by Pieter Vorster | May 26, 2020 | Member Submitted Articles, News and Events
by Pat Carl We cast our votes. The votes were counted. The Green Party of Canada announced the results on May 8. GPC has a partially new Federal Council and Young Greens Council. That’s because elections are held every year but only for a portion of the seats on the two Councils. You can imagine what the theory is behind staggering elections, right? That way, the collective memory of one year’s Council isn’t totally lost by replacing the entire shebang of Council representatives. Of note: the proportional representation system of Single Transferable Vote was used to determine seat winners in each region with a seat available, each non-provincial seat available (in this case, VIP-English and Fund Manager), and in the two seats up for grabs in connection with the Young Greens, those people under the age of 30 who will represent the Young Greens Council at the big table (a bit of a disparaging reference made by the Young Greens themselves), that is, at the Federal Council table. A further note: 19.7% of all GPC members voted in this election as compared to around 14% who voted in the 2019 elections. Out of the 23,288 active GPC members able to cast ballots, 4,596 chose to do so. A bit low, don’t ya think? Or said a different way, some 18,692 GPC members did not vote. Kind of embarrassing when one of our Green Principles is – wait for it – participatory democracy. Now, one person I know said she wouldn’t have cast a ballot at all had it not been for the 7 candidate forums tirelessly organized by a few...
by Pieter Vorster | Apr 24, 2020 | News and Events
In a press release on April 22, 2020, the Green Party of Canada (GPC) announced a new Executive Director. Prateek Awasthi was formerly Director of Policy and Advocacy with Engineers Without Borders Canada and before that he worked for a decade as a specialist on youth participation and leadership at United Nations headquarters in New York. He has a law degree from the University of Pune, India, and a Masters in Public Administration from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. As Executive Director, Prateek will work closely with the Federal Council to provide strategic and operational leadership, formulating goals and annual plans and directing all party operations including administration, fundraising, communications and election planning. Read more. Ten Questions for our new Executive Director In advance of starting his new job next month, Prateek agreed to answer a few questions to help GPC members and supporters get to know our new chief executive. 1. Tell us about your background I was born to a family of political activists, feminists and trade unionists, and have witnessed that change is not only possible, but inevitable, when people organize. I grew up in a tiny village in a forgotten corner of western India. We moved to the nearest city when I started school, and I ended up studying law, economics and public administration so that I could make public institutions work better for the people they’re supposed to represent. I started work at the United Nations in New York, spanning a period that began with the 2008 economic crisis, the emergence of Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring,...
by Pieter Vorster | Feb 19, 2020 | News and Events, Newsletters
Winter 2020 Newsletter Message from the CEO The Greens of North Island-Powell River (NIPR) Electoral District Association (EDA) Executive have been hard at work since the election. The campaign team worked incredibly hard during the election. Mark de Bruijn, as candidate, probably worked harder than anyone, but right beside him all the way was Mark Tapper, the campaign manager. The campaign had four offices: A pop-up office in Port McNeill, an office in Campbell River, one in Powell River, and another in Comox. That in itself is a phenomenal achievement. Throughout the riding, over 150 volunteers came out to help to varying degrees and in varying capacities. But the campaign is behind us and the Executive is looking forward to how to keep that momentum going. We’ve been working on strategic objectives during January, and we’re ready to take those objectives to Powell River on February 23. If you live on Texada Island or in the Powell River area and you’d like to attend, please RSVP here. Sometime in March and/or April, we hope to do the same workshop in Campbell River, Comox, and perhaps Port McNeill/Port Hardy. Stay tuned for updates on this exciting project. Megan ArdycheCEO The BC NDP are fundraising like crazy, and so there are suspicions that an election might be called before October 2021. Within the NIPR riding, the BC Greens are starting to organize. Powell River-Sunshine Coast Riding Association Annual General Meeting - Powell River Location WHEN: February 29, 3-5 pmWHERE: Powell River Public Library, Meeting Room B, Unit 100 - 6975 Alberni Street.RSVP here. Courtenay-Comox Riding Association Formation Meeting WHEN: March 1,...
by Pieter Vorster | Dec 11, 2019 | Letters to the Editor, Member Submitted Articles, News and Events
An Open Letter To Governments of B.C. and Canada Regarding the LNG Canada project, environmental damage and global warming: The B.C. Government has entered into an agreement with a consortium of oil companies to build and extract LNG (liquefied natural gas), process it, pipe it to the coast, and sell it to China. Great! Rather than addressing climate change seriously and taking a leadership role, we get sucked into a short-term monetary gain. You have sold this LNG extraction project to the citizens of B.C. and Canada as a way to fund the climate change fight. The federal government has also become complicit in this project by throwing our tax dollars at it. Both governments have promised to do more to meet climate change goals and claim to be committed to greenhouse gas reduction. Have you actually listened to yourselves? One minute you are talking about the need to do more about climate change (climate “emergencies” are being declared continuously), claiming you believe the science. You say you see what’s happening, and promise to make this fight a priority; however, the next minute you are signing deals to frack gas and build pipelines to boost the sale of dirty oil (dilbit) from Alberta. All to fuel foreign economies. The Government of B.C. website claims this LNG extraction, processing and transport will be state of the art and clean, which leads me to the following questions and comments: How will the “fugitive” gases be monitored, measured and reported? When methane is released into the atmosphere, how much will be allowed and at what point will the process be shut down? ...
by Pieter Vorster | Dec 9, 2019 | News and Events
Salmon are the true backbone of our coast, in almost every way imaginable When Mark de Bruijn was on the campaign trail during the 2019 election, one of the most frequent and contentious concerns he encountered among the people of North Island-Powell River was the possible role of salmon farming in depleting the populations of our wild salmon. Wild salmon are threatened Virtually all Pacific salmon populations are showing serious signs of distress due to climate-induced changes in the ocean, as temperature and acidity increase and oxygen levels drop. For some time, evidence that salmon farms exacerbate these stresses has been growing, and it is now incontrovertible: salmon farms along the migratory routes of wild salmon spread diseases and parasites that greatly diminish the health and survivability of wild fish, they spew huge amounts of toxic wastes into the adjacent ocean that are laden with antibiotics and pesticides, and the farmed salmon in these open-net pens contribute to declining numbers of all manner of small fish including young salmon, as farmed fish consume large numbers of them as they are attracted to and swim into the pens. A just transition from ocean-based fish farms As you probably know, Greens share these concerns, and for some time have called for the rapid transitioning of fish farms from the ocean onto a land-based system. This is vital if we are to have a fighting chance to save our salmon. We recognize the disruptive potential this presents for families who rely on these farms for their livelihood, and our proposals include provisions for a just and fully supported job transition program so that...
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