GreenerPolitics

The K’s, a band from Connecticut was featured on GP Radio with their song entitled Election Night. I caught up with band leader Dan Kilian and talked with him about the release of their new album ‘I Can’t Get It Together’ and their CD Release Party on October 12 at the Baggitt Inn in New York City.

Dan chatted with Band members about the Green Party and got this response from Dave ‘Soup’ Campbell:

…
My favorite part of the “green movement” is putting a friggin’ park on top of a building. Soil, plants, trees. An entire ecosystem. Took em long enough! Now they realize it’s great for drainage, heating, cooling, nesting for red tail hawks. And it doesn’t cost a penny. I believe the fix was in for a couple centuries. The roofing folks, guys who build drains, HVAC systems, oil, gas, the Carlyle Group. Send ‘em all to Antarctica! I want hand-to-hand combat with our old friend, the Empire Penguin. My money’s on Empire.

But alas, we can’t even get congestion pricing in a town that kills millions a second from traffic going nowhere.

I want no income tax for anyone and everyone who does not own an automobile. And I want triple tax for everyone who owns a house. Man, talk about a massive carbon footprint. And folks who live on top of one another - in an apartment building - should get free food. The organic stuff. Zero carbon footprint = organic food. And weed.

Kill everyone who drives a “hybrid” car to their carbon mansion in the burbs. Man, talk about counterproductive. Feel good about this: a smack in the face!

Ron Paul for Prez
Mike Gravel for VP

The dream ticket.

Soup

MMP: The Good, The Bad, The Adorable

Whenever we talk about elections, we seem to focus on what candidate or what party we plan on voting for. Perhaps because of this, we tend to forget the electoral system that shapes our choices. In Ontario, the choice is between Conservative, Liberals, the NDP and the Green Party. However, a move is afoot in Canada to change the system to allow us a more flexible choice on the ballot called Mixed Member Proportional representation or MMP.

The Good

Jim Harris is the former Leader of the Green Party of Canada and recent inductee to the board of directors for Fair Vote Canada. He believes that there is a historic opportunity to move to a system of Mixed Member Proportional Representation.
We talk about what it will take to win this historical vote, how it might be accomplished, and what kind of opposition the ‘Yes’ side is likely to encounter in the next few months.

If you’re interested in getting involved in this campaign, you can contact Jim at jim@jimharris.ca. You can also visit his blog on the Ontario election by visiting www.voteformmp.ca or by phoning Toll Free: 1-866-383-3667.
The Bad

Joseph Angolano is completing his Ph’d in Democratic Theory at the London School of Economics and is the creator of the website, www.notommp.ca. He accepted my invitation to come onto GP Radio to communicate his concerns about mixed member proportional representation, ranging from the politics around list creation to just plain confusing the Ontario voter. I spoke to him from his home in Toronto, Ontario on August 23.

Joseph will be working hard on the ‘no to MMP’ campaign doing research and keeping up his website.

Let the battle for MMP begin!

The Adorable

Scott Piatkowski and Rebecca Granovski Larson are two pet lovers who are representing their pets on Facebook: Adorable Puppies for Electoral Reform and Adorable Kittens for MMP.

Avo, a 6 month old puppy, believes that Mixed Member Proportional Representation will be good because it would allow all breeds of dogs to play together in Parliament.

Avo would also like to give dogs the vote and would institute mandatory dog walks and snausage subsidies for all citizens.

Scott Piatkowski represents the powerful lobby group of adorable kittens who present the citizens of Ontario with an ultimatum: pass MMP or all kittens in Ontario will lie on your newspaper while you are reading it, refuse to use the litterbox, or simply ignore you.

Pass MMP or face the consequences!

16 August 2007 - Today’s Senate Standing Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport majority report into water supply options for South East Queensland produced recommendations that don’t go far enough, with only the additional comments by Greens Senator Rachel Siewert applying the evidence before the Inquiry and recommending that the Traveston Dam be scrapped.

“The Senate inquiry was presented with overwhelming evidence that Traveston Dam is a high-cost, high-risk approach to South East Queensland’s water supply, which will not ease the current drought” said Australian Greens lead Senate candidate for Queensland, Larissa Waters.

“Yet the majority report and the additional comments by other Senators all stopped short of calling for the dam to be scrapped. Greens Senator Rachel Siewert made a call on the evidence and recommended that Traveston Dam should be stopped.

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from CBC.ca

Canada’s top soldier told cheering marchers in Toronto on Friday that their support for the military encourages Canadian soldiers who are enduring difficult and dangerous conditions in Afghanistan.

Gen. Rick Hillier was speaking at a massive rally at the Canadian National Exhibition fairgrounds, where hundreds of people turned out in red shirts to show support for the soldiers stationed overseas.

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from Citynews.com

The provincial election is only months away, and as always, education is the hot topic among Ontario voters.

The latest front-burner issue is funding for faith-based schools. Conservative Leader John Tory got the ball rolling when he proposed extending funding to Muslim and Jewish schools, provided they also teach provincial curriculum. 

The Liberals and the NDP have stated they do not want to see any changes to faith based funding.

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