Why People Might Choose to Vote Green
* Note: Adam Wilson questioned Jack Layton of the NDP and Jim Harris of the Green Party on the Seal Hunt at an all candidates debate. Both parties support a seal hunt ... and this displeases animal rights supporters.
From: "Adam Wilson"
To: <tars_general@yahoogroups.com
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
[T.A.R.S. General] Re: Animal Cruelty: From the mouths of the NDP & the Greens
Brandy, I think you miss the point of
why people might choose to vote
green. The Green Party does not have a realistic chance of gaining
seats, so voting for them presently only serves to broaden the entire
political debate. Diminish the strength of the Green Party, and the
NDP will then look more to the centre for issues, rather than trying
to win the green party vote (the Greens' 6% matters a lot to the NDP
when they have only 16% themselves). Even though the NDP's
environmental policies are more elaborate than the Green Party's, I
believe that the Green Party is responsible for the NDP's policies.
In watching Jack Layton's response to my query, I saw a complete lack
of interest in animals. However, I asked the question to bring the
issue out, not because it is an extremely relevant voting point right
now. (None of the parties have particularly favourable policies for
animals.) It is wishful thinking to assume that a political leader
will sway to a more animal-friendly stance after getting into office,
if we educate him about the issues. We can only vote based on what
the candidates tell us now. (They won't even remain true to much of
what they tell us now, let alone adopting even "better" policies in
the future). It is also not giving Jack Layton enough credit to
assume that he is not educated on animal cruelty issues. The NDP has
struggled with the seal hunt issue (remember Rick Smith?), and has
made its decision. All of this said, however, I was considering
switching my vote from Green to NDP only days ago. I believe that the
NDP has an absolutely fantastic platform overall, and they sure will
be better than the other realistic options. As for the Green Party's
supposed conservative policies, you're going to have to be much more
specific because I've read their entire platform and it sums to a
seemingly socially progressive and compassionate ideology. But once
again, a vote for the Green Party is not so much a vote "for the
Green Party" (because they aren't going to win!), but rather a vote
for a broader political debate that continues to pull the other
parties into green issues. Really, the Green Party should probably
stop trying so hard to get elected, and start acting more like an
advocacy party, which is where their greatest value lies right now.
Best,
Adam
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Should Alternative Media Kill the Greens or the Seals?
By Gary Morton at http://CanadaElection.org
Rather than worry about the possibility of a Stephen Harper government, alternative media in Toronto is on a larger mission to kill off the Green Party.
This week NowToronto ran “Greens’ Eco Gap” by Kim Fry while Eye Weekly ran “A Paler Shade of Green” by Gord Perks.
In the Eye piece nearly all of Perks’ words were a glorification of green parties abroad … there was little about the Canadian Greens. Perks attacks Green Party leader Jim Harris’ occupation unfairly but does land solid punches … hitting Green confusion on issues of war and the military. Perks confesses he is voting NDP
Kim Fry could nearly be listed as Jack Layton’s sister, though NowToronto doesn’t bother to tell you that. She admires Ralph Nader’s bid for the presidency but has no admiration for the Green Party here … and that seems to reveal the common thread in Eye and NowToronto … Greens are great everywhere else in the world, but not here in Canada … because we have the NDP.
Criticism of the Greens in Canada is nothing new; I refused to join the Ontario party because of their support for hydro deregulation. But I also know that Jack Layton used to be the environmental boss in Toronto. Everyone working on green initiatives knew Layton.
Gord Perks says he admires the slogan of the German Greens …Neither left or right but in front!
Unfortunately Layton and the NDP and the Greens, Liberals and Conservatives are all parties that have policies in support of the Seal Hunt.
Maybe Perks and Fry aren’t out in front either, but still attached to Layton’s apron strings.
The Americans killed their seal hunt, so maybe it is George Bush who is Out in Front and progressive … it is certain that the major political parties in Canada are way behind … and an embarrassment on the international stage.
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Toronto’s Waterfront and Hamilton’s Red Hill as Election Issues – Jan.20.2004
(or Election 2004: NDP & the Green Party are Rising)
By Gary Morton at http://CanadaElection.org
* This deals with the Toronto Waterfront, the Hamilton Red Hill Expressway and the upcoming 2004 election.
