Category Archives: toronto

Thank You

green party, toronto

It’s hard to express in words how grateful and excited I am to be able to represent Toronto Centre again in the next federal election. Those of you who were at our nomination meeting last night know first hand what an energizing and positive event it was. Around forty people (including former Green Party of Canada leader Jim Harris and current Green Party of Ontario leader Frank de Jong) were there to celebrate how far our party has come, as well as where we are going.

Thanks go to Joy Vogt and Claire Salloum for organizing a great nomination meeting, and to Bob Traver and Mike McLean for making the night even richer by contesting the nomination and reminding us who we are as a party, and why we do what we do.

Already today the emails have started to fly and the phones have started to ring, as our campaign team comes together and prepares for an election that could come as soon as March 20th. Whenever it is, we will be ready, to keep playing our part as leaders in a movement that is doing nothing less than change the world.

Running in Toronto Centre

green party, toronto

I’m very excited by the possibility of serving again as your candidate in Toronto Centre. I’m proud of what we accomplished in the last election, and I’m encouraged by the knowledge that we can do even better in the next.

In the next election we will no longer be debating whether or not there is a need for action. We’ve won that battle. Now, we must convince voters that our solutions are the best for Toronto Centre, the country, and the planet. In fact, I believe that the Green Party is currently the only party that can succeed in solving the various environmental crisis we face, because we are the only party that’s willing to look at them holistically.

In the next election we will need a fulltime candidate, a fulltime campaign manager, an office, and a dedicated team of volunteers. Not only will I campaign fulltime on your behalf, over the past several months I have been assembling a fantastic team, including database managers, web administrators, communications experts, and a fulltime campaign manager, Becky Smit, who in the last election achieved the highest result in all of Toronto.

I’ve also enjoyed building strong relationships with community leaders all over our riding. Several of those leaders who organized local debates in the last election are now supporting my candidacy in one way or another.

If you have any questions between now and the nomination meeting, please contact me. I have limited access to email this week, but am looking forward to hearing from you and will get back to you as soon as I can.

By the way, you’re more than welcome at the nomination meeting whether you’re a member or not. Even if you just want to find out more about the party, this is a great opportunity to do so. The meeting is on Wednesday January 24th, 7pm, at 110 Lombard St. See you there!

There’s Something Happening Here

climate crisis, ecology, toronto

In 1988, over 300 scientists and policy-makers from 46 different countries and organizations came together to discuss the crisis of climate change in Toronto. It was called “The Toronto Conference,” and their final statement began with the following sentence.

Humanity is conducting an unintended, uncontrolled, globally pervasive experiment, whose ultimate consequence could be second only to a global nuclear war.

This week, thousands of birds fell from the sky in Australia, dead. As of now, we don’t yet know why.

In Green politics, there’s something called the precautionary principal. Basically, it states that if there’s a chance that a series of actions could, for example, shut down our life support systems, we should maybe not take those actions until we’re sure they’re safe (as opposed to conducting business as usual until there’s absolute proof that business as usual is destructive). In other words, even if things ain’t exactly clear, it’s still worth stopping, listening, and looking around.

Bird deaths can’t help but remind me of the proverbial canary in the mineshaft. Problem is, unlike miners, we don’t have anywhere to run to once we notice the canary has stopped breathing.

For what it’s worth.

New Year’s Resolutions

energy, food, toronto

Today’s Metro Morning asked people to call in with their new year’s resolutions for the city of Toronto, which were then commented on by guest Glen Murray. They only had time for three callers (unless I missed the beginning), and their resolutions were:

  1. Close Bay Street to private vehicles.
  2. Increase the number of recycling options.
  3. More affordable housing.

Based on these calls, I will now conclude that if an election were held tomorrow, I’d get 66.6% of the vote and Michael Shapcott would get the other 33.3%. (Note: not a scientific poll.)

The question got me thinking though, and I decided to create my own top ten environmental new year’s resolutions for anyone wondering what they can do. The catch is that these kinds of lists are already everywhere, and I didn’t want to be boring. So, things like “drive less, replace your light bulbs, and recycle” didn’t make the cut. I’m assuming you already know that. These resolutions also ask a little bit more of you. Sorry about that.

Here, off the top of my head, are ten other things you may or may not have thought of or already be doing.

  1. Eat less meat. We already eat too much for our health anyway, and meat is a very inefficient (albeit admittedly delicious) way of producing food energy. It takes more resources (food, land, water, etc) to produce meat than it does to eat lower on the food chain.
  2. Eat more locally. The average meal travels further than it needs to, which contributes to climate change, damages local economies, and generally makes your food less yummy.
  3. Eat more organically. (Yes, I did skip breakfast.) Did you know that agribusiness uses petroleum and natural gas-based fertilizers and pesticides? And that it’s only because of this infusion of oil that we’re able to grow as much food as we do? And that oil production will likely peak sometime between last year and ten or twenty years from now? Because I didn’t know that until a few years ago, and it’s a pretty big deal that we should all be aware of. We are, in effect, “eating oil,” in that much of the food we grow wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. Buy foods that avoid the use of artificial fertilizers.
  4. Take transit less. I actually got this tip from the now defunct One Tonne Challenge (this link is pretty funny and demonstrative), which advised me that since I don’t drive very much, and since even public transit uses energy, biking and walking would further reduce my carbon emissions. Also, biking is awesome.
  5. Start a garden. This relates to #2. If you’ve got a back yard, this should be fairly simple. If you live in an apartment building or condo, you’ve got a little more work to do, but it’s still possible.
  6. Buy less. My brother is returning from a trip to Kenya today, and he’s assured me that the impoverished Kenyans he met are, on average, happier and more life-loving than us wealthy Canadians. Almost everything we buy ends up in the garbage eventually anyway. The first and most forgotten R (of the three R’s) is the most important.
  7. Produce some of your own power. If wind or solar (either passive or active) work where you live, consider getting them installed. If not, maybe you have a geothermal option. If you live in a condo this isn’t impossible, but obviously you’ll have to either talk your board into it or get elected to the board yourself.
  8. Buy power from Bullfrog. Easier than #7, as they’ve already done the legwork.
  9. Reduce your overall footprint. Using this ecological footprint calculator may give you some insight into what sorts of actions have the greatest effect.
  10. Add your own tip by commenting on this page. (Note: Blogger comments have been buggy recently, but they’re still being saved. Even if it says “0 Comments” below, clicking on that link may reveal that there actually are comments.)

Hope that’s been helpful and/or interesting, and, of course, not too preachy. If not, that’s what tip number ten is for.