Came across a couple of articles today that, combined with the gas prices we’re seeing at the pumps, has me thinking about the importance of Transition Town and a Green perspective.

Today, the UN issued a report that food prices have reached an all-time high after eight straight months of increases. The basket includes a number of commodities including cereals, dairy and meat. The high prices are attributed to a combination of rising oil prices, declining cereal production and other global changes.

As well, I came across an article talking about the growing political unrest in Saudi Arabia. As one of the key sources of oil for the West, if Saudi oil production becomes unpredictable, or stops during a regime change, oil prices will skyrocket leading to shortages and/or high prices at the pump.

These two issues make it even more important that we begin to focus on our local economies – making them diverse and resilient. Do you have community gardens and orchards? Are you allowed to have small livestock within your Town boundaries? Is there adequate local food/energy/water production? Are there solid community networks to ensure that the most vulnerable don’t fall through the cracks?

The answers for Newmarket and Aurora right now are, sadly, no. We have a lot of work to do to prepare for a changing global situation.

The good news is that, thanks to the hard work of Transition York Region, things are beginning to change. Slowly but surely we are strengthening our community linkages and resilience.

We have to hope that it will be enough.

Last week, friends, family and Green supporters gathered at the Wellington Gallery in Aurora to help me kick-off my bid to become the Green MP for Newmarket-Aurora.

It was fabulously successful and I am so grateful to everyone who came out to lend their support (both emotional and financial) to our cause.

The local press was present and there was a great article by Sean Pearce in the Era (and possibly the Banner?) yesterday.

The best part of the night, for me, was hearing that I had helped to restore people’s faith in politics and politicians, and that they now saw a tiny bit of light at the end of the tunnel. I couldn’t wish for greater praise than that.

We’ll post the video as soon as it is edited. Until then, here’s the original text of my speech (minus the laughing, crying, and ad libbing!). Hopefully, it resonates with you as well.

“Let me start by thanking you for joining us here tonight. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful friends, family and supporters. Thank you to Emil for allowing us to use this beautiful space. And thank you to Adriane Carr and Georges Laraque for lending their support to our local group and my Candidacy. I’ve been joking with friends the last few days that this is my ‘coming out’ party. For the last several months I’ve felt like a stealth candidate. I’ve been developing strategy and quietly making connections in the community and learning what issues are important to the people of Newmarket and Aurora. So this is my debut. One of my clients suggested I wear a white dress but I thought that might be going a little too far. I’ll save that for my wedding.

Speaking of which, I have to thank my fiancé Jordon Davidson for his incredible support and ability to help me find balance. Thank you sweetheart.

Tonight I wanted to answer a couple of questions that I frequently get asked.

The first is ‘Why do I support the Green Party?’: I’ll tell you straight out. It’s Green Values. The Green Party is not just Canadian, it is a global network of people who share a common set of values. Social Justice, Ecological Wisdom, Sustainability, Non-violence, Respect for Diversity, and Participatory Democracy. Every decision, every policy that the Greens put forward is based on these six values. It keeps things simple and it makes it easy to answer questions. If I can speak from these values, then my answer will be authentic and true.

The second question is ‘Why am I running?’: The answer is simple. I care about what happens to humanity. I care deeply about what happens to Jordon’s children and my nephew after I am gone. I care about the quality of life that their grandchildren will have. I want them to be able to drink the water, eat the food, and breathe the air. I want that for them. Like you, I care about my family.

And I care about the global family of humanity. I believe that when we throw our trash ‘away’ we are simply making it someone else’s problem.

When we exploit other areas of the globe to feed our consumption, I believe that we are not only harming our global family, but we are harming ourselves.

When we act in anger, or talk about hate, I believe that we harm ourselves a great deal. One of the six Green Party values is non-violence and I believe that we need to look at the harm that we do to ourselves, as well as to others.

That is why I am running. I want people to have something, and someone, to vote for, and not just to vote against.

This has been an exciting year and I have learned a lot about what it means to be the candidate for the Green Party. I have met fantastic people who are working to build community in this area and to get people engaged. And it has been a privilege to help them as much as I could. And I would like to thank them.

