Ten things I would do as your Member of Parliament

I knight in shining armour for
Perth-Wellington?

1)  1) Hold monthly open house evenings in all parts of the riding. At these events, I would give a short talk or Powerpoint presentation to address the issues and laws being discussed in Ottawa and how they affect the economy, the environment, health-care, social justice and other aspects of life and government in Perth-Wellington. Then I would address questions brought forward by anyone who shows up and try to find out how I could be part of workable solutions to individual and community problems. There will be snacks. 

2)  Approach all high school civics teachers and elementary teachers teaching “government” in the riding about making myself available as a resource to their classes, both in person and remotely from Ottawa. I would encourage the other parties’ riding associations to participate by sending representatives and information to discussions in the schools hosted by the teachers. If I am not in government, it would be important for the government’s point of view to be represented, if it is different from mine.  Engaging young people in the political process and helping to educate them in the functions of government will be one of my highest priorities.

3)  Partner with my Provincial Member of Parliament if she/he is willing, to share ideas and issues which relate to our common riding.  If possible, we could appear together at the monthly open house meetings, since people often bring concerns that may need to be addressed by both levels of government. Also, people are also often understandably confused about which level of government they should be addressing on any given issue.

4)  Attend as many county council and municipal council meetings as I could to make myself available to municipal politicians, and understand the issues they face so that I could address their concerns as they relate to the federal government.

5)   Run as transparent an office as possible with daily updates to a website as to my itinerary, expenses and voting record (and why I voted the way I did or why I did not vote if I was absent from parliament, and why I was absent).  I would also make this website a centralized resource for people in my riding who want up-to-date information on issues affecting the riding or who want to post their own point of view about those issues. I will use the website to highlight important upcoming legislation and ask people to respond with reasons why I should vote one way or the other.  

6)  Host a speakers series in all parts of the Perth-Wellington asking interesting people from within and without the riding to publicly address specific topics as they relate to our common future.  The common theme would be how government is, could be, should be or shouldn’t be involved in some aspect of life in Perth-Wellington, and what does the future hold for that aspect of life. “The future of farming in P-W” would be an example of a talk that could be given.  I would set up this speakers series so that it could be viewed live over the internet, recorded for viewing later and available as an audio podcast.

7)  Not take orders from my party as to how to vote in parliament or how much time to spend in Ottawa and, if my parliamentary activities (votes, committee works, etc.) are not going to be decisive anyway, I may opt to spend the time in my riding if I feel that would be more productive.  If I miss a vote as a result, I will publicly explain, in advance, why and how I would have voted, had I been there.

8)  If not in government, vote with the government on any legislation that I feel will benefit the people of Perth-Wellington in the long term.

9)  Not cross the floor to sit as a member of another party.

10)  Not waste citizens’ money mailing flyers or engaging in other kinds of self-promotion within the riding.  All appearances, mailings, websites and office activities will have the goal only of sharing relevant information, educating anyone who wants to know more about issues, helping involve all people in the political process and working on behalf of individual constituents who face problems dealing with the federal government. 

What a Green Perth-Wellington might look like.

Greens talk a lot about their policies, principles and ideas but it may be hard to imagine just how those things might appear in action. The future and any “alternate reality “ are impossible to predict accurately, but to give you a little taste of what where we live might look like if we were all a whole lot greener, I’ll give it a shot.

The first thing about GPW (Green Perth-Wellington) is that we use a whole lot less energy and the energy we use we use very efficiently.  This means that almost everyone who lives in GPW not only works here, but works very close to where they live. Many, many people actually work at home.  Long car commutes are almost unheard of.  People who don’t work at home often commute on foot, bicycle, scooter or use some form of public transportation.  Many people still own cars of all types, electric, hybrid, gas, biodiesel, but they are all relatively expensive to run for long periods of time so people avoid using them where possible.  The other thing you notice is that almost all buildings are “smart” and hyper-efficient. That means that buildings will sense when a light, heater, air-conditioner, or other appliance is not being used and will shut it off automatically.  All buildings too are built or retrofitted to be very heat and air conditioning efficient. This is a huge local industry employing hundreds of people, with buildings constantly upgraded with the latest proven technologies.  Many are heated and cooled using individual and communal geothermal systems. Almost every building is insulated extremely well, with heat exchangers ensuring good indoor air quality.

