Climate change also a security threat
By Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, Green MP Bruce HyerWe deserve an energy plan, a climate plan, and the new industrial revolution of clean-tech and renewables. The first step is for Harper to get...
View ArticleThe globalization of the work force
It used to be understood that a healthy economy included low unemployment and available jobs right across the country. Pockets of persistently high unemployment would receive help in stimulus...
View ArticleWhy no MP should vote for the budget
On second thought, this blog should be titled, “Why no self-respecting MP should vote for the budget.”And it’s not because it’s a “do nothing budget,” as the approved NDP messaging has it. Nor because...
View ArticlePlaces you will never find Stephen Harper…
The title might suggest I am about to point out you’ll never find him at the Saturday Farmer’s Market on Salt Spring Island or the Galiano Island Literary Festival, where I happen to be at the moment....
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4 facts about Keystone XL:
Last week I wrote to US Secretary of State John Kerry to urge him to reject the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. In the letter I was clear about four Keystone XL facts:- Keystone hurts the Canadian...
View ArticleFor Canadian youth, the future isn't what it used to be
“Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it, and by the same token save it from that ruin which except for renewal, except for the coming...
View ArticleFinance, Budgets And Shuffles
In the last few weeks, there were a few shake-ups on the Canadian political scene. Allison Redford resigned as Premier of Alberta, the Supreme Court ruled that Stephen Harper’s new Quebec appointee did...
View ArticlePassenger rail in Canada is in crisis
There has been a lot of attention of late to what moves on Canada’s rails. Train derailments, disasters such as Lac-Mégantic and near-disasters, such as the railcars loaded with toxic diluents that...
View ArticleAll together now: How we stop Enbridge’s pipelines and tankers
It came to me in response to a biased question from a Sun News reporter in Toronto. The question, playing into the warped world of Ezra Lavant, prompted me to explain what “protesters” might do to...
View ArticleHow not to protect the lives of sex trade workers
The ruling from the Supreme Court of Canada was pretty clear in the Bedford case. The laws were preventing women (and men) in the business of selling sex from being unacceptably vulnerable to violence...
View ArticleStaking the moral high ground – why the Green Party exists
What follows is my original piece rebutting the National Post editorial. The NP editors requested cuts and changes which I accepted. Still, on reflection, the edits lost much content, particularly in...
View ArticleWhy I am marching
This article was primarily written for an international audience, but I thought Canadian Greens might want to join me too!On Sunday September 21 I will be with my daughter in New York, marching with...
View ArticleDumbing down of diplomacy
One can be forgiven for dismissing the appointment of Canada’s new ambassador to the Vatican as a matter of no consequence. But this posting in the midst of a hot summer of global conflict may have...
View ArticleLetter to the Editor: Give Capital Region a Say on Pipeline: August 28, 2014
To the Editor, I couldn't agree more with Mayor Fortin that citizens of southern Vancouver Island must have a say, and a definitive say, about the proposal to dramatically increase bitumen-loaded...
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The price of cheap shrimp
The readership of Island Tides is, in my experience, among the best informed and most conscientious about our collective and individual ecological footprint of any people on the planet. However, I keep...
View ArticleA $15 federal minimum wage will not solve inequality – but it could help
I am going to vote for the NDP’s motion on reinstating the federal minimum wage. A federal minimum wage would only apply to federally regulated industries which comprise only a small portion of the...
View ArticleWho decided biotech was a technology winner?
The federal government, regardless of political stripe, has a poor record of picking technology winners. Canadians essentially lost tens of billions when the giant white radioactive elephant Atomic...
View ArticleClimate Change is a threat to food production—one we are ignoring
As the multilateral process within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) works toward a new, more inclusive and stronger treaty to limit greenhouse gases to be completed by...
View ArticleThe speech I did not get to give
I had thought that the debate on sending a military mission into Iraq would allow for me to make a 10 minute speech. Due to the motion for closure, I never had that chance. I had some rough notes of...
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Counting our Blessings
On this Thanksgiving weekend, I think we are all drawn toward the counting of blessings. As my new book tries to set out, I think of “who we are” as a people and as a nation. And as both, we have much...
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