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 The traditional left-right economic spectrum places primacy on people as economic units, which I believe is outdated and misguided.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.

Last week’s statement by PM Harper that being found in contempt of Parliament multiple times and being charged with election fraud are merely ‘distractions’ is a clear sign of the lack of respect he has for Canadian democratic institutions.

Make no mistake, these systems are in place as safeguards against abuses of power by those who claim to lead us. This government, which has managed to cling to power for going on five years now despite the support of less than 25% of eligible voters, has consistently shown that they consider Parliament and the people of Canada to be simply obstacles in the way of their doing business.

Claiming that the economy is their #1 priority (while running up record deficits) attempts to scare people into compliance with a false argument.

The real argument here, and all left and right parties will make it, is that we are mere units in an economy and that, beyond the economy, everything else is secondary. Somehow a strong GDP translates into a ‘better’ country.

Well, when my Mom got cancer and died, that increased the GDP. That’s as far as I need to go to know that there is something fundamentally wrong with trying to run a country based on GDP.

The Green Party is different. Unlike the traditional left-right continuum of economic-based Parties, the Greens are ecologically-based.

Now, before you go off and start trumpeting that this is why we will never lead, take one minute to think about what this means.

Greens look at the whole system and figure out how to make it run as best as possible. We are not so focused on the economy that we ignore the quality of life that citizens enjoy.

We’re smarter than that. We know that quality of life is what should determine how the economy runs.

What does a green economy look like? It doesn’t pollute without cost. It provides local, resilient employment so that all Canadians can enjoy a higher standard of living instead of the increasing concentration of wealth into a few hands.

And it doesn’t think that someone dying of cancer is a good thing because it brings more money into the system.

Instead of sick care, a green economy promotes health care. Real health care. Not more prescriptions because those help drug companies. But healthier citizens because that increases the quality of life.

Change is coming. It won’t be from the left-right parties who are trapped in their economy first mindset.

It will come from the increasing number of people who realize that their lives are more important than money. That’s why I vote Green.

A friend of mine linked to the Maclean’s article, “Third World America”, by Luiza Ch. Savage yesterday. It paints a truly terrifying portrait of where North America is heading – crumbling infrastructure, destitute municipalities, and a general weakening of our societal bonds. We have outsourced our middle class jobs and allowed a transfer of wealth which, as Rich Dad’s Robert Kiyosaki has said, is the greatest ever seen in history. And it is getting worse. One dystopic future, and, sadly, a natural progression from this article, is described for Bowen Island, off the coast of BC.

While our government has tried to tell us that their stellar stewardship has seen us safely through the most recent recession, what they have failed to mention is that the situation is only going to further deteriorate as we transfer more and more control of our currencies into the hands of global speculators. And as we continue to decimate our manufacturing sector through reckless free trade agreements (like the deal currently being negotiated with Europe, the CETA).

Furthermore, in Canada, now that we have sold most of the ownership of natural resources to foreign companies, and strengthened our indentured status with the United States, we seem to have run out of things to sell to artificially prop up our economy. Even Minister Flaherty seems to have acknowledged this, issuing a statement last week that calls for very modest growth over the next several years. Guess that deficit they created isn’t going to go away as quickly as they said it would. Quel surprise!

(Though the Conservatives still somehow expect to return to balanced budgets with smaller growth, less corporate tax, and less payroll tax than they had originally predicted. Given their disdain for science and research, I can only assume they feel the same way about basic math, because their calculations just don’t work.)

As the gap between the haves and the have-nots increases, and the middle class increasingly feels the strain, the appearance of a fortress mentality draws closer. The economic ideology of neo-cons and neo-liberals has not worked, it is creating failed states and needs to be stopped.

But there is an alternative, and it is one that I encourage Canadians to start paying more attention to. Transition Towns is a movement that began in the UK and has grown rapidly in the last several years. York Region now has its very own Transition group and it is sharing its vision of localized and resilient economies and communities with residents, business groups, and local governments.

If you are wondering what you, as an individual or a small business, can do to become more resilient, contact your local Transition Town initiative and find out how to become involved with creating a better future. Reduce your debt as much as possible because low interest rates will not prevent the inflation that is coming. And, finally, invest in hard currency, get as much real gold and silver as you can so that when the paper currencies crash you will be on the correct side of the wealth transfer.

I desperately hope I’m wrong, but if I’m not there are grim days ahead if we do not change our economic ways, begin to wean ourselves from fossil fuels, and re-localize our economies.

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Addendum:

October 13, 2010

I would like to add that this was in no way meant to provide specific financial advice and that any actions you take regarding your own financial security need to be examined critically by you to your satisfaction of due diligence.