have gone door to door to support the election of Canada’s first Green MP!

There’s lots of room for more volunteers to work on the campaign, and for EDAs to send teams to “adopt” polls. It makes a great training opportunity for the general election.

If you or your team would like to get involved, give me a call on the Volunteer Hotline at 416-323-9255 or email jason@christindal.ca today!

Bob, This Isn’t About You

conservative party, democracy and good government, green party, liberal party, , ,

Jane Taber reports in today’s Globe and Mail that Bob Rae is urging Dion not to force an election until after Rae is done with our March 17th by-election.

Listen, I get that Bob wants to get to Parliament as soon as possible. And I understand, as previously discussed, that having our by-election cancelled to make way for a general election would be a huge administrative pain, and also an extremely tiring and exhausting experience. My legs and my knuckles are sore too, and my family isn’t getting nearly the attention it deserves either.

But this is bigger than us. Stephen Harper is a dangerous prime minister, and his government is causing more and more damage by the day. There is no reason to believe that the House can continue to have confidence in this government. Meanwhile, our economy and our environment are in desperate need of new leadership. This isn’t about convenience, it’s about integrity and doing what’s right. We need to take a principled stand: if not now, then when?

It’s Different This Time…

green party, ,

Thinking back to the last federal election in 2006 (when I was also the Green candidate in Toronto Centre), I can remember the moment when I identified my very first supporter. My brother and I (my campaign was very dependent on friends and family in very material ways) had been knocking on doors for an hour, asking every person we met if they “considered themselves a Green supporter.” When someone finally said yes after all that time, my brother did not play it cool. “Oh wow,” he said, “that’s great!” When this person also agreed to take a lawn sign, we could barely believe we weren’t dreaming. And yet, that campaign was still a record-breaking one, and earned a result 47% higher than the previous election.

It’s hard to describe how profoundly different this campaign is. Aside from the fact that we have a full time campaign office (which, when it opened, was one of only two full time campaign offices in the riding) with two full-time staff members and several more full-time volunteers, I never go more than a few doors without meeting an enthusiastic Green supporter. I’ve been out canvassing for 11 days in a row now, and the mood feels a lot like it did when I canvassed in the historic Green campaigns of London North Centre or Bruce Grey Owen Sound.

So, thanks so much to everyone I’ve talked to and who’s now checking out this site like you said you would. Please don’t hesitate to drop us a line if you have any questions or would like to get involved. We’d love to hear from you.

I should give a special thanks to Sharon and Ingrid, who have done more than their fair share of of heavy lifting when it comes to keeping me company these past few weeks. It was also great to see Victoria Cate (Young Greens Council Member and Elizabeth May’s daughter) last weekend and canvass with her for about an hour before she had to catch the train back to Ottawa.

Finally, the buzz is also measurably higher in the blogosphere. A number of other people have been blogging about this by-election campaign. Here’s a (non-exhaustive) roundup: