GreenerPolitics

by Mark MacGillivray

This is the hottest election campaign I’ve ever been a part of.  The Ontario Greens have hot policies backed up by a solid political organization.  The stories we are presenting are catching the imagination of the media who, if it were up to them, would love Green Party Leader Frank De Jong in the Leader’s Debate.

The tone of these articles are emblematic of how the Greens are being treated in this campaign: seriously with equal treatment compared to the big three.
Greens release election platform

by Michele Henry, Toronto Star

Taxing water and pollution instead of income, encouraging “walkable” communities linked by transit and meshing Roman Catholic schools with the public system together form the basis of Ontario’s Green Party election platform.

Frank de Jong, provincial leader, introduced his party’s priorities in front of Queen’s Park today, saying eco issues are the only ones that matter.

“The issues that are being discussed in this election are all green issues, whether we’re talking about smog or electricity or nuclear power or preventive health care or agriculture or transportation,” he said.

Read the rest of the article.

Scrubbers, cigarettes and six new holidays
Ontario election campaign, Day 4, Canadian Press

TORONTO (CP) — Climate change, coal-fired electricity and last year’s whopping Christmas raise for Ontario politicians were all on the campaign-trail agenda Thursday as the province’s political hopefuls completed a fourth day of campaigning for next month’s election.

The governing Liberals dismissed a Progressive Conservative plan for power-plant smokestack scrubbers as the coal-fired equivalent of a filtered cigarette, while the NDP promised a $10-an-hour minimum wage and a massive pay cut for politicians.

But if there was anything to get voters talking Thursday, it was the campaign platform released by the Green party, which includes six - count ‘em, six - new statutory holidays.

Read the rest of the article

This is an absolutely awesome video.

By Showwei Chu, CBC News

Janna Levitt and her husband had no idea that more than 2,000 people would walk through their door when they listed their environmentally friendly house in this year’s Doors Open Toronto, a popular free tour of landmark buildings and cultural spaces.

But that’s how many came to see and hear first-hand the benefits of owning a green roof, a traditional flat roof that incorporates vegetation.

Read the rest of the article 

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!

by Rosemary Frie

Hi Everyone,
 
It’s nearly September, and that means … the provincial election race is almost under way! I went out canvassing for a couple of hours this evening with Marija Minic, the nominated candidate for the Green Party of Ontario in our riding, York Centre. We were heartened by the responses - very few doors closed quickly in our faces and a fair number of positive responses - including a donation to the campaign and three requests for lawn signs.
 
It’s pretty cool to be going through my first campaign - I mean, I’ve helped out for a couple of days here and there on a couple of other campaigns, but there’s nothing like the first time as a core member of the campaign team. And we’re pretty much on top of things - our website has ‘gone live’ (www.marijaminic.ca) thanks to more than 50 hours of work a member of our team, Howard Pasternack, has put into it over the last couple of weeks, we have our lawn signs ordered, our 70,000 postcards are being printed as I type this — the postcards invite people to our Sept. 16 event, introduce Marija, say a bit about the Green Party of Ontario’s platform, and directly asking people to donate, volunteer, and/or take a lawn sign — and they will be distributed to most of the households in the riding in the first day or two of the campaign (which starts Sept. 10) - and a brochure is just about ready to go to press, plus we’ve had business cards printed for me and for Marija.
 
Sure, there have been some wrinkles along the way, but overall it’s already been an amazing experience. And I’m blessed to have a small but tight-knit, dedicated and hard-working team of people around me - plus a wonderful candidate.
 
Go Campaign to Elect Marija Minic Go!!