Op-Ed: The Green Party Vision

Green Members of Parliament would work with decent parliamentarians of all stripes: create a culture of respect and an ethic of responsibility and accountability within the House of Commons.

As Canadians get ready to the polls this coming Tuesday and cast their vote for the candidate/party of their choice there is much to consider. The Green Party leader has set out a Green vision. Elizabeth May, the federal Green Party leader attended the Global Greens meeting in Brazil this spring, while there she claims she gained a real appreciation of what international cooperation can look like. Over 90 countries were represented by Green Party members and the Greens have been in coalition governments in Germany, Denmark and Sweden. We have had representatives in Ireland, New Zealand and Australia. May saw the Green Party representatives of Jordan, Israel and Egypt sit together on their break, and was inspired to believe that a truly global movement could turn this world around. Green Members of Parliament would work with decent parliamentarians of all stripes. The Greens would create a culture of respect and an ethic of responsibility and accountability within the House of Commons. With just a few MPs, the Green Party can bring about significant change, prompting other parties to move toward implementing the Kelowna accord, bringing in sound environmental economics, creating universal childcare and protecting our public health care. May believes If the Green Party’s platform went forward starting today, Canadians would quickly see local community-based projects accelerating. They would bring in a national vision for transit, for energy and tourism. They would implement the national water strategy, and all of their policies would work together to achieve the Canada, Canadians want. These national strategies would be guidelines with which the Greens could direct investment to small business operators, infrastructure development and other economic stimulus. May believes withing the first year they could move toward quality child care, including work place care that helps families stay closer together. and give low-income Canadians better access to mass transit, particularly in rural areas, and implement a health program to pay for the pharmaceutical drugs we need. Tax shifting means It would be possible to instantly Green the economy, investing in sustainable energy business, protecting our natural resources at home and ensuring that they exist to serve Canadians well into the future. Taxes could immediately be shifted to alleviate the burden on the unemployed and low-income families. Married couples income splitting, a fairer tax policy. We would use our resources and our revenue to help Canadians prosper in a changing climate. In foreign development, the Greens would start talking to our NATO allies, our UN associates and the powers that be in Afghanistan about the strategic route to a peaceful resolution, focusing on development assistance, defense and diplomacy. We would not leave our men and women to a dangerous and failed mission. The Greens would commit to investing 0.7% of GDP to international development assistance, as requested by the campaign to Make Poverty History. We would begin the process of giving Canada back its role in peace-keeping and the mission to end the arms race. Canada would once again be a voice for social justice and world peace in international negotiations, signing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, renewing our commitment to the Kyoto protocol, seeking nuclear disarmament, signing and implementing the Rotterdam Convention to protect developing countries from hazardous imports. I look forward to the day when Canadians will see these two elements of the Green vision in action: local community-based projects prospering as I believe it is the only way forward and a culture of respect and an ethic of responsibility and accountability within the House of Commons.

as this is essential to get any meaningful work done.