Political changes for 2004 and beyond are beginning to show in the frost patterns. Reforms to federal campaign contributions don’t allow companies and unions to donate to federal parties. They may give up to $1,000 to candidates. Donations to candidates from individuals are capped at $10,000 and Ottawa will give federal parties $1.75 for every vote received in the previous federal election.
This means that the Greens can continue to rise. They are now up to 5 percent in polls and in future elections, after 2004, they will have real money to mount credible campaigns. Individuals will likely give to the Greens now on the sense that their star is rising. The same will happen with the NDP as they are on an upswing with Jack Layton.
Green Party leader Jim Harris is a former PC member and a practical type of person who may get the Greens over their biggest hurdle, which is the need to win a seat in government. If he succeeds and grabs some star candidates, Canada will get a tough Green Party with progressive policies on food, agriculture and energy.
Presently the liberals are so dated on food and green issues that it’s sad to even consider it. And Paul Martin hasn’t changed anything. He brought in Tony Valeri as Transport Minister. Valeri was instrumental in the current swath of highway destruction going through the centre of Hamilton. In spite of large scale protests, the beautiful Red Hill Valley is to be gutted by a useless and costly expressway.
Paul Martin has supported Valeri over the much more talented Sheila Copps, and she may join the NDP Party, vastly increasing its power. At the local level the 200 million dollar highway development has left an inept Hamilton city council with a budget problem. They can’t afford the expressway they approved and are about to ask Dalton McGuinty for 30 million this year.
McGuinty doesn’t have the money, and it adds up to an explosive situation that NDP and Green candidates should highlight in the federal election.
* For background on Red
Hill read Hamilton:
Major Threat to Red Hill Valley
In an addition to the Hamilton mistake, Liberal Human Resources Minister Joe Volpe is now quietly giving the go ahead to the Island Bridge in Toronto. A move that will certainly endanger the nests of Toronto’s hidden flock of federal liberals. With the city government and every activist from Toronto to Hamilton working against the liberals, they are sure to pay for this mistake. If the issue dominated Toronto’s news during the mayoral election, it will go national in a federal election.
Paul Martin’s choices for cabinet also lead us to the NDP’s strong point. Jack Layton is reaching out to others while Paul Martin is building a government of the cheerleading MPs that shined his shoes and got the door for him. In a rather startling way Martin shows he is more into vengeance than nation building. Key leadership rivals Copps and Manley should have gone into star positions. Instead they have been shown the door as Martin builds a rightwing Ottawa that looks more like a corporation with a supreme leader than a government of the people. Sure Martin picked up some dead Tories, but if you consider his swing right it’s somewhat of a surprise that they all didn’t embrace the Liberals.
It makes many people wonder how Paul Martin plans to deal with the election media. Reporters won’t cheerlead for him or shine his shoes.
Jack Layton got smart fast in Ottawa while Martin seems to be attempting to coast on his old record as finance minister. Layton arrived in Ottawa and got caught in an initial hazing. People concerned about animal rights are still angry over his renewed support of the seal hunt. After that issue faded, Layton picked up steam in opposing the Iraq war. He learned how to use national media. NDP support rose. Broadbent is back and Layton is now working at grabbing some star liberals and creating NDP policy with broader appeal.
As Martin sucks up dead PC bodies and looks for valleys and islands to pave, the NDP is in a more natural expansion phase. If Layton succeeds over the next while he’ll have strong candidates and policy. With his leadership image growing on the national level he will be positioned to grab votes when election attacks from all sides soften Paul Martin.
Jack Layton is making one mistake in running against liberal Dennis Mills. He could lose the riding even though the NDP will make overall gains from Mills’ new higher profile. Mills’ support for the Island Bridge and other nutty stuff for the Toronto Waterfront is guaranteed to damage the liberals in Toronto.
There is a big question as to what is going to happen on the Waterfront … especially with Mills gearing up for something big. I think the answer is that nobody can see beyond the illusions and uncertainties. While writing this I fell asleep and saw a waterfront where hidden machines were spinning, churning up snow angels and a blowing snow image of a wonderland.
