One of the first things Peter and I noticed was that this thing everyone is calling a budget—well—isn’t one. It’s a 400-page narrative (technically called a “budget plan”) that describes, using far more words than numbers, where our money is being spent. The result is that some details continue to be missing, though we do get a general sense of the direction: new spending in the wrong areas, no new spending in the right ones, and the wrong kinds of tax cuts and shelters that don’t benefit middle- or lower-income Canadians, nor do they offer the kind of economic security that’s needed right now.

Then word started to float in that Dion had announced the Liberals will support this government’s budget. They called this budget “watered down,” saying it was “a mile wide and an inch deep.” And now they’ll vote in favour of it.

In other words, they have officially taken the position that they will support mediocrity. This has many key Liberals understandably upset, including Warren Kinsella who called the Liberal response pathetic, and one of my favourite Liberal bloggers A BCer in Toronto (aka Jeff) who asked the same question I did several posts ago: “If not now, when?” (Actually, Jeff’s so upset that if you read his post to the end you’ll realize we may not be able to call him a “Liberal” blogger for much longer.)

I don’t blame Liberal supporters for being frustrated. Our country is in desperate need of strong economic leadership; we cannot afford an official opposition that accepts anything less in a time of emerging uncertainty and, conversely, great opportunity.

And here’s the thing. According to both the Globe and a Liberal MP, my by-election opponent Bob Rae is the key person who provided the “leadership” within the Liberal caucus that resulted in them voting in favour of something that, by their own admission, is nowhere near adequate. Meanwhile, economists and observers are very concerned that this budget brings us dangerously close to a deficit in the face of a looming economic slowdown, while others (including the Green Party) rightly point out that there’s almost no vision here for how we can take advantage of the economic opportunities presented by new green-collar jobs and green innovation, nor is there any vision to build stronger, more affordable, world-class cities.

Up until now I’ve been going pretty easy on Bob (he’s a well respected individual who I’ve believed would make a competent MP), but I’m not sure I can anymore. We cannot afford a Member of Parliament who’s willing to accept mediocrity. Especially when there’s the potential to amount to so much more. Especially when there’s reason to believe they did so for personal, rather than principled, reasons. Canada deserves better. Toronto Centre needs better.

A BCer in Toronto writes, in part:

Umm, how do you propose we wait Bob? I mean, everything else you and the caucus nervous nellies are saying makes sense. I’d love to get those by-elections done first too, get some momentum from hopefully having Bob and some other new Liberal MPs in the house. I’d love to wait until the economy has worsened. I’d love to wait until the Liberals are at 100 per cent in the polls, and Stephane Dion is more popular than The Beatles.

There’s a few roadblacks in the way though, besides Stephane’s lack of musical ability. First one: the budget. The first votes are going to be in a few weeks, well before the byelections. What does Bob propose we do on the budget. Does he want us to vote in favour of what’s going to be a minimalist budget that does nothing to address the worsening economic situation, and prop-up this government that stands for everything we don’t? Or would Bob rather we prop-up this government by abstaining, and look the laughing-stocks again?

…So, while I like Bob’s theory, it’s the practice I have some issues with. If he has some brilliant plan for getting us past the budget vote without looking like complete tools, I’d love to hear it. Maybe the leaker forgot to tell Jane Taber that part.

Nervous nellies, buck up. Find your cojones. The election train is moving out of the station. Get on board or get out of the way. We cannot prop-up this government any more.

And from Garth Turner:

Much has been made this week of an election call. If you believe the media, Liberals reacted by forming a coherent and fierce battle group around the leader. Then fired inwards.

True enough, some, a few, of my caucus colleagues just love to talk about how they fear going to the voters. I should know the refrain by heart, since I’ve heard it from a half-dozen of them for an entire year. Lately the Lib Pacifist Movement has even become a little organized, and found a champion in a former leadership contender. Miraculously, his words in our inner-most sessions have ended up on the front page of the next day’s daily.

