Good Sunday Morning!
I write this from Ottawa. It seems so long ago that January 27 seemed an immutable date, a sure thing, that tomorrow would be the routine return to Parliament following weeks in Saanich-Gulf Islands and a round of community meetings. Nothing is a sure thing anymore. I hear from people in the grocery store, on the street, and in my community meetings – a deep sense of uncertainty, a deep sense of worry. Leaving the Victoria airport Friday, a security guard, after first thanking me for doing good work, asked “Do you think we’re going to be okay?” I have never had so many people ask me variants of that same question. The main source of the worry comes from the ranting and ramblings of the man in the White House.
Trump and his billionaire friends give us a lot about which to be worried. Tariffs that could lead to increased unemployment in both the US and Canada, increased inflation (but mostly for Americans), accelerating climate crisis and a re-aligned sense of global power dynamics. The four horsemen of apocalypse are saddling up. The US pulling out of the World Health Organization gives killer viruses like polio a new lease on life. Thanks to a global effort led by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Rotary International, with the WHO as a quarterback coordinating an international campaign, polio had been eradicated from all but one country on earth. Trump seems to have less a plan than a desire for chaos. The new “golden era” of US Manifest Destiny with an honest to God pledge from the US President to “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.” The very notion that the US Constitution’s guarantee of citizenship for those born in the US could be disregarded, while simultaneously violating rights of marginalized people – whether migrant workers and refugees or trans youth, has a numbing effect. It is all so awful that it feels unreal. It cannot be happening, but it is.
When January 27 was for sure the opening of parliament, I thought what a good time it would be to pull together as many candidates and members of the Green Party Shadow Cabinet who could meet in person to an Ottawa retreat. I decided the weekend of the 25-26 would be a great opportunity to finalize our election platform. What a joy! Our first time in the same room in six years. We so need more time together. The cabinet is mostly Greens who will be candidates in the 2025 federal election. If you are a Green donor, please know we do not waste a dime. Tickets were booked on frequent flier and rail points and those within driving distance are carpooling. No one is in a hotel. We stay in other Greens’ homes – my Ottawa apartment is full up with Greens from Nova Scotia and Montreal, plus John and me. We have been meeting in the church hall at St. Bartholomew’s Anglican, my long-time home parish where I started teaching Sunday School after moving into the neighbourhood when Cate was two years old. We gathered all day yesterday, breaking in the evening for a potluck supper with local Greens.
This morning, I am so happy to be able to attend the 10 am service, seeing many old friends. Today we will resume as soon as coffee hour is over. I know most of this letters’ readers are not church goers, forgive me for expressing my gratitude for the brave Episcopal Bishop of Washington, the right Rev Marianne Budde (we are the same denomination – Anglicans around the world, called Episcopalians in the US.) What a courageous woman. Here is her sermon. No wonder Trump thinks she is a “nasty woman”.
Echoes of Thomas Becket, murder in the cathedral, come to me – “will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest.”
Tomorrow, Green MPs and Shadow Cabinet will meet with media and hope to get some coverage of our state of electoral readiness. We are on track to have a candidate in every riding – 343 in 2025 (up from 338 in 2021). And we have very exciting news edging toward being shared. Fingers crossed!
We will propose practical responses, starting with getting rid of the trade barriers between our own provinces, breaking down the self-imposed barriers that keep renewable electricity from reaching those provinces, like Nova Scotia, still burning coal. That will allow local (as in Canadian) markets to open up for Canadian goods. In the face of threats based on bogus allegations from an unhinged president we have to be able to pull together. In that, we may have our best opportunity ever to re-organize our governance as a country of ten provinces and three territories. We need to think like a country. Then we can act like a country.
While Trump is the source of most of the uncertainty, domestic politics remain unstable. While the Liberals decide to choose from a very small field of contenders, those Cabinet ministers who did not enter the race have my personal gratitude for putting country first. Cabinet still has real authority and power to execute international agreements, launch retaliatory tariffs and use many of the key levers of power.
Adding to electoral uncertainty, it seems increasingly likely that Ontario Premier Doug Ford will call a snap election a day or two from now. Almost certainly Ontario voters will go to the polls on February 27. Our Green Party of Canada volunteers and local organizers in Ontario are in a bind – planning for elections at both the federal and provincial levels.
I hope to head to Guelph, Ontario soon, where Green Leader Mike Schreiner already has a seat and our federal candidate, Dr. Anne-Marie Zajdlik, is tracking to be the next MP for Guelph. That would give us three double-Green ridings – Saanich-Gulf Islands with me and provincial MLA Rob Botterell, Kitchener Centre with Mike Morrice federally and Aislinn Clancy provincially – with other double Green ridings in sight for West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast–Sea to Sky Country, and Fredericton, where NB Green leader David Coon is already in the legislature and a Green has a huge chance federally, now that the Liberal MP and (still a painful blow) former Green MP Jenica Atwin is not running for re-election. As in so many electoral contests across Canada, if the Green does not win the seat, a Conservative will.
Many of you will know that I started the week with a Monday press conference in Vancouver, pleading with the Ministers of Immigration and Public Safety to halt the scheduled deportation of Zain Haq, a brilliant young climate activist and part of the Fairy Creek protest camp. Zain came to Canada on a student visa. He is married to another brilliant young activist, Canadian-born Sophia Papp. None of us can get our heads around how this can be happening. Last spring, the deportation order was halted, and while still within the process of determining Zain’s status sponsored by his wife of nearly two years, the CBSA reinstated the deportation. As I write this, we have no good news to share, so I keep trying and praying and contacting the ministers. Zain had to leave Vancouver last night, and his his flight will leave Toronto for Pakistan at 4 pm ET Sunday.
I am beyond distressed, depressed and feeling undone by writing you without actual news.. Please do what you can and let’s hope for an 11th hour reprieve to keep Zain and Sophie at home in Vancouver where they belong..
Sending you all love and hope that we look back on this time as the moment when Canadians banded together, embraced our love of Mother Earth and each other, to save ourselves.
Love and deep gratitude,
Elizabeth
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