We’ll be at the Second Cup on Bayview in Aurora just north of Wellington (it’s near the theatre) between 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.

Afterwards we’ll be heading out to pound in signs and do some door canvassing. Please plan to be there if you have already volunteered.

If you would like to know more about the Green Party and its messages this is a great opportunity in a relaxed setting.

I look forward to seeing you there.

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 The traditional left-right economic spectrum places primacy on people as economic units, which I believe is outdated and misguided.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

Join us at the Crow’s Nest in Newmarket Sunday night at 8:30 for our Campaign Kick-off.

A brief moment to enjoy the calm before 5 weeks of election craziness.

Crow’s Nest is at 115 Prospect Street. Can hardly wait to see you there!

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.

Thanks to the ever-informative Jim Harris for the link to this article in the OilDrum today about global oil production in 2010 and the likelihood that we are seeing Peak Oil.

In the article, Nate Hagens points out that “what has happened in Canada the past decade is that cheap conventional barrels of oil have been replaced with expensive tar sands barrels of oil. The result? Running in place in terms of supply, but at a much higher cost structure.” As oil becomes more expensive to produce we ought to see a higher price per barrel. And that is not even counting the damage to the ecosystem and indigenous peoples near and downstream of the tar sands. This higher price, when passed along to consumers, will change our habits. We’ll buy more fuel-efficient vehicles and demand that our government provide better transit.

Hagens also points out that Canada, and the International Energy Agency, have been engaging in “channel stuffing” which means we’ve been lumping tar sands production, biofuels and natural gas liquids in with conventional crude production. They are not the same thing and mixing them together means only that we continue to delude ourselves for a little longer about global oil supplies.

If we are at Peak Oil, or have already passed it, the smart question becomes what do we do now? So far, our government has followed the U.S. lead of attempting to control as much global supply as possible, building infrastructure to ensure that whatever crude remains continues to flow in a favourable direction. This leads to increasing conflict, increasing deficits and a citizen base that is treated like children for as long as possible.

Of course, if you happen to be part of Transition Town, or the Green Party (or any number of other groups that are calling on consumers to wake up and become citizens), the choice you are faced with is, not how do I protect myself as long as possible so that I can continue to consume with wanton lust, but, instead, how do I lighten my impact on the planet and build local resiliency so that the coming changes don’t decimate my ability to survive and take the rest of humanity down with them.

And change is coming. Any politician who tells you that you can continue with your present standard of living indefinitely is lying to you.

We are already facing the largest income gap in Canada since 1929. The very richest among us, we’re talking the top 10%, continue to get richer, at accelerating rates. But the normal people like you and me, we’re slipping. Our real wages, those that account for inflation, have not increased since the early 80s.

What that means is that the average Canadian is working harder to make ends meet, or even worse, watching the ends fray and fall apart.

This while our governments continue to tell us that they have a handle on things. And that they’ll take care of us.

They don’t. And they can’t.

While in my more cynical moments I wonder if they even care that the average Canadian is slipping slowly out of the middle class, and won’t be able to retire, in general I am more optimistic. I figure they just don’t see a solution.

With their ideology, that of infinite growth, total globalization, and infinite resources, there is no solution. That’s because the neoliberal/neoconservative ideology can’t think small. They can’t look at a community and ask, “How can we make this work?”, or “What resources and genius do we have right here, at the municipal level?” And those are the questions that need to be asked.

The other Parties would ask, “How can we get bigger to get out of this mess?” while I’m asking, “How can we get smarter to get out of this?” The answers are very different and their way isn’t working.

And my way is more fun.

Through my involvement with Greens and Transition Towns I’ve learned a lot about the importance of building local resiliency and local capacity.

Capacity, to me, is the ability of our community to meet local needs. Do we have enough food, power generation, waste handling, water, services, etc. to take care of our citizens?

Resiliency is our ability to bounce back after sudden changes. If, for example, there was an oil shock and the transport trucks stopped rolling for a week, would we have the capacity (there’s that word again) to adapt quickly to the change and ensure that everyone was taken care of? Furthermore, how would we ensure that no one slipped through the cracks? We need systems in place and a strong community to truly claim resiliency.

