Rising Wave

It's time to reincarnate. I'm probably talking to myself at this point. (Who would be following a blog that's been inactive for 2 years???) But, to all you imaginary readers... Watch This Space. Cosbey Green is reincarnating with a broader interpretation, including greening of the mind and spirit, and greening of our socio-economic relations, as well as continued reflections on embracing what life we have not yet doomed to extinction, and thoughts and information on the green political process.

A light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it. (Non-denominational wisdom from John.)

The Leader Debates: A Win for Grass-Roots Democracy

"Green Leader Elizabeth May will be allowed into the federal leaders' debates, Canada's main broadcasters confirmed late Wednesday afternoon."
-- http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/story/2008/09/10/elxn-may-debates.html

"Green party Leader Elizabeth May is hailing people power after winning her battle to be included in the federal election leaders debates. ... 'It's grassroots power of the people,' she said."
-- http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jCM6fFTx0JCQk8J3eAhnw-Js0Vew

The Leader Debates: Action Guide

We won this one! Grass-roots public pressure forced the other leaders to reverse their stand. Congratulations! See links to news stories at http://cosbeygreen.blogspot.com/2008/09/leader-debates-win-for-grass-roots.html.

---

What You Can Do - Summary

Sign a petition to pressure the Broadcast consortium to include Elizabeth May in the debates. Go to http://demanddemocraticdebates.ca/ to sign the petition.

Donate $10 TODAY to the Green Party at https://greenparty.ca/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1&source=Main_Donate_Button Or $20, or whatever you can afford. The Green Party "will spend the money on the legal bills [they] will incur to mount [a] court challenge".

Phone, fax or email the party leaders who kept Elizabeth May out of the debate. See contact information in this blog entry.

Contact Jason MacDonald, Spokesperson for the Network Consortium. at: T (416) 482-1357, C (647) 205-4744, macdonald@veritascanada.com.

Tell your friends! Tell ALL your friends! Send them links to my blog entry: go to http://cosbeygreen.blogspot.com/2008/09/leader-debates-canadian-democracy-in.html and click the email icon at the bottom, or just copy the URL out of the address window. And/or: send links to whatever sites/pages you think will be most meaningful and informative to your friends.

Check out the action on Facebook: Join a group, check for other activity, organize events, share the information. Post the information in a comment to this blog entry, as well as elsewhere. Here are the largest 4 groups I found when I searched "Elizabeth May debates":

• Let The Green Party Debate! (784+ members)
• Allow The Green Party To Participate In The Canadian Election Debates (290+ members)
• Allow The Green Party of Canada A Voice In The Debates! (144+ members)
• LET THE GREEN PARTY DEBATE (140+ members)

The Green Voter's Dilemma: Pros & Cons of "Strategic Voting"

The Canadian Green Voter's Dilemma is this:

• If you vote for the party with the best policies and the surest to stand behind those policies after the election, (clearly, the Green Party of Canada), you'll be throwing your vote away, because their chances of winning the seat are slim, and their chances of forming the next government are nil.
• If you vote for the party that is most likely to defeat the Conservatives, on the basis that they've got to be an improvement, you'll be throwing your vote away, because you'll be settling for the best of several evils, and it may just be wishful thinking on your part that the party you vote for will actually be a substantial improvement.

The former option could be called voting on principle. The latter option is often called "strategic voting".

This choice is of major importance! We should all think about it very seriously before 14 October.

The case for strategic voting is very well presented on the Vote for Climate web site. (Thanks to the folks at Voters Taking Action on Climate Change for bringing the Vote for Climate site to my attention.) Please read this stuff! If you decide strategic voting is the way to go, work for it, by trying to get as many people and organization in your riding to rally behind a single "green" alternative candidate. Don't just vote for whomever you think is the most likely to beat out the Conservative candidate, and leave it at that. That would be the worst of both worlds: fragmenting the "green" vote without actually voting for what you believe! Use the suggestions and materials at the Vote for Climate site to help with your organizing efforts.

