The CBC and other groups have launched a Vote Compass that, after 30 questions, places you in the Party that they believe is closest to your views. Did it work? Sure. I ended up right on top of the Green Party, which was reassuring. But then I started thinking about where they had placed the GPC and I wondered: When did we become economically left of the NDP and Bloc? Or the Liberals for that matter?

First off, I know the GPC is economically to the right of the NDP. Our policies support private enterprise and create a user-pays system while reducing income and other payroll taxes. We believe that all costs should be internalized to corporate accounting but I think that makes us more fiscally conservative, not less. We also have believe in avoiding deficit, only spending what we know we can pay back. We also believe in not treating resources as infinite, which the other Parties all seem to base their projections on – a belief that is obviously untrue.

Are there really four 'left' Parties in Canada?

Much more important, though, and the argument that I’ve been making recently, is that this spectrum is completely on the wrong track – it would need a z-axis to truly represent GPC values. We think primarily about the ecological system, including humans, not the economic system. The traditional left-right economic spectrum places primacy on people as economic units, which I believe is outdated and misguided.

We are so much more than our jobs, and while the other parties talk about standard of living and GDP as if they were all that mattered, the conversation we need to be having is about the *quality* of our lives. Are we connected to our communities? What is our impact on the world around us? How are we doing as stewards of this amazing, abundant world?

I’d like to see the Vote Compass compare Parties based on their ecological/systems perspectives and change the conversation from dollars to our ability to survive and thrive on a planet that is undergoing some drastic changes.

While the left-right political-economic spectrum may have been okay 100 or 300 years ago when it was first envisioned, it is time for us to grow up and start thinking about our impact on the world around us as part of a whole system, not a minor part of a hurtling economy. Sure, in the French legislature the choices were between socialism, communism, liberalism, conservatism and fascism but our knowledge-base has come a long way since then and I think it’s about time our political systems caught up.

Today marked the conclusion of a Summit to discuss issues surrounding the opening Arctic waters. It didn’t end as well as our Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Cannon, would have liked, according to the Montreal Gazette. U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton chastised Mr. Cannon, and by extension, the Canadian government, “for excluding aboriginal leaders and three northern nations — Iceland, Finland and Sweden — from the gathering.”

Mr. Cannon defended his exclusionary tactics by commenting that “Arctic Ocean coastal states have an important stewardship role in the region.” Ah yes, and our Conservative government is doing such a good job with their ocean stewardship – if stewardship means voting against attempts at the recent CITES conference to protect polar bears or rapidly diminishing fish stocks like Salmon and Bluefin Tuna or against banning bottom-trawling fishing vessels, which ravage the ocean’s bottom, not only removing all current life but making regeneration almost impossible.

Yup, Canada is surely a beacon of ocean stewardship, what with Victoria and Halifax still dumping raw sewage into their respective harbours and our careful management of the Atlantic cod fishery. Even our refusal to sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples a few years ago shines as an example of stewardship of fragile ecosystems and populations.

We should totally be allowed to take a leadership role on the incredibly fragile Arctic while the EU and aboriginal peoples are excluded from the talks because, well, they actually give a darn about the Arctic as more than another area to exploit as thoroughly as possible, arming it and using it for commercial traffic.

Yup, we are very special indeed.

BTW, here’s a quick link to the GPC policy on the Arctic. Yes, we have one. And while it is called the Green Arctic strategy, we certainly would prefer to avoid that – an outcome the governing parties don’t really seem to mind.

The recent Manning Centre 2010 Barometer found that 89% of Canadians (based on 1000 interviews) strongly believed that “nothing is more important than family,” a value the Manning Centre claimed for conservative ideology. This contention caused a bit of a stir – do conservatives have moral ownership of the ‘family’ issue?

One comment was that this focus on family (sounds conservative doesn’t it? It’s amazing how well their spin machines work) as the ‘most important thing’ flew in the face of Canadian values and the idea of ‘love thy neighbour’ and taking care of those less fortunate.

And it got me thinking, “Is family the most important thing?” and, as a politician, is it perhaps where I should be focusing. How about we claim family as a Green value – as THE Green value.

My family is the most important thing in the world to me. And I will do what it takes to protect them and ensure that they have a happy and healthy and safe future. That is why I am running for the Green Party. And that is why I think everyone who has kids, and wants to protect them, should vote Green.

This happened to coincide (I just love synchronicity, don’t you?) with an email I received from the most excellent Mr. Kempton, who runs the Albedo blog, and who was informing me that he had had a ‘minor revelation’ which I happen to think is actually pretty major – at least as it pertains to GPC policy.

“It occurred to me last week that we don’t have to get people to believe that climate change is real, or a great danger, etc. We just have to get them to act as if they believe it. Maybe that’s the basic concept behind pushing the positive economic, health, lifestyle effects of changing our ways of being on the planet… Passion and hope are more powerful, really.”

