Good Sunday Morning! And the countdown is on! 22 days until Election day!
And horror of horrors! — Advance polls start in 12 days — on Good Friday — and Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday!! This Election Act rigidity was brought to us in Stephen Harper’s “UnFair Elections Act” shepherded through the House by none other than Pierre Poilievre, the Harper era minister in charge of making voting harder. I remember debating with him some of the changes — such as requiring more identification at the polls and ending the practice of allowing someone on the voters list to vouch for a neighbour. The Harper narrative was that we had a problem of voter fraud, people sneaking in wearing masks to vote more than once. I would always say “our problem in Canada is not people voting MORE than once; it is people voting LESS than once.” Many of those changes were reversed over the Liberal years, Sadly not these, so we will have advance polls on the most significant religious observances for practicing Christians. I presented amendments at the time to avoid advance polls over Easter, but they failed of course, although a number of Conservative MPs left the chamber as my amendments came up in order to avoid being forced to vote against them. When I went to my returning officer to file all my final paperwork to be on the ballot here in Saanich – Gulf Islands, he said he was having trouble finding workers for the Advance polls. No kidding. And I am certain fewer people will vote over the Easter weekend.
By tomorrow I will be in Guelph to campaign for our amazing candidate there, Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik. And then to Ottawa with Jonathan Pedneault to do some national media interviews for which we have been invited to appear together. Then on to campaign in New Brunswick! JP is doing an amazing job carrying so much of the load as co-leader, touring much of BC and then the Yukon last week as well as a star turn on Radio Canada’s election coverage “Cinq Chefs”. For many Quebecers this was their introduction to Jonathan and he knocked it out of the park!
This week’s news was – as ever – dominated by the chaotic and illogical nightmare of Trump’s trade policy. He seems determined to create a global financial crisis. To say that economists and financial planners are stunned is to understate the deep shock, concern and growing panic as the markets realize the president of the United States has no grip on how trade and business and economics work – at all. The Economist magazine called his trade theory “bonkers”.
Greens will keep pushing our great ideas like “Saving Canada Bonds” and using those funds to protect strategic reserves of things like potash.
Details of our plan can be found in our press release.
I love Jonathan’s line from the press release!
“When the U.S. antagonizes its allies and disrupts global supply chains, the world looks for reliability… And that’s Canada – all of the talent, none of the chaos.”
Thanks to Salt Spring Island’s Brian Smallshaw (this week’s volunteer editor) for this letter for a brilliant suggestion. And long overdue. He emailed me – “This might be a good time to drop the pilotage waivers that we grant the American ATB’s (articulated tug barges) for traveling up the Inside Passage with barges full of fuel for Alaska. Canada has been granting this favour to US ATB operators for years, despite the risks, and despite the fact that Canada gets NOTHING for this. And it’s just to save the Americans some money – the proper way to ship this fuel is in proper tankers offshore so that if (when?) something goes wrong, they’ve got some time to deal with it – unlike in the Inside Passage where there are lots of narrow channels and strong tides – and rocks to run into. Unlikely to ever happen? The Nathan E. Stewart went aground on 13 October 2016 and spilled 110,000 litres of diesel fuel. If the Trump regime is trying to kill off Canada, the last thing we should be doing is granting this favour – to send fuel to a red state.”
Right on! Let’s stop that right now!
Staying on top of our campaigns across Canada is very hard! WE have a full slate of 343 nominated Green candidates, but the rush to get signatures in each and every riding is daunting. All candidates, other than some in rural areas, need 100 signatures collected locally and all need to be filed by end of day tomorrow! The hard reality is that we may not make the deadline in this snap election. Fingers crossed!!
To keep up with local events in Saanich-Gulf Islands, the best website is “votemay.ca”. Have a look to see the results of the most recent Oracle poll locally. Please share with friends who may think voting Liberal could help Carney stop Poilievre. NOPE, voting Liberal helps Poilievre and could lead to me losing to a Conservative. It is the same story for Paul Manly in Nanaimo Ladysmith. The ONLY way to stop a Conservative win in Nanaimo Ladysmith is to vote for Paul. It is worth noting he is also an awesome MP and the best MP Nanaimo Ladysmith ever had.
By the way, we have ordered a lot more signs for lawns and highways. We have over 900 up already but I hear a lot of complaints that people do not see our signs. We are trying!
If you can volunteer for the sign crew, sign up please at votemay.ca – or maybe you would like to phone local voters from your own home? Or join me door-knocking? Same website is the place to go – AND we now have posted all the local all candidate debates at votemay.ca.
To keep track of national press statements, go to greenparty.ca.
We no longer have the spectre of a Conservative lead. We do not have to be afraid – not of Poilievre and not of Trump. Americans have plenty of reasons to be afraid and Canada must stay calm, resolute and willing to help those facing human rights abuses from the Madness of King Donald the First.
As Greens we must hold on to love, and hope and courage. We can win more seats than ever and work for rapid and transformational change when the new Parliament finally gets back to work. For now, please reach out and help friends and family know we are still among the very luckiest people on this planet.
THANK you for all the support and donations and good wishes.
Elbows up, arms outstretched. Until next week!
Much love,
Elizabeth
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Saanich-Gulf Island Greens publish two newsletters:
- The monthly SGI Greens Newsletter
- The weekly Good Sunday Morning — Elizabeth May’s perspective
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Saanich-Gulf Islands Greens
https://www.sgigreenparty.ca/