Here are the beginnings of a case for voting on principle, i.e. voting Green:

• Strategic Voting track record: For five decades I've been watching people vote strategically, because there's always an overwhelmingly urgent issue. But in the 2007 Saskatchewan election, strategic votes for the NDP were a waste of time because the NDP got crushed anyhow. And in the 1964 US presidential election, it was urgent to defeat Barry Goldwater, but when Lyndon Johnson got in, he implemented just about all of Goldwater's campaign promises. It never actually seems to work!
• Differentiation of "Mainstream" Parties: Are the so-called mainstream parties as different from one another as they would like you to believe? I don't think so. Time and again we've seen parties get in power because they say they're different, but their track record shows that we just continue down essentially the same path, regardless of which group we put in power. Oh, yes, there are some differences, and even some fairly important ones, but I personally believe they're more the same than they are different.
  
• Steering into the wind: Basically, if you want to go north, but the Conservatives want to go south, does it make sense to choose a party that wants to go south-by-southwest? Sure, it's a bit closer to where you want to go, but you're still in a position where you, the voting public, have to bring continuous massive pressure to bear for every compass point's worth of steering in the direction you actually want to go. It won't happen. You need a government that wants to go more or less northward!
• Credibility / Consistency: If some parties are talking green, in terms that really seem to make sense to you, what's their track record? Not just on green issues, but on actually sticking to their policies and promises once they get elected? Remember the Chrétien/Martin red book? And how little of it they delivered on? What about the NDP, once synonymous with social justice and support for the common (working) people? In Saskatchewan, at any rate, the NDP had gone so far over to the neo-conservative agenda before the 2007 election, that the ultra-right Sask Party's first budget was basically business as now usual.
  
• Voting for Democracy: Yes, climate change is an overwhelmingly urgent issue, and a majority of Canadians is really concerned about it, but our electoral system lets a minority of the voters elect a government that goes against the will of the people with impunity. We need the people to have a real voice if we're going to be able to deal with climate change. Only the Green Party has electoral reform and proportional representation as a credible, major plank in its policy platform. The NDP in particular has just shown itself to be massively antidemocratic, in its refusal to allow Elizabeth May into the leader debates. (See Leader Debates: Canadian Democracy in Crisis.)
• Voting for Social Justice: If the people that shape our economic directions (and the parties that represent them in Ottawa and Washington D.C.) do actually get moving in the right direction before the fabric of civilization is irrevocably torn asunder by climate change, it will still be with them at the helm, and we'll still have an economic and political system that's concentrating power and wealth in the hands of the few at an exponential rate, and deepening the gulf between rich and poor. The Greens are not socialists, and maybe aren't deep thinkers about class struggle or the contradictions of capitalism; but they do stand strongly and credibly for social justice, empowerment of the community, self-defence and negotiation rather than military aggression, and governing for the common good, rather than in the interests of the few.
• Influencing the "Mainstream" (i.e. co-opted?) Parties: The more votes go to the Greens, the more we'll scare the so-called mainstream parties into adopting green policies, even if we still don't elect any MPs. If, as suggested above, the differences among the mainstream parties are minor, then when Mainstream Party A loses votes to Mainstream Party B, neither party is actually motivated to change direction. But if they are losing votes to a real alternative, like the Green Party, then all the mainstream parties have to take note.
  

Please comment! Add points on either side! Email this post to your friends, and get some real discussion going!

The Leader Debates: Green Party Email

Here's an email I received from the Green Party of Canada on the Leader Debates issue:
Letter to Green Party Friends and Supporters,

Today's decision by the broadcasting consortium is an inexcusable mistake and a slap in the face to all those who care about democracy and freedom of speech in this country. They have bowed to crass partisan politics from three other federal parties. Elizabeth May deserves to be in the included in the nationally-televised leaders' debates. She has jumped through every hoop that has barred her way and she still is being kept from presenting the Green platform to a national audience by the Conservatives, NDP and Bloc.

The Green party is a truly national party that has run candidates across the country for the past two elections. We have a sitting MP. We had the support of nearly 700,000 Canadians in the last elections and are polling at over one million votes in this election. There is no logical reason why Elizabeth May and the Green Party should be kept out of this important national forum.

No other party has been as successful as the Green Party and still be blocked from public national debates. In 1993 the Reform and Bloc Parties were included in the debates with only one MP and no official party status. Neither ran candidates across the country. There is no precedent for this private decision to exclude the Green party from the leader's public debate. In fact, all the precedents support our inclusion in this public forum. . Partisan politics has kept her out, this is an insult to the Green party and called the fairness of the election into question.