And that may be what the liberals are planning to do through Mills … present us with an illusion, while behind the giant snow job the real machinery of the industry and development they plan to allow remains hidden. And after the election is over and the snow has melted we’ll be biking along the trail to find big surprises, like maybe a casino construction sign at the end of the Rochester Ferry, weird parking lots on the spit and a panorama of the most skewed development ever imagined.
We all have dreams of beautiful waterfront, and it is unfortunate that the liberals may have a different dream … a mixed up daydream that will get very ugly and confusing near the end.
It will happen if the media, city hall and the public are fooled. Maybe in the end the Rolling Stones will be playing on a monster stage out there with their big equipment jets on the new runway. Councillor Mammoliti will be driving across the bridge to his island condo tower … a place where he can look out on a snake-and-ladders mix of stuff springing up like mushrooms in unexpected places.
We all must state that we want to know exactly what is going to happen on the waterfront, before we will even consider voting liberal in a federal election.
Maybe Dennis Mills will wake up if he sees real opposition, and try to put together a deal like he did at the squat over by the Don Jail. It’s a possibility, but not a convincing one. I remember being in that squat taking pictures, then quickly running out when I heard Dennis was coming by to negotiate an end to the stand off.
With the waterfront, we can’t run out because we all use it as part of our city home. And the standoff may not be negotiable when it comes to an Island Bridge and unacceptable development.
It looks like Paul Martin and his crew just don’t get it. Toronto has swung to a greener left and Dalton McGuinty and debt are already feeding the public with images of broken liberal promises. Corporate liberalism and waterfront destruction are not going to sell here. Reporters are probably already putting on their parkas with ideas of cutting through the snow screen to see what Mills and Martin are really planning. They have money for something … we know that because Mills’ higher profile is something that can’t be built with promises alone.
In Toronto and Hamilton green issues are going to help the NDP and the Greens and allow them to swing up in the election. Paul Martin is not an invincible target and people are going to see that once an election begins.
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Coup d'état Unites the Right – Dec.7.2003
By Gary Morton at http://CanadaElection.org
I’ve been snoring through federal politics for a long time, and have awakened to see Joe Clark and David Orchard holding a large photo of Judas.
In the blink of an eye a Conservative political party got kissed and crucified and the new Judas hero is Peter Mackay – because he managed to unite the right so suddenly and so fast that no one is sure where the backroom deal was made or who paid the twenty pieces of silver.
At the moment the Alliance takeover creates the Conservative Party of Canada and a new political reality where the NDP are the second place party.
I call it a takeover because of the way it was set up with Alliance members openly voting, and the PCs carefully selecting delegates that would support the merger. It was a scandalous done deal made on the sly to avoid any genuine in depth discussion. It may have been legal but it certainly wasn’t ethical.
… and if the new Conservative Party of Canada ever gets elected, everything in the Canadian political spectrum will be a done deal done high-speed. This is a new party with shades of Mike Harris and the way he bullied through the amalgamation of the cities in Ontario … one that will reveal its hidden agenda after winning at the polls.
The new political reality is somewhat strange. If the far right is united then everyone from centre to left will be united in opposing it. Federal politics that seemed dull will now be charged with fear, anger and a flurry of activity.
Who are these new guys? Are their extreme views saleable? What in Hades will happen if they get elected?
The answer is that the new guys are really the old Alliance guys. This is the same old Preston Manning militia. They have united the right through a shotgun wedding. Their views are not saleable to the public so they will hide them with clever PR and slogans. The CPC will be run by Alliance people who still believe that Elvis is alive on Mars, toting a rifle and calling for the death penalty. They will use their Conservative acquisition to create an illusion of a party with compassion. They will hold the maple leaf and family values to their hearts … and if they get elected they will reveal themselves as executioners wielding an axe against all of our social programs. Combined with their bad economic policies it will add up to complete disaster.
