Leader’s Rant: On Grandmothers and Neighbors

2019-04-14 By gpnsadmin Leave a Comment

Another frustrating day. Warning, this is a bit of a rant.

It is so heartwarming to see how three Mi’kmaq grandmothers rushed to save our livelihood to protect our water. After their release they came to the province house to fight on. The fight against Alton Gas is becoming for me a symbol for our choice, a future for our children or giving in to oil and greed.

I had again some internal battles I want to share. I didn’t want to speak because I really want to listen to our First Nations who have all the right to shame us (and they didn’t, they were encouraging all of us). Do we really need another politician who tells everyone what we need to do? On the other hand, if we do not speak we will never be heard. So, I said only a few words even though there is so much I should talk about.

I admire the courage and commitment of the people who again stood on the streets in the cold. It feels good to stand with them. However, I am getting worried and sad thinking what does it change at the end? Of course, it is the absolutely necessary as the beginning to wake us up, but do we really believe by now that the politicians inside this House are changing anything because we are there?

So here is my problem. There are so many good people demonstrating, but I think most of such engaged minds find politics dirty and do not participate. Then there is this large fraction of the population which just don’t seem to care anymore, and who could blame them. But with these attitudes, and also with this devastating strategic voting, what will ever change?

We really need another government, and likely a different governance model. I actually think that parties are mostly detrimental at this time. But to change within the system we need to elect people who are really there because of the issues. The Greens are not paid by big oil and are here because of climate change and social injustice. We need to get people active on this front, even so its politics. If we have people who can talk to the neighbors we can make a real change. This is how revolutions happen, not by discussions in the parliament. Interestingly, this was also the message of the Mi’kmaq elders. We need to get active and do this by talking to our neighbors.

Tick tock… building urgency

2018-10-16 By gpnsadmin 2 Comments

by Thomas Trappenberg

In Korea, last week, the IPCC released a Special Report for Policy Makers which has set the world abuzz.

They identified that a lack of urgency is hampering efforts to keep climate change in check: the effects of climate change are outrunning us.

Here in Nova Scotia, our government has expressed the attitude, “we’re already doing our share” as a way of sidestepping the federal government’s proposed carbon tax. In this race, meeting an already soft target is not an excuse to rest and let others catch up. This is not competition among provinces or countries — this is everyone racing to survive. We have achieved a significant reduction in GHGs, it’s true, and the efforts of Efficiency Nova Scotia / EfficiencyOne can’t be overstated. But as Dr. Larry Hughes points out,

“about half of the (30% target) reduction was achieved by accident rather than design with the closures of paper mills and the Dartmouth refinery, a decline in transportation emissions, and an over 60% increase in residential electricity rates between 2005 and 2015.”

Much of Nova Scotia’s GHG reductions are from loss of industry, not from strong government action switching us to renewable energy. We cannot smugly tell the rest of the country to catch up when we are resting on laurels of industry closing or going elsewhere.

The Green Party of Nova Scotia has some solid ideas of how we can continue to fight the effects of climate change locally, and set an example for others to follow globally.

Nova Scotia needs to engage in full cost accounting. We can’t let “externalities” be an excuse. For instance, we have agreed to BP drilling offshore. This may not count toward our GHG totals due to accounting magic, but we have a moral obligation for the climate effect that is ultimately produced because of this.
Build resilient communities. Strong, resilient communities where people care for one another and share resources are needed to help us be able to adapt to the changes that face us.
Get rid of coal. 100%. Coal causes air pollution in our province, releases mercury into our atmosphere, and affects the health of Nova Scotians on top of climate change concerns. Mining it has caused some of our greatest disasters. Even if it weren’t an imperative for climate change, getting coal out of our energy mix makes good sense for our health and the safety of our workers. Think it can’t be done, that getting rid of coal is too drastic? Scotland and Ontario have done it.

Green Party of Canada Leader Elizabeth May has called for immediate discussion federally on this report. Governments at all levels should be doing the same.

Perhaps this is part of the reason why our neighbors in PEI and New Brunswick (and our countrymen in BC) are voting Green. With so much coastline, the effects of climate change are more immediate and apparent.

I encourage you to join us. The world needs action, and it needs to start now.