It is so important for Elizabeth May to be present at the debates. The majority of Canadians make their voting decisions based on them. The Green party needs your help to remedy this situation. We need you to write, call and contact the Broadcasting Consortium and tell them they are wrong. Tell them that Canadians deserve to hear the voices of all national leaders.

Most importantly, you should phone, fax or email the party leaders who kept Elizabeth May out of the debate. Make them accountable for this outrageous, antidemocratic act.

Stephen Harper: Conservative Party of Canada Election Headquarters #1204 - 130 Albert Street Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 5G4 Toll free: (866) 808-8407 Phone: (613) 755-2000 Fax at: (613) 755-2001 Email: pm@pm.gc.ca	Jack Layton: Canada's NDP 300 - 279 Laurier West Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5J9 Phone: 613-236-3613 Toll Free: 1-866-525-255 Fax: 613-230-9950 TTY: 1-866-776-7742 Email: Layton.J@parl.gc.ca	Gilles Duceppe: Bloc Québécois 3730, boul. Crémazie Es Montréal (Québec) H2A 1B4 Téléphone : 514 526-30 Télécopieur : 514 526-2868 Email : Duceppe.G@parl.gc.ca
Constituency Office 1600 - 90th Avenue SW Suite A-203 Calgary, Alberta, T2V 5A8 Telephone: (403) 253-7990 Fax: (403) 253-8203	Constituency Office 221 Broadview Avenue Suite 100 (Main Office) Toronto, Ontario; M4M 2G3 Telephone: (416) 405-8914	Constituency Office 1200 Papineau, # 350 Montreal, Québec; H2K 4R5 Telephone: (514) 522-1339 Fax: (514) 522-9899
Hill Office House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario; K1A 0A6 Telephone: (613) 992-4211 Fax: (613) 941-6900	Hill Office House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A Telephone: (613) 995-7224 Fax: (613) 995-4565	Hill Office House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A Telephone: (613) 992-6777 Fax: (613) 954-2121

You can visit http://demanddemocraticdebates.ca to sign a petition to pressure the Broadcast consortium to make sure that Green Party leader Elizabeth May is included in the leaders' debates. You can also let the broadcast consortium know of your disagreement by contacting them at:

John Cruikshank, Publisher, CBC news (416) 205-6300

Robert Hurst, President of CTV News 416-332-5000

Troy Reeb, Senior Vice President of News Canwest Global (416) 967-1174

Pierre Dion, President, Groupe TVA Inc. 514-526-9251

Ronald Cohen, National Chair, Canadian Broadcast Standards Council P.O. Box 3265, Station D Ottawa, ON K1P 6H8 613-233-4607

Glenn O'Farrell, President and CEO, Canadian Association of Broadcasters P.O. Box 627, Stn. B Ottawa, ON K1P 5S2 613-233-4035 ext: 326

Talk to everyone you know about this important subject and make sure they get involved in supporting the Green Party's fight. A complaint has been filed to the CRTC and Legal proceedings to overturn the decision have already started. These initiatives can only be strengthened by your support. The Green Party has retained the best lawyer in Canada in this field to represent the party in court. The Green party is legally and politically required to be in these debates.

We urge you to act immediately to right this wrong.

PROTECT OUR DEMOCRACY, PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO A FRIEND.

The Leader Debates: Canadian Democracy in Crisis!

We won this one! Grass-roots public pressure forced the other leaders to reverse their stand. Congratulations! See links to news stories at http://cosbeygreen.blogspot.com/2008/09/leader-debates-win-for-grass-roots.html.

---

A Consortium of Canada's leading broadcasting networks announced on Monday 08Sep that Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada, will not be included in the leaders' debates. The Consortium based their decision on the position taken by three political parties who said that they would not participate in the televised leaders debates if the Green Party was included.

Whether or not you support the Green Party, please take this attack on our already beleaguered democratic system seriously!

Already outraged? Click here to jump to my action guide! Or, read on.

Historically, parties that have had less standing than the Green Party of Canada have routinely been included in the Leader debates.

