Military spending versus reconstruction

Green Party candidate Randy Weeks agreed with Vachon, adding there are at least five countries who need peacekeeping and humanitarian aid where Canada could make a huge difference. He explained the Greens want to redefine Canada’s role in the Afghan mission to a humanitarian and rebuilding policy.

“This is not a humanitarian mission at all,” said Weeks. “There are over 600 schools there that have been built that are sitting empty because you can’t run a school in a war zone.”

Read the University of Calgary Gauntlet

Green research and development a common goal

Green election promises are reaching a new high this year, with all parties tackling the environmental issue in their own way.

Green Party candidate Randy Weeks argued the focus on carbon ignored other emissions dangerous to the environment. He said the Liberals watered down the original Green environment policy until it was no longer effective.

“It’s un-tax what we want and tax what we don’t want,” said Weeks. “That’s the basis of it. We want people to have jobs, why tax them?”

Read the University of Calgary Gauntlet

Canada’s Northern frontier in a war of words

An oft-forgotten Northern land is now a source of contention for federal politicians. Geologists predict there are vast stores of fossil fuels beneath its seabed and this potentially resource-rich territory is under dispute. The Northwest Passage might also soon become a viable trade route between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Canada has established communities living in the region which raises the question of how to protect the rights of Northern and Inuit communities from being trampled in a race for control and resources.

[...]

While the Green Party does not mention an Arctic policy in their party platform, Calgary-West Green Party candidate Randy Weeks recognized the need to assert some kind of presence in order to protect Canada’s sovereignty in the region.

“We need to go in there and start exercising our sovereignty or some superpower like Russia or the United States is going to walk in and take over,” he said.

Weeks argued the Green Party does not see the Arctic in terms of resources, it is too fragile an environment and Canada needs to scale down dependence on fossil fuels.

“Exploiting the resources up there is only a temporary fix, we need to find alternatives to drilling for more oil,” said Weeks.

Read the University of Calgary Gauntlet

How would the Green Party manage the unfolding economic crisis?

One of the best ways to counter an potential economic downturn and job losses and a self-fulfilling recession psychology is to strongly advance a green economic transformation strategy in Canada.   The creative entrepreneurial energy this releases is strongly counter-recessionary and not only creates many new jobs (more people are employed in the renewable energy sector in Germany than in auto manufacturing!) it also stimulates hope and optimism in the future which can reverse the downward spiral in consumer confidence and business investment.

It significantly reduces pollution/greenhouse gases and makes us more energy productive and therefore more internationally competitive and resilient to future oil price shocks.

HALIFAX – The Green Party of Canada today released its complete election platform, a plan that looks forward to an equitable society with a thriving, clean economy.

The plan, fully costed by an independent economist, focuses on the Green Tax Shift, which will use money from taxes on greenhouse gas emissions and toxic pollutants – the things we don’t want – and use the money to support what we do want, such as good jobs, tax cuts for individuals and businesses, poverty reduction, and measures to help companies lead Canada into the post-carbon economy.

“We are the realists,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May as she unveiled the platform in Halifax’s Grand Parade Square. “While other parties look backward and resist change, we face the major threats of our time – the climate crisis, economic instability, increasing militarism and a growing gap between rich and poor – with clear-eyed realism.

“Our approach puts Canadians and future generations first. We are proving that breaking from the past and voting for tomorrow is not only possible, but is also the best course for our economy, for local jobs and for a secure world.

“We will meet the challenges because that is the only way to ensure a livable world for our children and grandchildren.”

The Green Party platform is comprehensive and coherent. It is based on the principle that all of the policies must support each other and be fiscally responsible. We will not run a deficit.

It is also based on the conviction that government, while it encourages change and innovation, must work to reduce inequality, ensure quality public services and help citizens to be empowered and engaged.

Among the platform highlights, the Green Party will:

• Bring in a $50 per tonne carbon tax and taxes for toxic chemicals. Use that revenue to cut payroll and income taxes – including the introduction of income splitting –and reduce employers’ contributions to Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan.
• Cut corporate tax by $50 for each tonne of carbon emission reductions, to create a $100 per tonne saving when combined with avoided carbon tax.
• Return the GST to six per cent, to invest in infrastructure. Expand the exemptions on food items, and extend them to children’s clothing and books. Provide rebates for rural Canadians.
• Cut greenhouse gas emissions to 30 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050. Use cap and trade, with hard caps, for some large polluters. Expand research and development of low-carbon technologies.
• Improve energy productivity through smarter regulation of large appliances and vehicles, and a national program to retrofit existing buildings.
• Work toward a Guaranteed Annual Income in place of the current costly and demeaning maze of support programs.
• Increase funding for post-secondary education and cut students’ debt burden.
• Protect our universal, single-payer public health care system and ensure it works well at both disease prevention and treatment.
• Restore Canada’s peacekeeping role and help to build a permanent UN force to respond to conflicts and climate disasters. In Afghanistan, shift from the NATO mission to one led by the UN.

“Conservative Leader Steven Harper promises a steady hand at the wheel, but he is like a stubborn, frightened captain steering his ship toward a dangerous reef,” Ms. May said. “The Green Party is a democratic party. With the help of all Canadians, we will take our country in a direction for which future generations will thank us.”

Ms. May urged all the parties to focus on the crucial choices Canadians face.

Back in 1835, Nova Scotia crusader and later MP Joseph Howe said: “My public life is before you. … The only questions I ask myself are: What is right? What is just? What is for the public good?”

“If only the leaders of today would ask themselves the same questions,” Ms. May said.

“It is time to debate real issues in this election. We need to engage voters with respect. Electing Greens will transform the climate in Parliament.”

The platform is available for download at www.votefortomorrow.ca.

The Green Party’s substantial policy document – Vision Green – along with the platform can be found at www.greenparty.ca/platform

Fair Vote Canada (FVC) is a multi-partisan citizens’ campaign for voting system reform. Canadians from all points on the political spectrum, all regions and all walks of life are joining FVC to demand a fair voting system - a fundamental requirement for healthy representative democracy and government accountability.

Check out the page for the 2008 election and get involved!

http://www.fairvote.ca/en/join-our-federal-election-campaign-today

From Monday, September 8:

“Parties hit campaign trail in Alberta“

Randy gets mentioned in the Calgary Herald, along with a pretty cool (and big) photo.

From Wednesday, September 10:

“Green leader allowed to debate“

“…

Calgary West Green Party candidate Randy Weeks says May’s participation will make it easier for him to convince voters the Greens are no longer on the fringes of Canadian politics. “We might have been (a fringe party) twenty years ago or ten years ago, but we’re not any more.”

…”

From Sunday, Sept 7:

“Calgary incumbents campaign“

Featuring another photo of Randy on his bike.

“…

The Green Party of Calgary is ready to roll.

Green Party candidate, Randy Weeks, also launched his campaign in Calgary West on Sunday.

Weeks says he chose to deliver party signs on a vintage recumbent bicycle to demonstrate his commitment to the green campaign.

“We have a very strong platform, we have a strong leader and I think if people will actually take the time to take a look at us, we’re looking for intelligent, informed voters, and if they check us out I’m sure they’ll support us.” Said Randy Weeks, Green Party candidate Calgary West.

…”