Good Sunday Morning and Happy Pride Victoria!
If you are near Victoria and feel like a good joyful march, BC and federal Greens are meeting TODAY at 10:30 on Government Street between Chatham and Herald. Pride parades are a new summer tradition. Toronto’s Pride was the first big one of the 2026 season, although the June Pride week events where I live in beautiful Sidney by the Sea were super. Next up is Salt Spring Island on July 19. The more the merrier!
Upcoming deadlines of note:
July 17 (this Friday!) is the deadline to apply to run for leader of the Green Party of Canada. Details here
And reminder, I am looking forward to passing the torch in November to a new leader, or co-leaders, but I am NOT retiring! I will be working hard in Parliament as a Green MP!
July 22 is the deadline to submit comments on two discussion documents released May 8: the federal government’s assault on species at risk, an expedited review of big projects, in the name of “streamlining” approvals of projects big and small. As I shared over a month ago, it was a big win to get the “BUILD BIG AND FAST” bulldozer to slow down long enough to give people time to comment. The original deadline of June 7 was pushed back to July 22. I think this was mostly thanks to Althia Raj writing in the Toronto Star that one suggested change to the Species at Risk Act seems targeted on the legal extinction of our Southern Resident Killer Whales.
Quoting from Raj’s May 14 article:
“In a discussion paper released last week, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government proposed, among other things, to grant cabinet the ability to “exempt specific projects from the application of the jeopardy test for species at risk, but only if it’s in the public interest and if the proponent (of the project) has made all reasonable efforts to avoid or reduce impacts on at-risk species.”
“The “jeopardy test” is a prohibition on driving a species to extinction. “Not just kills the individuals, but wipes the species forever off the planet,” explained Environmental Defence’s Counsel and Ontario Environment Program Manager Phil Pothen.
“Several sources — including two within the government, who spoke on condition of anonymity — told the Star that the measure is a carve-out for the southern resident killer whales, in particular.”
These threats remain and strong responses are needed.
- Getting Major Projects Built in Canada – Discussion Paper on Proposed Legislative, Regulatory, and Policy Reforms
- Canada’s new government to simplify and accelerate Canada’s regulatory process
This week, blink and you missed it, the Prime Minister removed one more Conservative MP. Richard Martel, Conservative Quebec MP, was appointed to the Senate. His seat is now vacant adding another by-election to the political calendar.
The number of by-elections since the April 2025 federal election breaks all records – we just hit double digits. If you are trying to keep score, there were three by-elections in April 2026, (two created by the PM naming Liberal MPs he did not want in his cabinet to foreign assignments, and one by-election was due to court action.) In the result, the three seats were Liberal after the federal election and they stayed Liberal.
Now, because the PM has appointed Jonathan Wilkinson (who I believe did not want to quit Parliament) as ambassador to the EU, there will be a by-election in North Vancouver Capilano. I hate seeing Wilkinson go. Although he and I did not agree on everything, as Fisheries Minister, he created the wild Pacific Salmon Strategy, as Energy and Natural Resources Minister, and as former Environment Minister with Steven Guilbeault, he played a key role in establishing the now cancelled climate policies.
Of course, my dear friend former Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault will be officially leaving Parliament altogether, likely in August, requiring a by-election for his seat of Laurier-St Marie. NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice, who was the last remnant of Jack Layton’s 2011 Orange Crush in Quebec and the only NDP MP from Quebec, is already sitting as an Independent, preparatory to leaving the federal Parliament. He plans to run as a provincial candidate for Quebec Solidaire in the October provincial election. One Bloc MP has left Parliament to run provincially for the PQ, so that makes four by-elections for Quebec federal seats. One Conservative Saskatchewan MP retired (Cathay Waganthall from Yorkton Melville) and lastly, a very progressive, animal rights and climate activist, Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine Smith, made it official last week when he announced he is leaving federal Parliament. He quit his role as Toronto MP for the Beaches East York. So, the clock starts ticking on holding a by-election there.
That makes seven upcoming by-elections likely before the end of 2026—four in Quebec, one in Saskatchewan, one in Ontario and one in BC.
Chronologically from the first seat formally vacated, the earliest by-election to be called, perhaps as soon as early August, will likely be North Van. My hope is that citizens concerned about the new pipeline announcements, upset about threats to the South Resident Killer Whales, who are angry about $10 billion being spent to build Roberts Bank, AND make it the terminus for a new pipeline ALSO to be built with public funds, will decide that the North Vancouver by-election is a referendum on these horrors. If enough people get involved, we will elect a Green MP in that by-election. Our candidate in North Vancouver will be announced next week, so tune in next Sunday morning to find out more about the future MP for North Vancouver-Capilano! Nothing would communicate to the new Liberal government that voters want them to implement the platform they ran on rather than the one Poilievre ran on, nothing would be as powerful a message as losing what they assume is a “safe” Liberal seat.
In very good news, thank heavens someone is standing up for the marine environment of Burrard Inlet. This week theTsleil-Waututh Nation (TWN) filed an application for Judicial Review of the Second Narrows Dredging.
The work in restoring the marine environment has been painstaking. The Tsleil-Waututh Nation took years to rehabilitate the area. After a century of industrial use, it was almost a dead zone. I was talking the other day with Nikki Wright, the founder of Sea Change, the NGO featured on the TWN website documenting the work. Nikki said Burrard Inlet is now “teeming with life.” And the BC government and Ottawa want to destroy it to more fully load dilbit tankers! The TWN/ SeaChange partnership is inspiring. Restoring Burrard Inlet with Treaty, Lands and Resources. Full disclosure, I have joined the board of SeaChange. Please support its work with a donation
Next week I will share how we best support the TWN in this court action.
As ever, thanks for reading my little weekly missive – and thanks so much for good wishes and shared commitment to Mother Earth, love and hope!
All together now!
Elizabeth