Well, for us poor farm boys from Halton, this is all a little hard to understand. Seems to us you’re in politics for reasons of principle and passion, not just for partisanship. You know why you’re here. If you believe Stephen Harper is screwing up Canada, then you fight the guy. You take up arms for overtaxed middle class minivan moms, for laid-off auto workers, for aboriginals, for the suffering environment, for income trust investors, for those in poverty and those who thought by electing this guy they’d get a leader who would keep his promises.

You fight for those who believed his pledge of 125,000 new child care spaces a year. That he would honour the Atlantic Accord. That he’d treat First Nations with respect. That he cared about the environment. That he’d never tax income trusts. That he’d bring a new spirit of openness and accountability to Ottawa. That he’d treat everyone with equality. That voters mattered, and he’d bring them change.

She’s doing great since her hip replacement last week, by the way. She’s been discharged from the hospital, and was scheduled to be on the Current this morning. Come to to think of it, maybe someone should kidnap her and force her to rest for Pete’s sake.

Fine. Your loss, Garth. I didn’t want to go out with you anyway. You’re right, we should just stay friends. I don’t want to ruin this special thing we have. Besides, um, well, I’ve been meaning to tell you, there’s someone else. She’s really great, and I think she might be my first MP instead. So uh, no hard feelings?

“Well, there is some appeal (in joining the Green party),” Turner said.

“However right now, there is more appeal in trying to be an independent and seeing if that is going to work.”

Good, I hope it does work. I just want you to be happy, really. And hey, if being on your own isn’t what you thought it would be…I mean, if you get lonely…well, who knows how we’ll both feel in the future.

Just know that you’ll always have a special place in my heart.

(Special thanks to every girl I knew in high school for their help with this post.)

Garth Turner Update

According to this account by Lloyd Hilbert (via Jim Harris’ blog), there is some pretty strong support in Garth’s riding for the idea of him joining the Green Party:

At the end of the meeting he did a quick show of hands to get a judgment about what to do next.

He chose 5 options:

Stay as an Independent, Join the Liberals, Join the Greens, Negotiate a return to the Conservatives, Resign his position.

Based on a show of hands, the results were as follows:

Resign = 0
Join Liberals = 0
Go back to Conservatives = 4
Become Independent = 19
Join the Greens = 18

Those results confirm my earlier prediction. In fact, that support from his constituents to join the Green Party is even stronger than I thought it’d be. It’s a very good sign.

To an earlier commenter’s question about how I feel about the fact that Garth doesn’t support Kyoto as-is, I’m not thrilled about it but I can deal. Kyoto is important because it’s the only international framework we have for dealing with the climate crisis, and because Canada is now in the shameful position of being the only country to have signed the agreement and walked away. We have “cut and run,” as Harper would put it, from an international contract.

That being said, Garth is still willing to work seriously to reduce emissions. In terms of representation in the house, that’s better than nothing.

Elizabeth May Update

The race is on! Elizabeth has confirmed she’ll run in the by-election for London North Centre. There are some compelling reasons why she could actually win this one. There’s no doubt that it’s going to be the biggest local campaign in the Green Party of Canada’s history. We’ll be organizing buses to run from Toronto to London on weekends to flood the riding with volunteers, and several people have already committed to move to London and volunteer for the duration of the campaign. If we pull this off, and Garth comes through, we’ll have two MPs before the next general election. Everything’s happening very quickly.

Planet Earth Update

Things are happening very quickly here too, but in a much more negative way. Yesterday the WWF released more chilling evidence (as if we needed any) that we’re in serious trouble. Some highlights from their report (PDF):

• Globally, we’re now placing a demand on the Earth’s resources that’s approximately 25% more than the Earth can provide.
• By current projections, we’ll be using a full two-Earths worth of resources by 2050 (the same year Harper would like to get serious about the climate crisis).
• Wildlife biodiversity has declined by a shocking 30% in the past 30 years.
• The report predicts that “large-scale ecosystem collapse” is likely by the middle of the century.