On Whipping Votes and Making Deals

2018-10-08 By gpnsadmin 1 Comment

by Charlene Boyce, Green Party of Nova Scotia Co-President

The recent New Brunswick election results engendered a lot of interest in the more obscure aspects of parliamentary procedure. What happens when the winner is really not evident?

This election has gone a long way toward showing the serious drawbacks of first-past-the-post in a splintered electorate. We may not be accustomed to minority governments, but once we have three or more active parties, they become not just a possibility, but an expectation.

The “Big Two” (for now!!), the Liberals and Conservatives found themselves in a practically-tied face-off due to the precedent of favour that the incumbent government enjoys. This left newcomers The People’s Alliance and David Coon’s Green Party with the enviable position of being courted for support. Interestingly, the way the numbers broke out, even with a deal and an ‘alliance government’, a clear majority is not so clear.

Many news anchors were talking to David Coon, asking whether the Greens would ‘prop up’ the Liberals.

Now, those of us familiar with Green politics know that we don’t whip votes. That is a thing we are known for. Our MLAs, MPs and other elected representatives are expected to vote with their conscience. Since we rely heavily on facilitated discussion and consensus building, we often find ourselves agreeing with our esteemed leaders, but not always.

So how does a party leader guarantee support to another government if she or he cannot whip votes? This is a question I asked of my party executive, some of whom have a lot more experience than I do.

The answer is, the same way all decisions are made. The elected New Brunswick Greens would meet and discuss and decide as a collective whether they would enter into any kind of agreement, and what kind of agreement, if any, that would be.

The New Brunswick Liberals therefore needed to negotiate not just with David Coon, a more known entity to them, as he has been an MLA for several years; but also with Megan Mitton and Kevin Arseneau, brand new MLAs.

It is situations like this that make politics my favourite spectator sport.

Green Party Replies: Cannabis

2018-10-08 By gpnsadmin Leave a Comment

We are happy to respond to inquiries from Nova Scotians. Send your question to gpns@greenpartyns.ca.

The Green Party recently received this inquiry:

What is your stance on marijuana dispenseries? I feel they should be allowed to operate in Nova Scotia. So many people rely on these locations.

This is our reply:

Thanks for reaching out to us. The topic of cannabis legalisation has engendered a lot of discussion among our members. We don’t yet have a comprehensive party policy on the topic, and all of the offshoot related issues. However, these are three basic statements we have agreed on:

We don’t like the monopoly imposed by NSLC.
We support studies into further potential medicinal uses of cannabis.
As with everything, climate change is a fundamental concern, so we want to ensure that the growing and production of cannabis products are as low impact as possible, minimizing GHG production.

At our recent AGM, we had a terrific panel presentation from Andrew McLaughlin of the Cannapy dispensary, Kenny Lord, active in cannabis business for years, and Myrna Gillis of the Aqualitas production facility.

If you want to discuss further, please feel welcome to reach out.

-Charlene Boyce, Co-President, Green Party of Nova Scotia

If you would like to contribute to future policy, become a member now, and join us on October 27 at our Policy Conference in Pictou.

Rise for Climate – September 8, 2018

2018-09-12 By Charlene Boyce Leave a Comment

Green Party volunteer Leanne Chisholm organized the rally that took place last weekend. We are so grateful for all her hard work! She shares this report. If you would like to organize an event, please contact gpns@greenpartyns.ca!

Leanne Chisholm opens the Rise For Climate Change rally, September 17, 2018.

By Leanne Chisholm

On Saturday, September 8 th , 2018 approximately 75 people came out to the Halifax Seaport Market to demand a fossil free future. The rally was in conjunction with over 900 other rallies on all 7 continents organized by a group called 350.org based in the United States. The rallies were timed to coincide with the Global Climate Action Summit being held in San Francisco, California. Over 250,000 people participated and yet the event was largely ignored by major media outlets.

Thomas Trappenburg and Jo-Ann Roberts spoke passionately to our group of protestors and we marched along the waterfront as far as Bishop’s Landing drawing attention to our cause and the Green Party.

I hope we can participate in this event again next year and promote the event on university campuses during orientation week to attract more young people to the event and inspire them to become members of the Green Party.