Good Sunday Morning on this July 13th. Summer is flying by in a haze of Pride Parades, Canada Day flag-waving and Calgary Stampede Ya-HOO, not to mention the hundreds of bowls of ice cream and strawberries I helped serve up after Victoria Pride last weekend at the Saanich Strawberry festival! (By the way, kudos to Saanich for hugely reducing plastic waste and garbage, switching to metal bowls and compostable spoons, as well as in offering non-dairy ice cream!)
In the weeks before Labour Day, I will also walk in Pride parades in Vancouver, on Pender Island, and Pride Salt Spring Island (confessing it to be my favourite!) and then the Fall Fairs starting with Mayne Island August 16. Community events really do matter. Still, what I desperately need is time to take a step back and absorb the whole of the thing. What thing?
I find it difficult to put into words. At the Canada Day Lions Club pancake breakfast where your faithful Green public servants, MLA Rob Botterell, former MLA Adam Olsen and I were on hand to help serve the Canada Proud, pancake-eating crowd, I asked Adam if he thought the whole country was shifting to the right. I will not do justice to his response. Sharing my poor memory of his reflection, “It is not so much a question of Left or Right,” he said, “but the ascendancy of a colonial, exploitative resource extraction model.” To that, I add my observation that the rise in this exploitation by transnational corporate rule brings with it an inevitable decline in democracy. Politicians are doing the bidding of corporate masters without bothering to make a case that new projects, whether pipelines or mining, serve the national–or provincial–interest. The huge increase Carney proposes in military spending is just part and parcel of assumed truths. We said, “Elbows up!” not “Brain switched off!”
The Trump factor is huge as he exemplifies the triumph of greed and self-aggrandizement, unashamed of the deep corruption his reign represents. Trump is dangerous, destabilizing the rule of law and our previous comfy sense that there was some sort of world order. The grotesque abuse of power hit two low points this week. First as Netanyahu suggested Trump deserved the Nobel Peace Prize (grotesque from both the flatterer, war criminal and thug, and for the entire fraudulent imagining that Trump has contributed to a more peaceful world). And then the second low point, when late Thursday evening, Trump wrote our Prime Minister. The letter was one of breath-taking menace laced with blatant lies, beginning, “It is a Great Honor for me to send you this letter in that it demonstrates the strength and commitment of our Trading Relationship and the fact that the United States of America has agreed to continue working with Canada despite Canada having financially retaliated against the United States…” and on it goes in a rant that claims Fentanyl floods into the United States from Canada, and attacking our “Dairy Farmers.” Trump’s bizarre use of capitalization perhaps reflecting his blood pressure as he writes. This is not a conventional way of communicating between heads of government as Trump posts it on his own social media site, “Truth Social”.
For Canadians, the Trump Factor may do its greatest damage in distracting us from the anti-democratic, damn the torpedoes (whether Indigenous rights or endangered species) full speed ahead approach across Canada. It is time to dust off Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine. The crisis created by Trump has led Canada to emulate his tactics.
This “whole of the thing” I have wanted to examine is the unprecedented coincidence–or is it collusion?–of multiple governments across Canada passing very similar laws using very similar bulldozing tactics.
Below are snippets of media and Green Party critiques of Ontario’s Bill 5, from the Conservative Ford government, BC Bill 15 from Eby’s NDP, Nova Scotia’s Bill 6, again a Conservative premier Tim Houston, to Liberal PM Carney’s federal Bill C-5.
As you read, I hope it strikes you that any quote about any of these bills can be read as if it applied to each separately or all as a group:
Bulldozing rights, bypassing democracy: Bill 15 exposes the BC NDP’s willingness to sacrifice process and principle for power and control.
From former BC Green MLA Adam Olsen, May 7, 2025
“…Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer wrote about Bill 15, extensively quoting infrastructure minister Hon. Bowinn Ma, who outlines her goal, to “untangle the regulatory mess.”
But as Palmer notes, “on closer examination, the two bills do not actually repeal any of B.C.’s heavy regulatory burden. Rather they give the cabinet arbitrary powers to override existing rules, regulations and procedures on projects favoured by the NDP.”
