Category Archives: Canada

Greens Get The Blues

Canada

You’ve heard of the bourgeoisie? Now there’s the “Turquoisie” — the Jim Harris blue-greens.


GREEN-PARTY-LEADER-IN-CONFLICT

Or did the Blues get the Greens?
Flushed with electoral success, Canada’s Green Party would seem to be on a roll. But leader Jim Harris’ right-wing, market-based election platform and his ruthless internal manoeuvring have raised the hackles of the party’s “deep” Greens.
Are the Greens headed for a major split at their annual party convention, to be held in Calgary at the end of August? We’ll know the answer to that question later this month.
According to Charles Campbell, a long-time Green party member, Thunder Bay resident, and former chair of the federal Green party’s policy committee, in an e-mail he sent recently to dissident greens on their active, anti-Harris New Green e-mail list, Jim Harris has moved the federal Green party so far to the right that it’s barely a ‘green’ party any more …

“Jim Harris’ vision is centralized control of the party administration with the participation of two or three of the thirteen provincial and territorial fiefdoms. It is driven by borrowing against future funding and has as its goal the creation of a personality cult around the Leader. Its approach to policy is to hide our history and create a neo-con vision of green economics driven by how profitable ecological business can be.”


In his thoughtful and provocative article for rabble.ca, former B.C. Green party activist Stuart Hertzog suggests that the Green party’s new-found leniency towards corporations may stem from Harris’ corporate consulting activities, including Harris’ work for Agilent Technologies, Barclays Bank, Centra (now Terasen) Gas, Deloitte & Touche, Johnson & Johnson, MasterCard, Munich Re, NEC, and Worldwide Express, to name just a few.
Hypocrisy would seem to be the order of the day for Jim Harris, the leader of a Canadian Green party whose corporate ties are in conflict with a global Green movement whose roots extend deep into the global anti-corporate movement. A right-wing agenda which mixes corporate business with green politics — is this what Canadians, and most members of Green Party Canada, are looking for in a leader of an alternative national political party?

Cruise Control? Cruise Ship Industry Pollution In Canada

BC Politics, Canada, Environment

CRUISE-SHIP-POLLUTION
Alaska-bound cruise ships in dock, at Vancouver’s harbourfront Canada Place terminal

What images spring to mind when you imagine a northern cruise vacation? Crystal clear water, teaming with sea life; humpback whales frolicking for your viewing pleasure; or perhaps just the vastness of British Columbia’s pristine coast, and a wild azure blue ocean untouched by human pollution.
These images contradict the current reality of the cruise industry.
A single cruise ship discharges approximately 1.3 million litres of waste water per day, more than the port city of Haines, Alaska.
In an article published in The Dominion, writers Yuill Herbert and Karen Gorecki report that:

  • The American environmental group, the Blue Water Network, estimates that 77% of all ship waste comes from cruise ships
  • Two billion pounds of trash is dumped into the world’s oceans each year and 24% of that waste comes from cruise ships
  • 14 million kilograms of waste was produced in 2000 on the Alaska-Canada route alone
  • Cruise ships have accrued over $60 million in environmental fines over the last five years in the U.S. Yet, in Canada, due to a lack of monitoring and enforcement there have been no fines, despite the fact that these same ships visit our waters
  • Greenhouse gas emissions of international ships are excluded from the national emissions inventories, a loophole in the Kyoto Accord which benefits cruise ship lines

The Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group’s report, Ripple Effects: The Need to Assess the Impacts of Cruise Ships in Victoria B.C. not only serves to reinforce the points made by Herbert and Gorecki, among other findings the report’s authors learned that cruise “ships burn fuel that has sulphur content 90% higher than that used by cars.”

Minority Government Bodes Well for Kyoto

Canada, Environment

arctic.jpg

Canada’s first minority government in 25 years will have to ensure it acts on environmental and sustainable development issues if it is to maintain support from the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois.
According to International Institute for Sustainable Development Board Member Mary Simon — also a former Canadian Ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs — climate change should be at the top of the Liberal government’s environmental priority list. As someone with close connections to Canada’s north she is well aware of climate change’s “profound implications for the social, cultural and economic well-being of the 50,000 aboriginal people who live in the Canadian Arctic.”
Ms. Simon’s compellingly readable two-page report (Adobe Acrobat required) is available here.

Canada Celebrates Its 137th Birthday

Canada

MAP-OF-CANADA


Across this great land of ours, Canadians from coast to coast to coast celebrate a remarkable country on its 137th birthday.
As the election dust settles, this is a day to put aside our political differences, to come together in commemoration of a vibrant nation of almost 32 million people, a Canada that is held up around the world as a model of tolerance, civility and social-mindedness.
As the world becomes a smaller place, as globalization and the communications revolution sometimes blur the distinctions between countries and cultures, today is a day to acknowledge Canada’s ‘differentness’ — from our social safety net and welcoming immigration policies, to our cherished Charter of Rights and Freedoms and our acknowledged politeness — these are just a few of the traits that define us as Canadians.
In these troubled times, who we are as Canadians is cause for celebration.
Happy Canada Day !!!