This weekend I was privileged to attend a workshop by Joan Stonehocker from the York Region Food Network at Markham’s Sustain-a-licious Food Fair and her division of activities into Emergency, Capacity-Building, and System Change really resonated with me. Especially as we move into the Holiday season, and everyone is asking for donations of non-perishable items, I’m struck by the importance of building capacity in our social services.

Make no mistake, food banks and shelters are meant to provide Emergency services and they are vitally important to the communities in which they function. However, they are not meant to be a long-term solution to the problems that they address. They are a bandage. I think our society has made a tragic error by equating food donations with caring for those in need. Much more attention is needed if we intend to reduce or eliminate poverty.

Money, of course, is a huge factor in this equation. Social assistance, as you can calculate at Do the Math, is woefully inadequate to enable those in need to live with dignity. It is a value cornerstone of the Greens to change income tax and social assistance levels so that everyone can meet their basic needs.

But it is about more than money. Capacity building includes abundant, reliable and accessible community kitchens, gleaning, community gardens, year-round farmer’s markets and culturally appropriate food provision. Why do we not have these in Newmarket and Aurora? Why have these services not been made a priority by our Regional and Municipal Councils?

System change happens when we successfully advocate for policy changes. Every municipality must create a Sustainability Report to qualify for Gas Tax funding. Markham’s ‘Greenprint’ is available here and it is excellent. It creates a vision of a localized and resilient community with ample local food production and service provision to ensure that all of its residents are cared for.

Aurora’s is here and Newmarket’s is here. Just kidding! Apparently we don’t have them yet. I have calls in to both Towns to see what the progress is for the reports, if any, and am waiting to hear back. I’ll update you as I find out more.

So, please, drop off your food donations, they are urgently needed. But take one step further and find out about capacity building in your town and how you can help.

I’ve been captivated by happiness lately. I’m currently reading Marci Shimoff’s book, “Happy for No Reason” and have taken the last year to figure out what makes me happy. Interestingly, it was not a question I was raised to ask. In my family, we were concerned with financial security… and that was pretty much it. It was certainly better to be miserable and financially secure than to be taking a risk but ridiculously happy. And fulfilled? Authentic? It never even came up.

I came across this op-ed in the New York Times by David Brooks in March. Based on decades of research into happiness and fulfillment, Brooks makes the argument that “once the basic necessities have been achieved, future income is lightly connected to well-being… the United States is much richer than it was 50 years ago, but this has produced no measurable increase in overall happiness.” And yet, for most of us, money is where we focus almost all of our efforts.

It leads me to question our government’s focus on the economy. What is the point of focusing on increasing economic prosperity if it is only loosely related to the happiness and fulfillment of the populace? Or is being happy irrelevant to our society?

The current paradigm, based on consumerism and materialism, tells us that more money will buy us more stuff, give us more prestige, and make us happier. Stuff = Happiness.

So we tuck our heads down and work harder, harder, harder. We earn more money, we buy more stuff, we increase our standard of living again and again…

Why?

Why do we work so hard? Are we afraid? We are certainly told by media, religion and our government that there is much to be afraid of and that to be secure we have to have more money. More money = more security. Also, more money = more power. But why do we want power and security? I would argue that it is to feel fulfilled. Because we want to feel happy.

I think (and feel free to disagree) that we have allowed ourselves to be convinced that economic success at a national level = security = happiness. We, as a society, have developed tunnel vision that excludes all other possibilities for how to live. We glue ourselves to the daily stock reports, regardless of our investment portfolio, with mood swings tied to the vagaries of the Dow, NASDAQ, and TSE. What have we been thinking?

Our PM recently said that all other issues are a sideshow compared to the economy, especially at the G8, even as he proposes a global maternal health initiative (maybe they are looking to sell Canadian technology and pharma overseas…) and this is somehow acceptable. I think not.

The Green Party of Canada proposes a fundamental shift in this thinking. Money is important, there is no doubt. Maslow’s hierarchy makes it very clear that until we can provide ourselves and our loved ones with the basics of food, clothing and shelter, we cannot aspire towards greater things and greater happiness. Trust me, I totally understand that when one is worrying about money and what they will feed their kids tomorrow, it is hard to be lofty and spiritual.