He continues, “New Democrats will assess applications for regulatory relief on a case-by-case basis, moving favoured ones to the front of the line and relegating others to the back of the regulatory pack. Which also invites speculation about inside deals, crafted by lobbyists and party insiders, and advanced for political purposes.”
Palmer identifies the core threat to British Columbians, the BC NDP’s continued shift from laws and regulations to discretion, from a fair and public process to political favour.
This is a power grab, one that I am all too familiar with as a former MLA who sat in the opposition benches of a BC NDP government for seven years. On May 28 they will take the power to make or break projects behind closed doors, and without fair public process. Transparent, apolitical regulations are being replaced with opaque, case-by-case decisions.”
Green Party of Ontario Press Release:
Bill 5, Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, 2025, May 27, 2025
TORONTO — Ontario Greens Leader Mike Schreiner, joined by Kitchener Center MPP and Deputy Leader Aislinn Clancy, addressed a crowd of environmental, labour, and social justice advocates at the Water Warriors rally in Nathan Phillips Square this morning.
“If you want to fight Trump, you can’t act like Trump,” said Schreiner. “These so-called special economic zones would hand the government undemocratic, unprecedented powers to override any law – including Indigenous rights, labour laws, health and safety standards, environmental protections, and both local and provincial planning rules.”
“These zones would operate with zero legislative oversight, zero transparency, and zero consultation with everyday Ontarians and First Nations.”
“We won’t stand for it in Ontario,” Schreiner added. “Just like with the Greenbelt, we will fight back. People power forced Doug Ford to backtrack before—and it will again. We will not allow these undemocratic, anti-environmental, unconstitutional zones to go unchallenged.”
Clancy echoed the call for resistance, “Truth and reconciliation is not red tape. Environmental assessments are not red tape. Labour laws are not red tape.”
And now onto Nova Scotia, reversing a 1981 victory (Along with many, I worked so hard on this big win) in getting a legislated moratorium on uranium exploration and mining! Houston in NS Bill 6 opened the door to fracking and uranium:
N.S. Mi’kmaw chiefs say they should have been consulted on natural resources legislation
Michael Gorman, March 5, 2025
DISMANTLING DEMOCRACY: How will this spring session of the N.S. legislature be remembered?
Jennifer Henderson, March 27, 2025
The timing is weird. Ontario, BC, Nova Scotia and Canada brought in this slew of legislation in late spring, capping off this torrent of abuse with Canada’s Bill C-5 First Reading June 6, forced through all stages in the House by June 20, and then forced through the Senate at the same pace. All these bills are now law.
Wedged into this timetable was PM Carney’s meeting with provincial and territorial premiers in Saskatoon on June 2. When pressed about details on what Bill C-5 meant, Liberal Ministers often cited the consensus of that Federal-Provincial meeting in Saskatoon. But Ontario, BC and N.S laws were introduced before the Saskatoon meeting. Some were introduced before the federal election. I am left wondering, who charted this course, and from which room with locked doors was the plan hatched? I am not prone to conspiracy theories, but it does stretch credulity to imagine Ontario’s Bill 5, BC’s Bill 15, NS’s Bill 6 and Canada’s C-5 were products of uncoordinated near magical coincidence.
One might imagine that the cluster of bills and their similarities would have gotten some national media notice. In searching–and I may have missed some other news articles–I could only find two, one from Aboriginal Peoples TV and the other from The Guardian:
By Karyn Pugliese, May 30, 2025
Canada said it would stand up to Trump. Instead, it’s taking cues from him
Shiri Pasternak and Dayna Nadine Scott, June 18, 2025
Not to put too fine a point on it, but in the space of a few months, and all since Election Day April 28, 2025, we have seen a wholesale slaughter of key protections across three provinces and the federal government.