It makes for a strange political spectrum. The NDP under Jack Layton represents pretty much what the NDP has always been. If anything Layton means a slight shift left toward traditional NDP values. Liberals under Paul Martin move a touch right … meaning they were already there but now more visible. The Liberal Party is actually the party exercising the most conservative values and various liberal ideals. More or less Martin has taken the centre of Canadian politics as it exists at present … though the new Conservative Party will try to redefine the centre more to the far right.
The Bloc remains the Bloc, making its stand in Quebec … and the Greens, with 5 percent popularity remain green in their designs on power. Federally the Green Party could become a major party. If they would shake off other ideologies, define themselves as Green only, and focus on getting elected they could move into the vacuum and become the party with the momentum to challenge Paul Martin and the NDP on progressive turf.
As it is the upcoming spring election looks like it could be a bigger contest. Big media leans right and it will do everything possible to make the old Alliance look like an exciting new Conservative Party of Canada. Since Paul Martin probably won’t make any major stumbles, the CPC may try to use hot button issues like gay marriage as a smokescreen that will get them into power.
Paul Martin will win if his strategists can do something to make him and his policies alluring. Liberal voters expect some excitement and they will sour on the idea of a PM who looks too much like a dull former finance minister.
Jack Layton and the NDP are already shuffling up some votes as the only genuine left party, and it is possible that with a smooth campaign they could do well.
It’s even possible that the Greens could get smart and not end up as wasted talent again.
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"It is horrible to see the aftermath of this slaughter. There is blood everywhere. Every few feet as you walk across the ice, you pass by large pools of blood and carcasses lined up in open graves. Their eyes stare up at you. It's a dirty little secret the Canadian government doesn't want you to know.
"The sealers don't take the carcasses, because the meat is practically worthless. So they leave them to rot on the ice, or dump them in the ocean. Hundreds of thousands of them. Rotting because all the sealers want is the skins."
Those were the words of Rebecca Aldworth, a woman who grew up in a Newfoundland fishing community where, every spring, men from the town would take to the ice floes to club to death baby seals and take their skins.
Now, as the biggest seal hunt for 50 years takes place off the coast of eastern Canada, Ms Aldworth spends her time trying to draw public attention to the hunt.
This year her job is more difficult than ever. The hunt taking place on the so-called "front" off the Newfoundland coast is largely out of the public eye. Campaigners claim that the Canadian federal authorities, aware of the controversy created by images of seals being battered by hunters, have, in effect, scotched their efforts to witness the hunt by refusing to provide them with permits.
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Seal Hunt Boycott of Canada May Fail Due to Greed – June.19.2003
The Humane Society of the United States has launched a $3 million newspaper, magazine and TV advertising campaign protesting Canada's seal hunt and asking American tourists to avoid traveling north this summer.
"O Canada, How Could You?" asks an ad that shows blood dripping from red letters.
The campaign was sparked by news in February. Fisheries Minister Robert Thibault said that starting this fall, Canada would boost the annual limit on kills by more than 25 per cent to 350,000 seals.
With Canada reeling from SARS and Mad Cow, the US Humane Society sees an opportunity to hit hard and end the hunt. They say the reasons for the seal hunt are political. Even the US ended its seal hunt off Alaska, so why can’t Canada?
The seal hunt continues in Canada due to politics. During a federal election the first results come in from Newfoundland. All of the parties want to gain seats there and that means supporting the seal hunt and local myths about seals eating up the cod.
The truth is sealers are commercial fishermen, killing the animals mostly to sell their penises as an aphrodisiac in the Far East. Many of them are the same guys that over fished and killed off the cod.
Newfoundland is a depressed area because the government never invests or brings in new jobs. Attempts could be made to create new industry and to move government jobs to the area. But with no political will in Ottawa the situation remains the same and the seal hunt continues.
In the USA, most of the population has bought into the “me and my empire” politics of George Bush. All policy is directed towards enriching Americans and expanding their control of world, even if it means inhumane economic policies and sanctions and shocking military attacks on innocent peoples. America has become a nation of vampires feeding on the blood of the rest of the world. By 2025 they will have found a way to attack Canada to gain its water and resources in a world of global warming. Chances of a citizenry there caring at all about seals is slim. Unfortunately for the US Humane Society, they are one of the better forces in a country teeming with uncaring people.
By Gary Morton
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