I have a confession to make: [deep breath] I couldn’t agree more. I can’t stand talking about climate change. I know that it is a GPC mainstay but I think it is nothing but detrimental to our cause. Because I think the truth is that climate change paralyzes most people – it is too big, too nebulous, and too easy to argue. Let’s talk about how we will help your family, your kids, your life.

And, as a political issue, climate change is useless. The people who get it have already gotten it, we need to reach the people who won’t get it. I know that fear is a great motivator when it comes to marketing but I don’t think it works as well when it is packaged as existential angst. It works when it is something much more concrete, like, ‘if you don’t use this pill, you’ll never have another erection.’ Now that gets some attention.

Telling people that there are massive planetary changes underway that will slightly increase the earth’s temperature and have catastrophic consequences leads to, ‘Woah! My brain shut down halfway through what you said and I’m now thinking about my shiny new car.”

Moreover, we don’t need it. The Green platform is amazing. We’re promoting healthy, vibrant, abundant communities where people know each other, care for each other, and have the resources they need, locally, to feel happy. We are offering an awakening, a re-vitalization of people’s lives, their homes, and, yes, their families. We actually care that people get to see their kids, that they aren’t spending two hours commuting every day, that they aren’t on the hamster wheel of ‘success’ but empty inside. Our Vision provides all of that.

We have the best plan for job creation.

We have the best plan for energy sustainability.

We have the best plan for food security.

We have the best plan for health.

We are offering passion, hope, and happiness. So let’s drop the focus on… what was it again?

bahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

No really. Thanks to Huffington Post for giving me a great chuckle on this Wednesday afternoon of Bottled Water Week.

The Bottled Water Matters Report video purports to be journalism but is nothing more than a long-form ad for Bottled Water Manufacturers (BWM). Get it! Oh I love their sneakiness.

Whether it is the soft-ball questions and acquiescent head nodding served up in a style that, unfortunately, reminds me of the recent Google PM interview, or the assertions that plastic bottles can be recycled into medical equipment, beverage containers, or… plastic water bottles this video delivers beautiful nature scenes and enough sweetness to make one gag.

If you want to know about bottled water, check out Tapped or Annie Leonard’s new video. Or you can read a book, try Bottlemania or Blue Gold: The Battle Against Corporate Theft of World’s Water by our very own Maude Barlow.

I’ve just begun a new blog, The Long View, to indulge my musings on the various books that I read my way through. I figure it gives me some justification to read as much as I do and buy as many books as I do.

One of the books I’m reading right now is Tomorrow’s God by Neale Donald Walsch. I was just blogging about how his challenge to us is to realize that we are all one. That there is no such thing as separation. That every part of this Creation is also the Creator. Y’know, that kind of stuff.

And then this article came across my Twitter stream (Tweet-stream?). Jason Kenney, the Conservative Minister for Citizenship and Immigration, deleted any mention of equal rights for non-hetero citizens. Really? And then, according to the article, he was surprised that it had happened. Really.

It seems to me that this is a perfect example of not doing unto others, and not following any sort of belief that we are all one.

At least to me, if he had these beliefs, he would be unable to ostracize and continually villianise even one person, let alone an entire demographic of the population. And let’s be honest, he’s been on record against same-sex rights for a long time.

And, to be clear. I care because I believe we are all One. What we do to another, we ultimately do to ourselves.

That is why I care about equal rights for all citizens.

That is why I care about human rights for all people.

That is why I care that 20% of the world’s population has 80% of the wealth.

And, that is why I care that we are devastating our natural environment and resources.

We have been terrible stewards of our world. I think it is time to change that.

Harper’s Canada is not my Canada. And that’s why I’m running for the Greens.

So there.

I’m simply passing this information along from the Facebook group, Proud to be a Member of That “Left-Wing Fringe Group” Called Women,* with the fervent hope that you will take action and write to your MPs, Minister Guergis and Mr. Harper. Our country has a very poor record when it comes to the treatment of aboriginal populations and aboriginal women have borne the brunt of this mistreatment.

Please help this group continue its work by making the Conservatives aware that we do care – about every person’s rights and dignity.

Thank you.

{snip}

{snip}

* The name of this group refers to a comment Mr. Harper made in a supposedly closed-door meeting in Thunder Bay where he commented on the cancellation of the Court Challenges program and proclaimed that they had shut down the influence of left-wing fringe groups. It’s at 3:40 of the video though you might enjoy his bragging about the cancellation of universal daycare at about 3:30. Sadly, one of, if not the major beneficiary of the Court Challenges program had been the equity and rights of women through many cases. It was a major loss to equity in this country and it slipped right by, almost un-noticed and un-challenged. We might as well change it to the Minister of State Against the Status of Women

[Letter number 2 in what will most likely be a series of Letters to the Editor of the Era-Banner that I am not allowed to send because I am a declared candidate for an election that will happen sometime in the future. I wish I had realized that when I declared for the Green Party I would lose my voice at the Era-Banner but such is life. Now I get to make my letters longer. Ha!]