What to do? Well, I keep on trying to expose what I see while also trying to be helpful, still hoping against hope our new PM might simply be slipping down his steep learning curve. On Friday I held a press conference and was pleased that some media turned up. (following the text of the release, I will include the video links):
Greens Urge Prime Minister Carney to drop the gloves as Trump threatens 35% Tariffs, July 11, 2025
Sidney, BC – At a press conference in Sidney BC, Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May called for the federal government to act swiftly and decisively in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s letter posted to social media late yesterday. The letter is based on fictitious claims of drugs flooding across the US northern border. It threatens a 35 percent tariff on all Canadian goods. The Greens warn that hesitation will leave workers, manufacturers, and communities dangerously exposed.
“Donald Trump’s trade aggression toward Canada didn’t start this week,” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May. “This is just the latest in a pattern of destabilizing moves. Canada is not powerless.”
We urge that:
1) Canada collect the Digital Services Tax as enacted by the Parliament of Canada, in concert with global efforts within the OECD to deal with predatory tech giants.
2) Recognizing that US President Donald J Trump has made it clear the US economy does not need anything from Canada, we will immediately create strategic reserves for potash, with the possibility of more such strategic reserves of natural resources in future. Canada currently exports $3.5 billion worth of potash to the U.S. We will stop exporting potash to the United States.
We can purchase our resources and hold them in strategic reserves. During the 2025 election, the Parliamentary Budget Office reviewed the Green proposal for issuing Saving Canada Bonds at 5% simple interest, issued only to individual Canadians, not banks or brokers, at $4.2 billion cost. PBO analysis of Saving Canada Bonds is published on the PBO website as “issuing retail bonds” costing $145 million/year in interest.
“By focusing on potash for our first strategic reserve, Canada targets key US Republican supporters in the powerful corn and ethanol lobby. We can finance the potash reserve through new “Saving Canada Bonds.” As well, we protect Canada by taxing the tech giants that have inflicted damage on many aspects of Canadian society.
May pointed to the Green Party’s 2025 platform, which includes proposals that could help cushion the impact of tariff volatility while reinforcing economic sovereignty. One of the key tools is the creation of Strategic Reserves for critical resources such as aluminum and potash. These reserves would be held through Crown corporations and established through non-budgetary transactions.
“If Quebec can have a strategic reserve of maple syrup, then Canada can certainly create reserves to insulate resource sectors and workers while inflicting maximum damage on Trump’s domestic political base.” said May.
May also called for the launch of “Saving Canada Bonds,” a made-in-Canada investment tool modeled after the war bonds of past generations. These public bonds would allow Canadians to invest directly in national infrastructure, supply chain resilience, and economic self-reliance while returning solid return on investment of 5% to Canadian bond holders.
“Canadians are ready to help defend what we’ve built together,” said May. “But we need more than slogans about sovereignty. We need mechanisms, tools, and strategy. We’re offering that.”
“We’ve seen this movie before,” May said. “Trump manufactures a crisis and dares other countries to blink. If we keep responding one trade skirmish at a time, we’ll always be on our heels. It’s time to take the long view and finally build the economic resilience Canada needs.”
HEADLINE POLITICS: Elizabeth May Reacts to Latest U.S. Tariff Threat – July 11, 2025
Hit Trump in the potash, says Saanich-Gulf Islands MP
by Kori Sidaway, July 11, 2025
Thanks to all the wonderful Salt Spring Greens who came to yesterday’s volunteer appreciation gathering! And huge thanks to Tom Mitchell for hosting and organizing.
For now, hoping those of you near Victoria will attend the legislative committee hearings on getting rid of First Past the Post occurring every day this week. There are “presentations on democratic engagement, voter participation, and electoral reform” scheduled Monday, July 14 to Friday, July 18 (8:30am-6:00pm) at the Victoria Legislature (Douglas Fir Committee Room, Room 226).
Pray for peace, for the bullies and brutes to lay down arms, from Gaza to Ukraine to Sudan and Syria. And those global headquarters for war mongers whether in Moscow or NATO. In Washington or Tel Aviv. All that matters is that humanity choose a side, and that that side is respect for all life on this planet, our only home.
With much love and gratitude.
Elizabeth
Saanich-Gulf Islands Greens
https://www.sgigreenparty.ca/