Much of the energy we do use is produced locally using state of the art, renewable technology such as wind, hydro and solar all on appropriate scales. Almost every roof in GPW has some kind of solar array on it that is integrated seamlessly into an intelligent electric power grid. GPW sells this power to neighbouring utilities when it is producing more than it needs and buys from them when the wind and sun are not co-operating here.     

The main engine of the local economy is agriculture. A huge proportion of all the food we eat is grown locally since shipping produce is more expensive in the future.  We also process and preserve (freeze, dry, can, smoke, salt, ferment, distill etc.) much of what we produce for our own use and for export out of GPW. We still grow corn and soybeans, but agriculture has diversified greatly into all kinds of other crops such as vegetables, fruit, berries, herbs, hemp, crops for bio-mass, all kinds of edible beans, grains and oil seeds. Many people are employed at least seasonally in the agricultural sector and it is very, very lucrative. Only food products that cannot be effectively grown in GPW are still imported such as coffee, tea, sugar, citrus fruit, etc.  Farming has become very diversified and employs all kinds of new and revived techniques for maximizing yield while using a minimum number of chemical and artificial inputs due to their high cost.  Not all agriculture is 100% organic, but it is close enough and food is expensive enough, that “organic” has largely ceased to be a separate food category.  Animals kept for milk, eggs, and meat live closer to the actual fields that grow their food and on which their waste is used as fertilizer.  Most of the money that comes into GPW is as a result of the excess food we can grow, process and export to places like Toronto, London etc.

The manufacturing sector has also diversified away from automotive parts production and into all kinds of other areas such as agricultural equipment, parts for trains, re-manufacturing (repairing and upgrading existing equipment), de-commissioning (completely disassembling  and recycling discarded goods and equipment), equipment used in the renewable energy sector, and equipment and building products used in the energy conservation sector.  Since products from places such as China are expensive to ship. Small scale manufacturing  has started to produce high-quality, durable clothing, footwear and other consumer goods locally.    

GPW is largely connected to the rest of North America by electric railroads. These trains are used to transport people as well as goods. Passenger rail service is not always high speed, but it is comfortable and allows those who use it to sleep, work fully connected to the internet and relax.  Many places such as Palmerston, Listowel, Harriston, Clifford, Drayton, Milverton, Mount Forrest etc. are again accessible by rail as they once were not that long ago.

The Stratford Festival still flourishes as a destination for people coming from Toronto, London, Hamilton, Windsor etc. almost exclusively by trains some of which are quite luxurious.

People’s work and educational lives have evolved to the point where many people work at two or more jobs during the year in different industries depending on the season, for instance in the agricultural sector in the summer and fall and in manufacturing or education in the winter.  Many people also pursue higher education and skills upgrading when not working or working part-time. Because of the large demand for skilled and semi-skilled labour in the agricultural, energy and conservation fields, employment is full or almost full all the time.

Every community in GPW is vibrant and prosperous no matter what its size. People have begun to once again value their communities, take pride in them and celebrate their individual cultures.  The pace of people’s lives has slowed somewhat and more time is taken to enjoy live music, theater and local sporting events especially during the less busy times of year.   People tend to travel less often, and spend more of their leisure time and money where they live.  When they do travel, it is often for extended periods of time by train and boat since airplane travel is prohibitively expensive.     

This is only a partial vision of a future with less energy and fewer resources, but I hope it gives you a taste. It is not necessarily “better” than our current reality, but if managed properly, it does not have to be worse either. Just different.  And sustainable.  

Reflections on a different kind of campaign

Me as runner in the 1974 Liberal Campaign (not really)

I think I was about eight when I worked on my first political campaign in 1972. My parents were big Liberals and I can remember going down to Bud Drury’s campaign office and licking so many envelopes that my mother was compelled to go and buy me a freezie.  I was also pretty good at keeping our button table  stocked  and our  bumper sticker display all tidy. Back then, campaign offices were full of nice ladies (mostly) yacking on phones, typing stuff, moving pins around on big maps and smoking like chimneys.  In 1974 , I got promoted to runner on election day, so my mum and I would drive around and collect hand-written lists from the Liberal scrutineers at the polls and take them back to HQ so that identified Liberal could be called and told to go vote.  It was an amazing  machine to watch in action and it was all done without a single computer.

