Good Sunday Morning!
Tomorrow Parliament will re-open. Today I am moderating a panel of climate change writers, specifically wildfire writers through non-fiction, novel and poetry at the Eden Mills Literary festival and then will take the train from Toronto to reach Ottawa later tonight. It will be a busy week.
Of course, while constantly busy, I do not have a patch on the Prime Minister who is fairly frequently on jets from one summit to global event to another. I confess to being jealous of him for getting vacations. I was supposed to have a week off in August, but then he called those August 31 by-elections and spent 10 days in Tuscany on holiday. I do understand, he is the Prime Minister and entitled to get a vacation now and then! I am envious of him today, visiting Saint Pierre and Miquelon with PM Macron. A decade ago, I tried to convince Justin Trudeau that he should meet with Macron on Saint Pierre. Better late than never! Newfoundland’s proximity to Europe is worth emphasizing. Cate and I, and our amazing tiny dog Xo, had a lovely visit there ages ago (well before John Kidder was in my life.) I loved it. Imagine going to France on a one hour ferry trip from Fortune, Newfoundland and Labrador!
While I am appalled by much of our Prime Minister’s domestic policy and reversals, I do not doubt that he is elevating Canada’s role in the world. I admire his turn of phrase. That Canada is not seeking to be a super power “with better manners.” I would have applauded had I been in Strasbourg! On Monday, he will not be in Parliament. But I will, and I will raise concerns from constituents I heard in the eight community meetings we have held since Labour Day. One last community meeting for this round will be a week from today on Galiano Island. Due to the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Parliament is adjourned the week of September 28.
That week, an event of upheaval will happen in my life, but it is a minor thing in the scheme of things. We have to move our constituency office. We have been so lucky to have had the same office for 15 years! But the landlord has other plans, and we have to be out of our space by October. The constituency office is moving from Fourth Street to the end of Beacon, through the breezeway off Beacon to a great ground floor space in the Landmark building. To manage the move, we will be closed the week of September 28. We will be available by phone! The new space is a lot more expensive, so I will be writing some of you by regular mail to ask for financial help. (If you want details of where and how to help, please reply to this email to the Saanich-Gulf Islands Greens [email protected] address.) We need to raise funds for a more robust internship program on Parliament Hill as the big jump in local rent wipes out a full staff position in my Ottawa office. More to come!
Meanwhile, looking closer to home, it seems likely Premier David Eby will opportunistically seize the moment to call a snap BC provincial election. As even national observers of BC politics will have noticed, the Conservative Party of BC is circling the drain. Newly elected leader and former federal MP, Kerry-Lynne Findlay has lost nearly a dozen MLAs – some quitting to sit as independents; others forming a new right-wing party. The Union of BC Municipalities, meeting this week, passed an emergency resolution calling on the Premier NOT to call an election that would overlap with, and over-shadow, critical local elections. I find it astonishing, though I should be used to it by now, that media coverage of the split in the Conservative party and cynical opportunity for the NDP manages to all but completely ignore the Green Party with 25 year old leader Emily Lowan and two elected, strong and capable MLAs! Please be prepared to jump in and help our BC Greens in any way you can! To my BC readers, want to run to make sure every BC voter has a chance to have a great Green candidate to vote FOR!?
Friday was the deadline for comment on the proposed new pipeline for dilbit across BC. I am sharing the link with you here. I wrote over 5,000 words, but there are so many details and I am determined to force the Liberals to, at least, make a cost-benefit analysis public before wasting another $34+ billion to build a pipeline, threatening ecosystems, endangered species, the climate and Indigenous rights. I hope, if you have the time, you will read it.
And, also on Friday, the government launched another consultation, this time to fast track deep geological disposal of high level nuclear waste, deadline for comment October 26:
“Ottawa, ON, September 18, 2026 – Canada is advancing the critical infrastructure needed to build a stronger, more sustainable, and more independent economy. Investing in nation-building infrastructure is essential to strengthening economic resilience, enhancing energy security, and creating long-term prosperity by connecting communities, supporting industry, enhancing sustainability, and attracting investment.
Today, the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, President of the King’s Privy Council for Canada and Minister responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade, Intergovernmental Affairs, Internal Trade and One Canadian Economy, announced the publication of a notice in the Canada Gazette for the Deep Geological Repository (DGR) Project, marking the next step in considering whether the project should be listed under Schedule 1 of the Building Canada Act (the Act) as a project of national interest.”
To the notion that we can build this kind of project fast, I will keep recommending the Carney cabinet read How Big Things Get Done.
I know they have it at Tanners Books if you are in Sidney. It is worth a read. Based on a database of 16,000 projects, it established that the projects most likely to go off the rails, cost WAY more and overshoot timelines by orders of magnitude can be predicted. One they cite is any project for deep disposal of nuclear waste. Funny, the Prime Minister told me he had read it. Maybe, like his own book Values, he needs to read it again.
Have a great week..and as ever Illegitimi non carborundum – which is well known and not Latin, but sounds good anyway. I prefer Stan Rogers…whenever the smiling bastards are lying to me… and as John Kidder says “do not let the liars win!”:
And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.
Rise again, rise again – though your heart it be broken
And life about to end
No matter what you’ve lost, be it a home, a love, a friend.
Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.
You can find and sign this petition here.
Love Elizabeth