Category Archives: green party

Hurray! We’re Under Attack!

green party

There are a number of stock quotes that Greens are fond of throwing around. For example, Gandhi’s “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win,” was often heard during the last election.

The Green Party of Canada was formed in the early 80s, so we spent a long time at stage one. It was only in the past two elections (2004 and 2006) that we graduated to stage two.

Now, with major newspaper editorials and other forms of attention, our actual policies are under serious attack for the first time. I didn’t realize this until I felt what it was like to be in a party that people take seriously, but up until now most criticisms took the form of dismissal (eg, “they’re a fringe party”). Now when people attack our ideas, they do it with a seriousness that was absent before.

Welcome to stage three everybody. Stage four isn’t far away.

May, Oui!

green party

Apologies for my absence over the last few days. Many of you have likely realized that I’ve been at the Green Party of Canada’s National Convention in Ottawa since Wednesday. I had intended to blog live from the convention, but it turns out that (1) conventions mean you don’t have a moment of free time to do things like blog, or sleep, and (2) the Ottawa Congress Centre wanted me to pay for wi-fi. Rude.

Realizing the impossibility of doing justice to the last five transformative days in one blog post, I’ll tell one quick “looks like we’ve made it” story.

After Elizabeth May (who I’d been supporting) was announced leader and had made her victory speech, she made her way out of the convention room through the crowd. (For those of you who weren’t there or didn’t follow on TV, it was a great show, and Newsworld carried it live.) As Elizabeth passed where I was standing she hugged a woman in front of me. I squeezed her arm and yelled my congratulations, but she didn’t hear or see me and moved on.

My phone rang immediately. It was my brother, “So, couldn’t get her attention, eh?”

Same thing happened when I returned to the office today. So there we have it, I was snubbed by the new leader on national television and people noticed. Good work team.

Congratulations Elizabeth, I’m very excited for the months leading up to the next election. We’re making history — politics in Canada will never be the same.

ps. Let me know if you’d like me to comment on anything regarding the convention or Elizabeth more specifically. I’ve got lots more I could say, but don’t know where to start. Help requested.

Hard-Wired to be Partisan?

democracy and good government, green party

Have you ever noticed that politicians you disagree with are really stupid? The way they just don’t make any sense, contradict themselves, and constantly exhibit hypocrisy?

Lord knows I have. Yet, at the same time I’ve always believed that politicians are generally good people doing what they honestly think is right (I wouldn’t have become one if I didn’t). Sometimes it’s been difficult to reconcile this apparent contradiction.

As it turns out, there may be a biological explanation. According to a report in the Washington Post, our brains actually do the psychological equivalent of plugging our ears and running into the other room going “na na na I can’t hear you” when, for example, I hear Stephen Harper talk about transparency.

    Psychological experiments in recent years have shown that people are not evenhanded when they process information, even though they believe they are. (When people are asked whether they are biased, they say no. But when asked whether they think other people are biased, they say yes.) Partisans who watch presidential debates invariably think their guy won. When talking heads provide opinions after the debate, partisans regularly feel the people with whom they agree are making careful, reasoned arguments, whereas the people they disagree with sound like they have cloth for brains.

The result, the author argues, is that we’re hardwired to be increasingly partisan.

As one blog points out, however, there’s a lot of nurture going on here too. We’re taught “with us or against us,” and “liberal or conservative,” as if there are no other options. We’re taught to only see black and white, never gray.

Likewise, we can unlearn it. At a campaign event early this year a supporter came up to me and told me that “the ideology of the Green Party is pragmatism.” Indeed, that’s one of the things that had attracted me to the party. I really do believe we’ve taken the best of all the other parties and incorporated it into our platform as much as possible. Now that we’re increasingly popular, one of our greatest challenges is to maintain that openmindedness.

Now that us humans know we may be pre-disposed to closemindedness, we can fight against it even more strongly. That may be the most useful application of this report.

I’m doing my part. Why, last week I even found two things that Margaret Wente and I agree on!

Will Someday Come Soon Enough?

climate crisis, green party

In 2004, the Green Party of Canada ran on the election slogan “Someday is Now.” It was a way of speaking to the many people who want to support the Green Party someday, just not “this time.” They’re going to wait until we have a chance, or until things get really bad.

Of course, the first condition is circular. People won’t vote for us until we have a chance, and we won’t have a chance until people vote for us (unless they vote for this first). As for the second condition, it’s already been met, even if it’s not yet tangible.

It’s never been a question of if the Green Party will be elected. The question is if we’ll get elected in time.

In time for what is another question. More and more scientists are of the opinion that global warming has become a self-sustaining reaction and can’t be stopped, and Stephen Hawking is suggesting that we give up on this planet and find a new one. In that case, our job will shift from averting disaster to dealing with it.

In his new book, Thomas Homer Dixon argues that, while he believes a total global collapse is avoidable, a number of smaller collapses have become inevitable and will fundamentally change the way we live. The good news is that this presents an opportunity for what he calls catagenesis: a chance to rebuild these systems from the ground up, exploiting all the things we wish we knew then.

At a breakfast forum a month ago, I introduced myself to Tad (that’s what his friends call him, you see) as a former candidate and asked how he thought that idea could be presented in a way that would be politically popular and earn votes. He responded that he sees very little chance of voters showing any desire to deal with these problems until they’re already upon us. Once we’re in the middle of it, he says, will be the real opportunity for political ingenuity and problem solving.

This Canada Day weekend, the Dominion Institute and The Toronto Star published an essay by Andrew Cohen imagining what Canada will look like in 2020. The good news? Cohen predicts the Green Party will form a government as soon as 2012. The bad news? The main reason is that’s when “global warming began to wreak havoc.”

So, I’ll meet you in Ottawa in six years. Dress lightly, bring sunscreen.