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A new EKOS poll was released this morning that has the GPC at 13.4% nationally.  I think it's awesome and probably related to Elizabeth speaking out so strongly and early against prorogation and Canadians' general dissatisfaction with the old line parties.  What I find more promising than the national numbers are the provincial/regional breakdowns and the momentum.

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Whenever new Canadian policy analysis on climate change arrives the domestic propaganda arm of the global resource sector and its courtiers mechanically respond.

An economic study on greenhouse gas targets and climate policy [full report] in Canada has been released by the Pembina Institute and the David Suzuki Foundation.

Reports like these, highlighting needed action by Canada to preserve our well-being and safety, have been coming out for years. This time, however, the report was commissioned by TD Bank, an emblem of small-c conservative thinking and an organization that is otherwise taken quite seriously. Defenders of our artificially profitable and dangerous status quo are particularly agitated by this.

One of Canada's finest apologists and Conservative Senator-in-waiting ...

Hello Green people!

There is an important event happening on October 4 supporting the fight against turning Northern Saskatchewan into a nuclear energy producer / dumping ground. Even after a report released last week stating that 85% of respondants were against nuclear activity (power generation, uranium mining and nuclear waste storage) in Saskatchewan, the provincial government is only "yellow lighting" the issue. Which isn't surprising, considering the officials involved in the analysis of the nuclear industry in Saskatchewan are either main players in the industry or know supporters. 

Let's show the Saskatchewan government that it is time to "red light" the nuclear issue and "green light" an all out energy efficiency program, greening the grid and investment in renewable energy production. Saskatchewan has some of the highest potential in renewables in Canada.

Here is some information on the rally:

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A recent CBC radio show raised the question of whether the current parliamentary “culture had run its course”, a culture with a “lack of civility” and in “a permanent discourse on electoral politics”.  The prospects of continuing minority governments, with the emerging growth of new parties being an increasing prospect for the future, and we have something we need to address.  In the face of this, it is very easy to be critical, and harder to act to change the unsatisfactory direction in which we are headed.  Perhaps wishful thinking (trusting that organizations have a tendency to reorganize, change and self-adapt to a severe crisis) is not enough.  Perhaps it is time to set an example.  We are proposing to extend a hand in our riding to the political constituencies to help create a “new politics” that will put the riding, put the interests of the people and their well being, before partisan interests.  We propose a “new politics�

Looks like, from the UN speech on Friday 25 September 09 by Minister Cannon, that someone  has been reading some of the alternative solutions submitted to the Manley Panel that were discounted by the commission and the government.  The speech indicates an intention to ease ourselves out of our combat role.   Maybe the Manley contention that 1000 more troops and more killing will ensure success, as a major part of the Canadian contribution, is being relegated to the dustbin where it more properly belongs.  Maybe someone has seriously read my submission to the Manley Panel and also published in the “Peace Research, The Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies” Vol 39, Numbers 1-2 (2007).  In this Journal is was noted that the panel received 219 submissions and there were “some indications that panel members only read summaries of these submissions”.  Peace Research decided to publish a selection of these submissions as a

Harper has a realistic shot at a majority, given the media attacks on Ignatieff for wanting to help precipitate an election.

If Harper gets a majority, our vote subsidy will be gone almost the very next day.

We need a Liberal minority with Elizabeth in parliament. If that happens all the dynamics of how the media cover us change.

We will suddenly be taken seriously with the added benefit that Harper will be gone from the PMO and very likely gone from Canadian politics althogether. The media only cares about parties with seats. Period.

So for this election only, we have to put every available resource into Winning Saanich via a local ground war and forget about votes elsewhere that -- let's be honest -- only split the progressive vote and help elect Cons ( they won 11 seats last time by less than 2,000 votes). 

This strategy will cost us overall vote totals this time, but the alternative is a complete loss of vote subsi...

While governments rush to bail out the auto industry's mistakes in leading the destruction of our atmosphere & climate for decades, the green economy is being choked to death by tight credit and high interest rates.

All across this country renewable energy projects are being cancelled or halted due to lack of funding. Over 30% of the funnel of new wind energy projects are in receivership. Many more projects are stuck on the drawing boards with no access to funding.

Instead of bailing out the automakers, we need to call on the government to take affirmative and urgent action to protect our future:

1. Provide immediate loan guarantees to existing projects that have secured long term contracts for their green energy. This includes the Dokie wind project - Canada's largest single wind energy project.

2. Instruct the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) to allocate 1/3 of its funds for the development and advancement of new alte...

In the same way that Harper is guilty of governing as if he had a majority, Greens have to be careful of being seduced by the thought that we have more political influence than we actually do. Why would any coalition seek out the support of a party with zero seats when it is obviously not to give that coalition more votes in parliament?

Adding a GPC stamp of approval lends legitimacy to the coalition. It could claim the 7% GPC support during the last election as part of its own popularity (forgetting for the moment that polls now show that roughly half of GPC voters aren’t all that keen on the idea of a coalition).

But there may be other benefits for the Liberals and NDP too. Diluting a strengthening GPC brand by pulling it in under the banner of a coalition might be a good way to slow down NDP and Liberal supporters from going Green (as many have been doing over the last 5 years). While Greens are associated with a Liberal/NDP coalition it might a...

There is a great column by Rick Mercer in the Globe and Mail at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM... called "It's not the economy, stupid".

In this column, he suggests that the blatant partisanship battle between Steven Harper and the rest of the parliament might be best settled by resignations of M. Dion and Mr. Harper. Interesting idea.

Dear Editor,

To say that we are 'living in interesting times' in reference to the goings on in Ottawa might be a understatement. What is clearly not an understatement is that in the aftermath of a dismal turnout at the ballot box on October 14 federal politics has at last got the attention of the nation. But while it is encouraging to note that the nation seems to have woken up on political discourse, the rancorous adversarial tone of the debate still leaves a lot to be desired.

Support and opposition for the proposed Liberal-NDP coalition with support from the Bloc has seen Canadians turn out in their hundreds and thousands to demonstrate their opinion. While this level of engagement is to be applauded it comes a bit too late - a 80% plus turnout on voting day would have been preferable. Further, while cooperation in parliament is a laudable goal and those chanting that they are 'part of a 62% majority' have some merit to their argument, the fact is that par...

At a rate of increase currently of 2.5% per annum and an accelerating pace of industrialization and population,

further and higher rates are certain.

Clean coal just scrubs out the sulpher and nitrous oxides, and other impurities, is expensive and still produces 635 Litres of CO2 per pound of coal consumed.

The plants can't keep up with the rate of increase. China and India need to do more to limit coal and fossil fuel proliferation. Under Obama, it is likely a california standard for autos will improve, and see them spread to the other states as well. but only 30% of the CO2 problem is transportation of all kinds, 70-75% of the problem is coal and natural gas for electrical power generation.

The oceans are reaching saturation point.....of dissolved CO2 and are off gasing more and more, and this can be toxic to life;

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When people in a political party suffer a disappointment it is standard operating procedure to go through a period of reflection, analysis and change. I thought I'd suggest what I believe needs to change within the GPC. Since I am jotting things down on line, order will not indicate importance, just when they occurred to me.

Emphasis

The party needs to stop fooling itself with ideas that it is going to elect people to Parliament any time soon. There may be the odd fluke, but the overwhelming experience of Greens around the world is that it is almost impossible to elect Green Party people in a first-past-the-post system. Get used to it.

What this means is that the party needs to find a reason for people to support the party even if it doesn't elect a single member. They do exist.

First of all, we need to present policy alternatives that are based exclusively on their intrinsic merit, instead of whether or not t...