The first person is Liz Jefferson. Starting with indignation at the Harper government’s arrogance in proroguing for a third time, Liz has since created a group called Citizens Engaging Democracy that is dedicated to getting us involved. One of the major successes this year was the inauguration of a Fair Vote chapter for York Region.

The second person is Sue McKee. Seeing the changes that are coming and wanting to be proactive, Sue started a Transition Town group for York Region. The goal is to create local, resilient communities and economies so that people can live, learn, work and play in their own community. It is challenging, exciting and fun work and I am grateful to Sue for the work that she has been doing.

A year ago I did not know either of these women and now I don’t like to imagine my life without them. And though I like to think that I would have joined these groups and taken the steps to get involved without being the Candidate, doubt remains in me.

I think that I needed to make a commitment.

I needed to commit to being the Green Candidate and doing the best job that I could.

I needed to commit to building community and reaching out to people in every way that I could.

I needed to commit. And I have. I have committed to being the best Green Party Candidate and serving you as best I can. I have made that commitment. And I want you to hold me to it.

And I want you to make a commitment as well. That is what tonight is about. If we want to build a strong Green presence in Newmarket-Aurora we need your support.

We need your commitment to get involved. To stay involved even when it is hard. Even when you want to turn away from the harm that is being done to our country, to our community and to our families.

I challenge you to stand up and be counted. To engage with democracy in your community and in your country. We need to change the system so that every vote counts, so that every one is represented.

If we had a fair voting system we would have Conservative MPs from Toronto, Liberal MPs from Alberta and a beautiful Green caucus in the House of Commons.

This is our democracy. This is our country. And it is time to commit to taking it back.

Please lend us your support tonight as we work to build the very best campaign that we can. Thank you very much, again, for your support and your faith in me.”

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.

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.

One of the phases of Transition Towns (TT) is the creation of working groups, and, happily, one of the first working groups to form here in York Region is the Heart & Soul group. Have you ever felt like ‘the thing’ you’ve been preparing for all your life has finally appeared? That’s kinda what TT feels like for me – I am feeling fairly enchanted by the whole process.

Breaking the addictions to fossil fuels and consumerism can be a painful process – it is always hard to wake up and see the light – and the H&S group is tasked with helping people find a way through the process that is enjoyable, not just doable.

We are also responsible for helping our members prevent burnout, and as any activist knows, it is no small feat to keep energized and positive as the months, years and decades of work pass by.

With TT we are blessed to start with a premise that is positive, uplifting, and energizing, but it will be up to the Heart & Soul group to keep the Vision before the group and bring in community members with engaging activities and truly inclusive facilitation.

If you would like to find out more, or would like to join our group, please contact me, or visit the York Region TT network to learn more and sign up.

There is something very exciting happening in York Region and I am thrilled to see it happening, and even more thrilled to have the privilege to be involved. A few intrepid souls have started a Transition Towns (TT) ‘mulling’ group and it is already bringing together knowledge, skills, and a vision for a resilient and localized community.

The Era Banner did a pretty darn good Sunday feature on Sue McKee (one of the initiators) though the consensus has been that it did not emphasize the, as one of our illustrious members put it, the fact that “Transition Town is quite simply the most synergistic, optimistic, supercalifragilistic social engineering idea I have ever seen.”

You can find out more about the York Region TT group here.

Last night, three local TT’ers ventured to Peterborough to learn more about their TT movement, which has advanced from ‘mulling’ into ‘launching,’ and Open Space facilitation, one of the preferred meeting moderation techniques of TT.

Part of the evening was used to lay out some of the key learnings of the Peterborough group and what they considered to be essential local needs. To me, most of these local needs would translate well to working groups and comprise essential political issues. So I thought I’d pass them along:

Health
Transportation
Infrastructure
Food
Water
Housing
Energy
Money
Banking
Education
Waste
Pollution
Soil
Forests
Wetlands

What do you think? If you are interested in learning more about Transition Towns or joining the York Region group please feel free to contact me.