Dear Editor,

Re: Voter turnout low because politicians lie, letter from Mr. L. Rothwell, Feb 11 / Re: If you care about democracy, vote, editorial, Jan 28

With all due respect to Mr. Rothwell I must challenge his hypothesis that when “80 per cent of voters… stay at home. Then, maybe, politicians will get the message.”

While there are a few directions my disagreement could take – including my belief that when 80% of voters stay home we will live in a true oligarchy where only the select few have any say in government and tyranny will reign and Canada will weep. Though, this scenario is fairly close to the mark with respect to municipal elections. Anyways.

That was not the point.

What I really wanted to dispute was Mr. Rothwell’s obvious anger towards ‘politicians’ and his categorization of them as “people who lack integrity and ethics.”

Of course, as a recently declared political candidate I take it a little personally that because of my political choice I suddenly have no integrity nor ethics. I actually consider myself to be a person possessing both integrity and a high ethical standard.

But that is still not the point, though closer to it. The point is – there are no politicians. There are merely people, just like Mr. Rothwell and myself, that have chosen to join in the political process.

Politicians are not usually born. They are made. They are people who have decided to pursue a public life – hopefully in the service of their country and the best interests of the electorate.

Do these people sometimes lose focus and become swayed by the pretty, shiny danglings of lobby groups? Yes.

Do they sometimes pursue power to the exclusion of everything else. Yes.

Do these people sometimes let us down? Yes. Often.

Do we have a democratic crisis in Canada? Yes. I believe we do.

But my point is that sitting at home and whinging about it is not the best use of one’s time.

Stand up. Get engaged. Make your voice count.

And if you can’t find a single political candidate that you can trust – then take the leap and become a candidate. For municipal, provincial, or federal politics quality candidates are desperately needed.

Of course, it would be super-spiffy if you would support me and my bid to be the first Green MP for Newmarket-Aurora, but if you can’t, then get your butt out there and run against me.

I also have an issue with your contention that “the population is a lot more educated these days.” Hardly. When the anti-proroguing rally was being organized most people did not even know that our democracy had been suspended. They didn’t understand what it meant. And they didn’t know why they should care. Some were happy to get the ‘liars’ out of Ottawa for a while. People know far more about what Britney Spears is up to than what our PM is doing showboating in Vancouver.

But that isn’t the politicians fault. If there are issues with our democracy it is because we expect ‘someone else’ to take care of it for us.

We are the change we wish to see. We are the smallest unit of a democratic society. And it is up to us to keep it safe and keep it strong. If we don’t have anyone to vote for then it is up to us to find them – or to become them. That is what I did. And it is what I encourage everyone else to do.

That is why I am so proud of local organizers like Liz, Neale, Nick, Carter and everyone else who helped make the January 23rd rally such a success – and who are now organizing a public meeting in Aurora on February 25.

Holding the Line on Democracy will take a frank look at what is happening in our society and, hopefully, send people away feeling more educated, more empowered, and more motivated to take action to keep our democracy strong.

Mr. Rothwell, I am personally inviting you to join us. It’s kind of fun to be around other people who care as passionately as you obviously do.

There are no words to express the awesomeness of this blog post (not mine, obviously, but the one I am linking to):

http://www.1001words.com/2008/09/obama-to-nation-im-outta-here.html

Enjoy!

Keen! If you are in the States, you can send a text message. Living anywhere else? You can send a message of peace online.

Goodness knows we could use some uplifting and peaceful thoughts these days. I could get in to a long speech about how our thoughts are energy and have a tangible impact on the world of matter – but I won’t. At least not right now. Just go for it. Think peace for a little while. See how it feels.

Here’s my first shot:

Peace will never be felt while we are divided. While one gender is treated as inferior, while the earth is taken for granted, and while we allow one group to suffer for the benefit of another. When we realize we are all one – then we will have peace. Create a compassionate world that cherishes peace, abundance, and diversity.

Blessings.

…and then there is this article which questions the claims made by Annett’s group back in April regarding mass graves. It’s pretty long but the comments following are also interesting. There is so much to think about here and so much that is unknown. I didn’t even know who Kevin Annett was until I read this article, now I want to know more. Knowledge is power.

That is why the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is such a great idea. But so is an independent forensic investigation into a few of the supposed grave sites.

The more information we can get into the open, the better. Transparency is the first step towards trust building.