What’s even more upsetting and baffling is that, as of right now, I can’t find this story on cbc.ca, theglobeandmail.com, or nationalpost.com. If “large-scale ecosystem collapse” isn’t big news, someone please tell me what is. (Oh wait, I think I’ve got it. I just took a quick poll. Number of Google News articles about the WWF report: 70. Number of articles about McKay’s dog comment: 83. Number of articles about Madonna’s adoption: 729.)

Per capita, Canada is the fourth worst culprit. Interestingly, the United States is second, with the United Arab Emirates taking first place. I was in the UAE almost two years ago, and just dug this up from an (admittedly overly-pretentious) letter I wrote home about something I saw while visiting a high-school in Abu Dhabi:

A display case labeled “Did You Know…” shares some interesting facts about how wasteful and disproportionately privileged America is (produces x amount of garbage, consumes y amount of the world’s resources, throws out z percentage of the food they produce). It seems a little rich coming from a country where everyone drives an SUV, lives in a palace, eats mostly imported food, and owes their wealth to peddling dino-juice to the rest of the world. Then again, maybe I’m just bitter they forgot to mention how wasteful and privileged Canada is. We count too ya know.

I’m not particularly proud of the tone of the entry (I think I was trying to be funny), but you get the point. These students were being taught how bad the US is, when it turns out the UAE is even worse. And Canada’s not far behind. All I’m saying is, if we’re going to criticize the States, let’s make sure we’re also getting our own house in order.

Time For Action

All that is enough to be paralyzing, but think back to the first two updates. As our crisis worsens, our efforts to solve it also increase. Jared Diamond describes this phenomenon as a horse race between two animals that each continue to run faster. The most likely winner is not yet clear, but it’s not too late to affect the race.

Last night I was at Bullfrog Power’s one-year Birthday Bash. Bullfrog provides 100% renewable electricity to customers in Ontario, today. Right now! If you live in their service area and you want to take some action, becoming a customer of theirs is a good way to start.

Another great action would be donating to or otherwise helping with Elizabeth’s campaign. We need to raise $80,000 to run a full campaign, and there’s just a little more than a month before E-Day on November 27th. Jim Harris appears to be helping to direct donations and organize volunteers through the national party, so visit his blog for more information.

Lots to be done. Let’s get to work.

As you almost certainly know, I’m talking about Garth Turner, who is contemplating the opportunity to become Canada’s first Green MP after being kicked out of the Conservative caucus two days ago.

Garth has basically two options: join another party or remain independent. The fact that he says he’s “waiting for a new logo” leads me to believe that he may favour the former. If so, the NDP have said they don’t want him, which leaves the Greens or the Liberals. Of those two options, I think he’s leaning towards us. In his own words, “defecting to the Liberals would clearly be a big step for a guy with blue blood in his veins.” On the other hand, the Green Party has many former Conservatives, and we were the second choice of more Conservative voters in the last election (a full 36%) than of voters for any other party.

Therefore, my best guess is that he’ll either remain an independent or join the Greens. As for predicting anything more specific than that, I think the odds are split 50/50. What I can say is that he’s considering it seriously, and has been speaking with both Elizabeth May and the local Green Party association in Halton, where I grew up.

His decision will probably come down to what his constituents want. That’s where you can help. If you live in Halton, or know someone who does, please show up at one of Garth’s town hall meetings this weekend and let him know you think he should make history.

Saturday October 21st, 2006 at 2:30 PM
Tansley Woods Library (in Community Centre)
1996 Itabashi Way, Burlington

Sunday October 22nd, 2006 at 4:00 PM
Ella Foote Hall
6611 Panton Road, Kilbride

I realize now that as this post draws to a close I haven’t devoted any space to explaining why I think Garth should go Green. In short, it would do more to advance Canadian action on climate change than anything else that’s in his power. He’s said that “climate change is the greatest all-round threat this country faces,” and that the decision he now has to make is how he can best serve his constituents.

Greens are a diverse group already, so Garth would fit right in even when he was sticking out. And with a threat as big as the climate crisis, there’s no time to play partisan politics. I’ll work with anyone who’s willing and able to accomplish the goal.