Halton MP Garth Turner Ousted from PC Caucus, conteplating joining Green Party!

As most residents in the area are certainly aware, by now,Halton MP Garth Turner has been suspended by the Progressive Conservative caucus on Wednesday, October 18.

What has followed since has certainly been a whirlwind for Mr. Turner, and I have to admit I'm getting quite caught up in the excitement, and feel energized and excited to be part of a movement that has been sorely needed in Canadian politics during my lifetime.

On finding out the news, I visited his blog, www.garth.ca, which I read somewhat regularly, to find out what people were saying about it. The site was experiencing some difficulties, and only a couple of comments had been posted. At that moment, I noticed that in a previous segment that Mr. Turner has spent some time with the leader of the Green Party, had presented a positive opinion of her overall, and had interviewed her for one of his MPTV segments. I put two and two together, and thought "Wouldn't it be an incredible turn of events if Garth decided to join the Green Party?"

This is a party that has managed to get 800,000 votes in the last election, fielded candidates in every riding, and still had not even had the opportunity to participate in the leadership debates or even receive the mainstream media coverage to have the opportunity to bring its message to all Canadians. This is certainly a golden opportunity, and just in time for the Clean Air Act being released by the Conservative government. Mr. Turner seemed to recognize that in his piece on Elizabeth May, and this had the makings of a momentous political moment much like when Tommy Douglas founded the CCF.

I then posted a message encouraging him to go Green. When I returned to check my message, and saw the flood of messages posted on the blog, I realized that several others had done the same. Not much later, even the Green Party's former leader had dropped by to write a few lines to applaud Garth and welcome him over to the fold, and newspapers across the country were speculating on whether or not Garth Turner would make Canadian history and become the first ever Green Party MP. I subsequently posted another message to his blog, stating that as one of his constituents, I would be 100% in support of Garth joining the Green Party and offered whatever assistance I could give in his campaign on the Green ticket.

Like him or loathe him, you've got to admit that Garth Turner has done more for democracy than any member of the Canadian legislature on any side of the bench in the last 9 months. He has time and time again invited his constituents to contact him, held numerous town hall meetings, online consultations, hosted chats, and presented us through his blog and webcasting efforts with a unique inside view of what he was doing on our behalf in Ottawa, and what he was trying to accomplish in government. No doubt about it, Halton residents have a hard working, dedicated MP who has pledged to be our voice in Ottawa. We are extremely fortunate to have Garth working on our behalf.

Although I certainly can't say I agreed with every platform Garth was advocating, I grew to respect the fact that he tells us what's happening and is so willing to help educate his community about the workings of government. His refusal to make everything in politics a black or white issue, and his willingness to listen to all his constituents, not just those who voted for him, struck me as unusual and very admirable.

As for my own political stance, while as a middle income, married male living in Burlington, I am most comfortable with conservative fiscal principles. I disagree with waste, whether it be the financial waste of a big government which tries to be all things to all interests, or the waste of our precious resources in the pursuit of materialism for its own sake.

The last two federal elections I have however voted for the Green party, based on the principle that they needed to be a factor to bring the big picture, do-or-die envirnmental issues to the forefront in our country's political debate. Although I am uncomfortable with their anti-nuclear stance, and some of the party's earlier ideas about welfare and spending public money on "alternative medicine", I do feel that the Green party is a place where pragmatists and idealists can tolerate open discussion. The Greens have demonstrated a shared concern for the enviroment, and concern for the future of our nation, and in fact are the only party that has even discussed the concept of a future as oil and natural gas begin to deplete.

Certainly Green is a far more tolerant party than that of the Alliance/Conservatives, who still can't seem to get over the whole same sex marriage thing. The Greens are a party with a bit of an image problem - they are seen as "environmentalists", which is commonly synomous with "looney left" in the political discussion which commonly happens today. Having a no nonsense fiscal mind like Garth Turner in their caucus would certainly help move the stereotype away from the perception that the Green movement is all hippies and communists. I have said in my post in Garth's blog, and I'll repeat it: Conservation and Conservatism are one and the same. To be a conservative, one must by definition practice conservation. It's a core value, and one I believe a clear majority of Canadians can stand up for.

There seem to be many in the Green Party camp who feel the same way, who were born in or immigrated to this huge, beautiful and rich land, and we want to ensure that it stays beautiful, rich, continues to sustain us and enables our decendants to be prosperous for many generations to come.

We are blessed with such natural wealth, it would be the greatest tragedy to let it be lost because we are too cheap or too focussed on our immediate financial returns to take the necessary steps to clean up the messes we make. The assumption that Canadians are not willing to accept lower returns on their investment portfolios in exchange a properly protected environment with less fossil fuel dependence is just not acceptable any longer.

We have seen traditional political parties make no preparations whatsoever for the coming of peak oil, which is hanging like the Sword of Damocles over all of Western civilisation. We have seen the Liberals do very little in 13 years to accomplish the targets set out in the Kyoto agreement that they signed. We have now seen the Conservatives take 8 months to draft a strategy which by all acoounts is a "wait and see" strategy. Since Brian Mulroney, no government has accomplished a thing on this issue, and it is the most important issue to the young people who will inherit a prosperous Canada. It is my hope that the Canada they inherit is capable of sustaining them and the generations that follow, although based on the actions of our recent governments, I feel like a passenger on the Titanic where the captain still refuses to pay attention to the icebergs dead ahead.

As a side note: The bank I work for spends millions of dollars on "Backup and Recovery" sites, which means basically, in the unlikely event that the main site is destroyed in a terrorist attack or disaster of some kind, that there is an alternate location so that business can carry on somewhat as usual. The chance of this occuring is maybe 1 in 10,000 if that, yet the Banks treat this with amazing seriousness and devote a lot of money and time to planning, testing and drilling its processes to maintain operations at a second site in the event of a disaster.

And remember - this is for an unlikely event. What is the backup and recovery plan for the likely event of peak oil? Even if there's just a 10% chance that industrial civilization collapses as oil production starts to decline - possibly in the next 5-10 years - isn't it worth the effort to spend a substantial portion of our national wealth to making sure that we as a society can survive, continue to feed ourselves and maintain some semblance of an economy post-peak? The issue certainly hasn't even been discussed outside of a small community of concerned citizens. Canadians en masse need to be engaged in finding solutions to a problem that is by all evidence available, 99.9% likely, not just 10%. For those who think this is just a lefty issue, please check out what Roscoe Bartlett (Republican) from Maryland has to say about Peak Oil.

Even if there's a 1% chance that over the next 50 years the ocean levels will rise causing billions of dollars in damage to our coastal cities, doesn't it make sense
to spend a few million today researching the technologies that will reduce the emissions, and slow the warming trend that is in evidence?

Just what are Canada's backup & recovery plans for Peak Oil and Climate Change?

This is the question we need to ask our leaders now.