 In our riding, the Liberals  could have run a stick of  kindling and it still would have won, but they didn’t take any chances.  The PC candidate was now Senator Michael Meighen, known to  Stratfordites as a major and generous supporter of the Stratford Festival and sometime Stratford resident.  Sen. Meighen is and extremely classy, articulate, intelligent and kind man. We crushed him like a bug.  Twice. In the 1979 election, I was again promoted to scrutineer.  Scrutineers are the people who work for the parties and keep an eye on the whole voting process at each individual poll to make sure no funny business goes on.  They are the heart and soul of every fair election that has ever taken place.  It was all a fascinating and inspiring education.

Fast forward 32 years.  I am the candidate  for a party that did not exist  in 1979, I am at home writing a “blog”  for a “website” which I will publicize on “facebook” and  by “twitter”, and instantly the vast majority of voters in my riding can read what I have to say, many of them on a tiny computer in their pocket, and they can respond if they want to, instantly.  I don’t need any 8 year old envelope lickers or an army of  people calling people on telephones. In a way it is sad, but in another way it frees us up to make elections about ideas and the exchange of those ideas. At any time, anyone with a computer can look at all the policy documents of all the parties, compare them and make a very informed decision.  This also means that, in theory, elections do not even have to be about which party has the most money for phones, offices, cars, gasoline,  and literally tons of printed paper material.  In theory, that is even more democratic. Social media has now even been largely responsible for toppling dictators in some parts of the world like Egypt and Tunisia and helping those places take their first tentative steps towards the democracy that too many of us here take for granted.  Will a largely virtual political campaign work in this country? We will soon find out.  Thanks for tuning in.

I need a freezie. 

Off and Running, I guess.

I have once again accepted the nomination to run as the Green Party candidate in Perth-Wellington in the upcoming federal election slated for May 2. Woo-hoo!

Background: I have run for the party federally in the last three previous elections and my best showing so far was a fourth place finish in the 2008 election in which I got 3,884 votes (or 9 %).  The Perth-Wellington Greens and I were the only candidate and/or party to increase the number of votes we received from the previous election in 2006.  In fact, every time the Green Party has run in this riding, federally or provincially, we always increase the percentage of votes we got from the time before, starting with the federal election in 2000, when the late Eric Eberhardt got 2.75%. (He actually ran in Perth-Middlesex.) We are hoping to build on this momentum for the seventh straight time as more and more people are exposed to our message.

I think this time we are going to focus on a ‘grown-up’ and 21^st century-style campaign. I don’t think elections should be about who has the most or the prettiest signs. I don’t think they should even be about who has the most money to spend on radio or newspaper ads or flyers in the mail.  In this age of e-mail and the Internet, election campaigns can and should evolve beyond door knocking and lawn signs. I have a few old lawn signs from the last election if you really want one and promise to look after it, but I represent a party that is opposed to unnecessary pollution and waste, so I don’t really want to cover the countryside in plastic that ends up in farmers fields. An election should be about ideas and issues, it’s not a child’s birthday party with decorations, balloons and loot bags full of pins and fancy stickers.

That is partly where this blog comes in. My team and I will concentrate on engaging in meaningful discussions with constituents using e-mail, websites, this blog and social media.  Facebook and Twitter are fun toys, most of the time, but I want to see if we can use them to get our message across instantly and cheaply. If they have been used to topple dictators in Egypt and Tunisia, maybe they can be used to invigorate our democracy here in Canada. We’ll see.

While broad, Green Party support is stronger with young people for whom the internet is now a way of life, but I also want to be accessible to people who make the effort to call me on the phone or come to all candidates meetings.

So what do I think the issues should be in this election? When I asked a friend of mine that question he said, “‘superprisons vs. rehabilitation/education, a future economy built around innovation and R&D, revitalizing the healthcare system to respond to the aging population, a focused green transportation initiative, planning for cities and their infrastructures, elimination of the inter-provincial trade barriers, an energy plan developed with a generational timeframe, restoring decorum in our parliamentary system, and a military budget built on a vision of Canada's role in the world.” I couldn’t agreed more or put it better.

What the issues end up being might be another story altogether.  Stay tuned and please give me any and all input you can, I will respond as well and truthfully as I can and together we can find out whether it is possible to sensibly discuss issues and engage thoughtful citizens in their democratic process, at least at election time. Thanks for reading.