It took me five hours to read the motions, read the discussions, and cast my votes. If you’d like to shorten the process for yourself, and if you trust me, then I am happy to provide you with how I voted, and where I think it is important, my reasons for doing so.

This has been an eye-opening process, I think it is the first time I have ever taken the time to really look at the motions being put forward and by whom. The Green Party is a continually evolving organization, and as with any such process, there are always groups that envision the evolution proceeding in different directions.

I still believe the the GPC is the only place to be, and the only place to put my vote, and I further believe that our exhaustive policy formation process, from the grassroots, gives ordinary members an extraordinary ability to participate in the Party evolution.

I’m sure that I’ve offended just about everyone with at least one of my choices, but in the interests of transparency and accountability I remain willing to be called out on them, and to defend them, or to have my mind changed. I look forward to seeing you at the Convention, on the floor and in the workshops.

If you are not currently a GPC member, and are wondering what on earth I am talking about, you have until July 22nd to become a member, research, and vote on these issues yourself.

Here is the list, starting with Policy Motions:
p02 – Green
p24 – Red
p26 – Green
p27 – Green
p29 – Green
p12 – Red
p13 – Green
p14 – Yellow
p20 – Green
p28 – Green
p15 – Green
p16 – Green
p17 – Yellow
p18 – Yellow
p34 – Yellow
p04 – Green
p08 – Green
p10 – Yellow
p11 – Yellow
p19 – Yellow
p21 – Green
p25 – Red
p31 – Green
p32 – Green
p33 – Yellow
p07 – Green
p09 – Yellow
p22 – Yellow
p23 – Yellow
p30 – Green

Constitution Motions
c01 – Black
c09 – Green
c10 – Black
c11 – Red
c13 – Yellow
c25 – Red
c02 – Green
c03 – Green
c05 – Green
c24 – Yellow
c26 – Yellow
c27 – Yellow
c28 – Green
c12 – Green
c29 – Yellow
c30 – Green

c14 – Green
c15 – Yellow
c16 – Red
c17 – Yellow
c18 – Yellow
c19 – Yellow
c20 – Yellow
c21 – Red
c22 – Red
c23 – Red

To be clear, I have serious issues with this group of Resolutions pertaining to EDAs (c14-c23). Beyond the rather pathetic flaw wherein they refer to EDAs as Riding Associations, and head office as ‘the Party’ (an issue I’ve already taken up with them in the context of their pithy preambles…), these seemingly reasonable motions have the cumulative effect of removing all independence from the EDAs and placing it in the hands of the central office, which, in my experience to date, has been incapable of organizing themselves effectively and should certainly not be put in charge of the entire EDA function as well. As an example, c15 mandates that the selection of candidates will be entirely prescribed by head office, and c16 that every EDA must adopt the Constitution provided by the central Party and that any proposed amendments must be approved by central Party through an undefined process. C14 through c21 would be damaging enough on their own but when combined with c22 and c23, two resolutions which allow central Party to negate the RSA or to completely deregister an EDA for noncompliance, they are unacceptable and need to be defeated. I get that we need to have a reasonable standard of compliance across our EDAs, but these heavy-handed, poorly thought out, and incredibly arrogant motions are not the way to do it. As an example, our EDA could be deregistered if we do not have an ‘acceptable’ Constitution on file with Head Office – with no redress. What if Head Office lost our Constitution? What if we disagreed? What if we simply wanted to keep the Constitution we already have? We would have no choice, and would lose our right to exist, simply because someone (and this is not defined either, by the way) said so. This is incredibly distressing to me.

c04 – Yellow
c07 – Red
c08 – Yellow

Directives
d02 – Black
d11 – Red
d10 – Yellow
d13 – Yellow
d01 – Green
d05 – Red
d09 – Green
d12 – Red
d14 – Red
d03 – Green
d04 – Yellow
d06 – Red
d07 – Green
d08 – Red

I confess, I did a bit of pleading to get Dave to agree to run for the Green Party Federal Council. Looking forward to retirement, after decades as a high school teacher, Dave wondered why he would want to add being a member of Federal Council to his list of advocacy and artistic projects.

Hmm… good question.

In Dave, I saw the opportunity for Ontario EDAs to have a real voice on Council – to be represented by someone who has a ferocious belief in grassroots democracy and the power of a Constitution to either hinder or help an organization in both the short- and long-term.

I knew that Dave loves Constitutions and By-laws, not because of his years of service on the OSSTF Provincial Council, but because he kept asking me questions about our EDA and Federal Constitutions. ‘What do we do in this situation?’ ‘What does this mean?’ ‘Who is responsible for this?’

All great questions. Questions that it had never occurred to me to ask. And definitely questions I did not know how to answer. While I take pride in my ability to balance a love of details with a passion for the big picture, Dave’s focus on Constitutional details blew me away, as did his positive attitude and great ideas for local EDA work.

There are a lot of gaps in our Constitution, gaps that Dave noticed right away, and made proposals to help close.

There also seem to be a lot of people at the Federal level willing to ignore the Constitution and the grassroots nature of the Party while they concentrate power at the centre and present us as a Party of One. Several of the Constitutional amendments proposed cause me a great deal of concern about where the Party is headed and how committed Federal Council is to an impartial, grassroots approach. I do not believe that we have had a truly effective Provincial Councilor in the past. In my years of CEO I can attest that I was never consulted by our Provincial Rep, and received the most minimal support from Provincial Organizers. I would love to see this change, would love to see more focus on supporting local EDAs.

We are more than one candidate, more than Head Office, and waaaay more than a climate change advocacy group and I firmly believe that Dave shares these views and will work hard as Provincial rep to ensure that the Party is guided by a vision rooted locally.

I totally support Dave Kempton in his campaign to become the new Provincial Councilor for Ontario. We desperately need new voices and ideas on Federal Council, and we desperately need the voices of those who have experience outside of the environmental lobby.

It is time for the GPC to grow up and become the federal Party that I know we can be and having Dave on Federal Council would be a great start. You can find out more about him here.