Chris Tindal's blog

Crossposted from christindal.ca

The criteria for inclusion in the leaders' debate is completely arbitrary. The system to decide who gets equal treatment has never been clear, transparent, accountable, or democratic. And yet, the Green Party played along and met all of the criteria as ever defined by a member of the broadcast consortium. Today we were excluded from the debate regardless. This is a shameful and irrational decision. It is an insult to democracy. And it is without precedent.

See also election night video and results.

Friends, our hard work has paid off. Just two years ago we finished a distant fourth with 5% of the vote. Last night, we tripled our support to 14%, beat the government's own candidate and came within 36 votes of taking second place (what CBC radio this morning is calling a "virtual tie" for second). By any measure, this is a huge victory we should be very proud of.

Crossposted from christindal.ca

I suspect that in the eyes of the general public, our leaders are suffering from a "boy who cried wolf" syndrome when it comes to threats of an eminent election. While those of us who are directly involved in party politics have been in perpetual election mode for the last two years, those trying to get on with their daily lives have been perpetually tuned out. (While canvassing tonight, one man told me, "I don't vote for the bastards, it only encourages them." Sure enough, he was not on our list of registered voters.) Constant hyper partisanship (which has always existed in some form, but, it seems to me, used to be less mean and destructive, and was at least confined to election campaigns) and an enhanced state of all that's bad about "politics as usual" have left many people not only not knowing what's going on in Ottawa, but not caring either.

Crossposted from christindal.ca

For years, Stephen Harper has, through his words and actions, displayed what could charitably be described as a lack of confidence in anyone other than himself. This extends not only to his MPs and members of the civil service, but also the Canadian public at large. In his memoirs, Preston Manning wrote of the Harper he knew from the Reform party as someone who "had difficulty accepting that there might be a few other people (not many, perhaps, but a few) who were as smart as he was with respect to policy and strategy." In a June 1997 speech to an American think tank Stephen Harper said, "I was asked to speak about Canadian politics. It may not be true, but it's legendary that if you're like all Americans, you know almost nothing except for your own country. Which makes you probably knowledgeable about one more country than most Canadians."

In short, he doesn't trust us. He doesn't think we're smart enough or knowledgeable enough to make good decisions about the direction of our country.

Crossposted from christindal.ca.

As a disclaimer, I happen to think that the oft-repeated phrases "tough on crime" and "soft on crime" are near meaningless. Too often, the stuff we're told is "tough" is either ineffective or damaging (see mandatory minimums and the presumption of guilt), while the stuff we're told is "soft" would actually lessen the incidence of crime (see the legalization of marijuana).

That being said, the Harper Conservatives want to get "tough," so let's get tough. And if we're going to start somewhere, we might as well start with our own government.

Crossposted from christindal.ca.

It's hard to believe how much I used to agree with Stephen Harper when he was in opposition. Don't get me wrong--I almost never saw things the same way as he did on matters of policy. But on process and Parliament, Opposition Leader Stephen Harper was absolutely right to call for more transparency and accountability, and, specifically, for the Prime Minister to respect Parliamentarians and refrain from centralizing power and stifling dissent. When the Opposition Leader became PM part of me thought, "oh well, at least we'll see some positive action with regards to governance." If you ever want to accuse me of being naive, there's your proof.

Crossposted from christindal.ca

Imagine a voting system where politicians or "party hacks" can be appointed in back rooms by other politicians and be practically guaranteed a spot in the legislature, regardless of what the voters really want.

Stop imagining. That's the system we have now. When it comes to how parties appoint their candidates, there are almost no requirements for transparency.

Crossposted from christindal.ca

This past Saturday I had the privilege of speaking at Toronto Cuba Friendship Day, an annual event held at Nathan Phillips Square outside City Hall in Toronto. (Audio of my comments here, courtesy Toronto Social Justice Magazine.) The event was MCed by former Speaker of the Legislature David Warner, and other platform guests included city councillor Joe Mihevc, Consulate Generals from many countries, and Cuban Ambassador to Canada Ernesto Senti Darias. (NDP MPP Peter Kormos, who I was looking forward to meeting, unfortunately had to cancel at the last minute.)

Crossposted from christindal.ca. See also Adriane Carr's Biofuel Post.

"My fear is not that people will stop talking about climate change. My fear is that they will talk us to Kingdom Come." - George Monbiot

Just a few years ago, the biggest threat to our society's survival was our willing blindness towards the crisis facing us. Now that we're aware of that crisis, the biggest threat to our survival is our willingness to believe that there are easy answers; that we're "on the right track;" that our political leaders are starting to "get it." This is the threat of greenwash, intentional or otherwise, and it can't be underestimated.

Last week, Canada's New-ish-like Government(TM) announced a $1.5 billion subsidy for biofuel production. You'd be forgiven for thinking that sounds like a positive, "step in the right direction." In reality, it's extremely dangerous and wrongheaded. In short, while some biofuel policies make sense, biofuels from crops like the ones targeted by Stephen Harper's plan (corn, wheat, soy) lead to increasingly higher market prices for those crops, setting up a competition between cars and people for who gets to be fed by the Earth. Further, they're likely to exacerbate, not mitigate, the climate crisis. And it's happening already.

Crossposted from christindal.ca

There's a very disturbing news article in yesterday's Ottawa Citizen:

"Police have derailed plans for a public forum on the Security and Prosperity Partnership that was to take place six kilometres from where the leaders of Canada, Mexico and the U.S. will gather next month for a summit.