One in every 22 Canadians voters in the last federal election - 660,000 voters - voted Green. The Green Party has ranked third in numerous polls this year. The Green Party has a Member of Parliament, as a result of independent MP Blair Wilson joining the Greens in late August. The Green Party ran a full slate of candidates in the last two federal elections.

The Bloc Québecois was included in the 1988 debates despite having no seats in Parliament, no official recognition from the Speaker and only 75 candidates out of 295 ridings. The Reform Party was included in the 1993 debates despite having won only 276,000 votes and no seats in the previous election, and having only a single Member of Parliament at the time of the debates - as the result of a by-election. Yet the Bloc and the successor to the Reform party are both now sabotaging the democratic process by blocking Elizabeth May and the Green Party from the debates. Incredibly, so is the NDP!

My view:

• The Bloc, the Conservatives, and the NDP are all making a radical attack on Canadian democracy, by attempting to disenfranchise a party that represents over half a million Canadians. This is a direct attack on you, the Canadian voter. These parties do not deserve your vote!
• The media consortium made the wrong decision. They should have called the bluff of these rogue political parties. If any of them had continued obstinate in their position, the media would have been doing a great service to the Canadian public by dramatically highlighting their absence from the debates as an unwillingness to participate in the free democratic process.
  

More: I've posted additional background information, links, and suggested actions in the first 7 comments to this post.

Please comment! Please send your friends a link to this blog entry! Please act to put pressure on these wrong-headed politicians and on the media consortium.

Canada Carbon Tax - VTACC Appeal

Voters Taking Action on Climate Change (VTACC) sent out another email today, calling for action. This is essentially the same information as my last post, (Canada - Campaign for NRTEE Carbon Tax). I suggest you read the VTACC version first, and only go to Canada - Campaign for NRTEE Carbon Tax if you want more background or detail.

From: VTACC <climate_action@yahoo.ca>
Date: 12 January 2008
Subject: We have an opportunity

Hi all,

We need five minutes of your time, and a letter is attached.

Here is the good news:

The National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy has pushed the idea of a carbon tax onto the national stage. The NRTEE states that this is the only realistic way that Canada can reach the government's current goal of a 65% reduction below 2003 levels by 2050.

Without a price on carbon emissions, the National Round Table states that Canada will be unlikely to meet even these goals.

But here is the bad news:

The very next morning the Conservative goverment attempted to silence this recommendation by rejecting this idea entirely. So far, this has worked. They must be congratulating themselves at how easily Canadians can be silenced!

And here is what we are doing about it:

Let's not accept the current federal greenhouse gas plan for non-action, and their flat refusal to consider putting a price on carbon emissions.

If you haven't yet, please take five minutes and express what they need to hear from Canadians.

We have a minority government in Ottawa, and a federal election looming. We may never have a better time to push for real action.

This is not about partisan politics; all parties need to hear that Canadians want real action on carbon emissions.

Together, we can pull this back onto the national stage. But we need your help.

And in case you are tongue-tied, attached below is a template of a possible letter:

Here are the addresses. Write one letter, and cc a copy of it to the others!

bairdj@parl.gc.ca
pm@pm.gc.ca
dions@parl.gc.ca
layton.j@parl.gc.ca
McGuinty.D@parl.gc.ca
leader@greenparty.ca

You can find your own MP at http://tinyurl.com/3dg9g3

Should John Baird be congratulating himself? You decide.

Please take the five minutes right now, and send us a copy!

Thank you all for taking action,
VTACC
Voters Taking Action on Climate Change


John Baird, M.P.
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

January 8, 2008
Your name and address here

Dear Mr. Baird,
I am very disappointed in how quickly you rejected the notion of a Carbon Tax – as recently recommended by the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy.

To react so quickly appears to show an unwillingness to consider the knowledge and research of others. Given the brief time you have been entrusted with the responsibility of Environment Minister one would hope for more deliberation.

Please reconsider your position, and I would encourage you to more openly discuss this important idea with Canadians.

Like so many others, I strongly support putting a price on carbon emissions as a key means for Canada is to achieve significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. It is clear that the atmosphere can no longer be used as a free dumping ground by individuals or corporations.

Sincerely,


cc: Prime Minister Stephen Harper
cc: Stephane Dion, Lead of the Opposition
cc: David McGuinty, Liberal Environment critic
cc: Jack Layton, Leader of the NDP
cc: Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party