But once we satisfy those basic needs, where do we aim our attention? Let’s say that I make lots of money and I have it invested well and I am feeling pretty secure. What then? Is that all there is to life? Security?

Brooks argues that the relationship between happiness and personal relationship (both intimate relationships and the social network) is very closely correlated. In study after study, “the daily activities most associated with happiness are sex, socializing after work, and having dinner with others. The daily activity most injurious to happiness is commuting… countries with high social trust have happier people, better health, more efficient government, more economic growth, and less fear of crime.”

Brooks concludes, “modern societies have developed vast institutions oriented around the things that are easy to count, not around the things that matter most. They have an affinity for material concerns and a primordial fear of moral and social ones.”

I don’t want to live a life solely focused on the ‘economy’ or the markets. Happily, the Green Party agrees with me. We propose the development and implementation of a Canadian Well-Being Index that would be used in conjunction with the GDP and other indices to present a more accurate measure of how Canadians are doing.

How we are really doing. Do we feel safe? Do we feel trust? Do we know our neighbours? Heck, do we know our kids and spouse? How strong are our connections to the community? How large are our social networks? Do we enjoy time in nature? Do we have access to beauty?

Because, ultimately, we all want to be happy. And our current system isn’t getting us there.

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.

Thanks to Treehugger for posting the new Annie Leonard video in honour of World Water Day 2010 – The Story of Bottled Water.

Well worth the watching, it lays out the product cycle for water bottles and the idea of Manufactured Demand. Of course, the site seems to be down right now (could it have crashed from too much traffic?), but I’m sure it will be back up soon.

March 22nd is World Water Day and it seems like an excellent time to muse over the current state of our water resources. Canada is so truly blessed with abundant fresh water and some of the healthiest tap water in the world and perhaps that is why we have been able to keep our per capita consumption rates down (though it has been steadily increasing).

This article from the Huffington Post is an excellent introduction to a few of the issues surrounding bottled water – peak oil, leaching chemicals, and corporatisation. “According to the UN, by the year 2020, two-thirds of the world will lack access to clean drinking water,” and there are many political observers who believe that the wars of the 21st century will be about water. Actually, these wars are already happening – the Golan Heights has been a constant issue between Israel and Syria and its main benefit is significant fresh water resources, providing over half of Israel’s fresh water.

The Council of Canadians has been fighting the privatization of Canada’s water resources for years, with fairly good success. It is also a solid Green Party of Canada platform plank that we support a public trust for water and enshrining the right to water in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. By contrast, our current governments (and by that I mean the NDP, Liberals, and Conservatives) have done little to promote public, safe water and with each free trade agreement we make we move a little closer to losing our ability to maintain our common right to safe water.

Check out the new documentary, Tapped. Maybe we’ll have to have a GPC movie night…

This issue has recently gained the spotlight in Ontario with Bill-237 which would create corporations and implement full cost recovery and metering of municipal water supplies. This Bill was killed when McGuinty prorogued the Ontario Legislature but these seemingly innocuous steps have often been precursors to water privatization. While the Green Party supports full cost accounting it must be done in the context of preserving public access and management of this vital resource.

My family recently had the conversation about whether or not to continue using plastic water bottles. I confess that as a Personal Trainer I used my fair share of water bottles when I worked at the gym. Generally I would buy a bottle and then refill it from the water fountain for a few weeks and then replace it with a new one, but, still, that was a lot of plastic. I even remember buying a case one summer and carrying it around in my trunk – by the end of that case the water had taken on a distinctly funky taste, who knows how many pseudo-estrogens I ingested that summer from the heated plastic. My plastic water bottle usage is almost nothing now, thankfully.

Anyway, my partner’s three kids get a packed lunch every day, and as part of that they each receive a water bottle. Every school day. Finally, I couldn’t take it and after serious debate about practicality, health, taste (only one likes the taste of Brita water, the other two prefer tap water), and political image (after all it looks pretty bad to have the GPC candidate using that much plastic) – my partner went out and bought metal water bottles for all of us. Now the kids have ample water and our plastic recycling rate has dropped immensely. And everyone seems happy.

It makes me wonder what it would be like if Newmarket and Aurora went plastic water bottle-free?