Good Sunday Morning! And Welcome to October.
I am grateful to readers who are also members of the Green Party of Canada and were able to vote in the leadership review. Thanks to all who did vote – whether you voted “yes” or “no”, but I do have to say it was a boost to receive strong support for my leadership from over 80% of those who voted. I think all Sunday letter readers know I support a leadership transition and hope to hand over the role to a new leader or co-leader whenever council feels we have to financial stability to support a leadership race.
We have another important election coming up soon!
The Federal Council is the key governance body for the Green Party of Canada. The council is essentially the board of directors for the party. I am so deeply grateful to the current council members. We had a very rough patch leading up to the snap election last spring. We lost two executive directors in six months due to internal conflict within the previous council. And since the election, the stability and professionalism and focus of this council has been a source of real strength. There are reasons a well-functioning council is built on mutual respect. It matters for the success of Greens federally. The new council will make all the decisions related to the pending leadership race. I am so grateful to Anne-Marie Zajdljk, our wonderful Guelph candidate, for putting her name forward. I long to see her elected as MP for Guelph. And women in leadership, as a theme, continues with Naomi Hunter, leader of the Green Party of Saskatchewan. Rather than name others, I am grateful to all of them for their engagement in the party. The link below takes you to the full list of candidates and their biographies.
Voting opens tomorrow: please watch for your ballot and vote.
https://www.greenparty.ca/en/council-elections-2025-candidate-profiles
In what one can only hope and pray may be good news, the peace proposal for Hamas and Israel may have some hope. Canadian Middle East expert Janice Stein believes there is reason for tentative optimism. Please that the hostages be released. Please that the bombing and drone attacks cease. Please that there be peace. All of this becomes increasingly painful as we come to the anniversary of the horrific attacks of October 7, 2023. It is almost more than one can bear to reflect on the fact it has been two years since that harrowing day. The deadline is tonight for elements to come together.
This week started with the very sad news of the death of one of my heroes, who was also one of my friends through our work on the Earth Charter. Sharing this photo from May 1992 of me with my 10 month-old-daughter Cate as Jane taught her chimp noises. As she watched me lug my baby to all meetings, she said “you are a good chimp mom!” and said she had raised her own son, Grub the Bush Baby, the same way. The last time I saw her, in Victoria, maybe two years ago, I asked her if she was getting any time to rest. She told me that in the previous year she had spent one night in her own bed. And she was, as ever, doing her work, on the road in Los Angeles, inspiring other humans to connect to the Earth and its creatures. God bless her amazing self.
Elizabeth May with Daughter Kate and Jane Goodall
Forgive me for adding to length and including the full column that appeared in the Toronto Star last week. I was very pleased they agreed to publish my critique on the new Prime Minister and his dismal climate record.
Where is the Carney who warned of climate change? Toronto Star Sunday September 29
“When anyone hears Pierre Poilievre talk about climate, one could wish he would read a book on the subject, or even the Cole’s notes version. On the other hand, listening to our prime minister, one could wish he would read his own book.
On page 273 of his 2021 book Values, he wrote: “The carbon budget to limit temperature rises to below catastrophic levels is rapidly being exhausted. If we had started in 2000, we could have hit the 1.5°C objective by halving emissions every 30 years. Now, we must halve emissions every 10 years. If we wait another four years, the challenge will be to halve emissions every year. If we wait another eight years, our 1.5°C carbon budget will be exhausted.”
It was ten years ago, nearly to the day, that Mark Carney first made his mark as a climate aware citizen. In his famous speech to Lloyd’s of London, (delivered September 29, 2015), he changed the international conversation.
That speech, “Breaking the Tragedy of the Horizon – climate change and financial stability.” focused on the deep and complex reality that only action in the short term can prevent global catastrophe that will be felt long term, and forever. It was brainy and thoughtful.
He warned that to stay within the level of global warming that would allow human civilization to remain viable, most of the known reserves of fossil fuels have to remain in the ground;. He explained that they would become “stranded assets” of “unburnable” carbon. “While there is still time to act, the window of opportunity is finite and shrinking.”
And yet, here we are, barreling toward the levels of global warming that Carney himself described as “catastrophic” and the entirety of his actions as prime minister amount to weakening Canada’s response. Worse, he has refused to confirm he remains committed to achieving the minimum – that Canada will deliver on our own targets under the Paris Agreement. We pledged to reduce GHG to 40-45% below 2005 levels by 2030. The targets embedded in the UNFCCC and are legally binding under international law. The most recent Canada Climate Institute report estimates that we are very far from our goals, with Canada on track to achieve 20-25% reductions against 2005 levels, confirming our record as the worst performer of the G7.
What gives? Has Carney, as prime minister and newbie politician, been unable to extricate himself from the same political traps that he described ten years ago? Is he a captive of the tragedy of the horizon ? Is the science of atmospheric physics and chemistry up-ended by the overwhelming force of Liberal short-term thinking and opportunism? Does power corrupt so thoroughly that our own children’s futures disappear through the economists’ lens of the discount rate?
As prime minister he has faced climate disaster upon climate disaster. Wildfires that threaten to bankrupt provinces, heat domes that are life-threatening, persistent prairie drought that decimates crops — all of them calling for federal bail-outs, while failing to connect the dots to oil sands expansion.
Deep down I have to hope the former Governor of the Bank of England who delivered that speech, who wrote that book, is still in there somewhere.
Please Mark Carney, where did you go?”
I did not have to wait long to pursue this question.
I met with the Prime Minister on Thursday. Part of me worried that when he saw my Toronto Star column, my meeting would be cancelled. Time will tell, but we had a cordial meeting with good moments. He seemed genuinely grateful that I brought him a copy of Bill McKibben’s efforts at a verbatim transcript of Pope Leo’s speech on climate. https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/a-different-kind-of-leader-gives
I will share more as I reflect on what I can share for next week. In the meantime, as we approach Thanksgiving, let us all count our many blessings.
I am so very very grateful to enjoy this weekly conversation, my letter to all of you!
Much love,
Elizabeth