The thing about the Green Party of Canada is
that it is a one-issue party. But not
in the sense that many assume: we are definitely not Greenpeace nor even tree
huggers.
The one issue, the fundamental philosophy of
the Green Party, is that the environment is crucial to the health of human
society. The economy has to be seen as a
wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment, and not the other way around. The economy cannot proceed as though the
environment is irrelevant. Without a healthy
environment we cannot have either a healthy economy or a healthy human society.
This leads automatically to one of the
Green Party’s major policies. We will
introduce a carbon tax. We are not
prepared to deny the effects of our human life style on the atmosphere. It has to be constrained, and the way to do
that is to apply a fairly stiff price to carbon. We are in agreement with the Citizens’
Climate Lobby on a “fee and dividend” approach, where carbon is taxed at
source, and the entire revenue redistributed as a dividend to all citizens. (1) In one stroke we can address our consumptive
life style and address serious poverty issues.
One issue, but out of that one issue,
policies that address all our society’s needs.
A parallel policy to our carbon tax is that
we will end all subsidies to the oil and gas industries. We have to leave most of the discovered oil
reserves in the ground. (2) Continuing
subsidies to the fossil industries will not result in that happening. Instead of spending money on non-renewable
energy resources – oil, gas and coal, we will redirect public money into
renewables – wind, solar, and water.
Our direction is unlike all the other
political parties: they all without exception treat human society and the
economy as the most important aspects of public policy. Of course they are important; that’s why we
are in politics. But they cannot take
precedence over the environment. We
cannot continue to pollute our air and water and expect to have any sort of
sustainable future on this planet.
Yet that’s what the others plan to do! Despite protestations to the contrary, the
continuation of the current status quo is essential to their platforms. If we continue on the road they all propose,
we will end up where we are going: Lemming-like at the edge of a very steep
cliff.
Another major characteristic of the greens
is that they have principles. Oh I know,
since when have politicians ever been principled! Yet, that’s it. There is a set of public values against which
all policies of the Green Party are tested. (3)
If they do not meet one or more of these principles they are not
adopted.
These values are: Ecological Wisdom, Social Justice,
Participatory Democracy, Non-violence, Sustainability and Respect for Diversity. We do not, for instance, think that a future
is assured through bullying by one group of nations of another, or one group of
citizens by another. We are decidedly in
favour of proportional representation, as are the great majority of
democracies. We are firmly for freedom
of sexual preference as well as freedom of choice. All our policies stem ultimately from our
love and passion for this planet, and a determination that there be a safe and
healthy future for all life as well as for all our and your grand and great
grand children.
(1) http://citizensclimatelobby.ca/content/carbon-fee-and-dividend-open-letter
(2)
International Energy Agency: http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org
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