This is the second positive article I've seen in Canadian mainstream press in the past few weeks. They are somewhat ahead of New England, which is the 'greenest' area in the US. Looks like we really may have picked a compatible city as our next home. Steve -------- Original Message -------- From: fdejong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Fresh, Green Ideas (Excellent article in Ottawa Citizen) To: (Recipient list suppressed) Ottawa Citizen_, Wednesday, June 2, 1999 (one day before Ontario election) Fresh, Green Ideas by Randall Denley (regular columnist) Don't you wish there was a political party that addressed the things that really matter to people? Instead, elections are the time when ordinary people have to stop thinking about their everyday lives so they can spend a few minutes considering what the politicians say is important. This time, it's apparently how many tax dollars to spend to support the government monopoly on health car and education. The Tories spend grudgingly, the Liberals willingly, and the NDP gleefully but their goals are similar. Not much to choose from there. There might be other things on your mind, such as how you escape the rat race, the traffic in your neighbourhood, the smog that aggravates your child's asthma, or dissatisfaction with your local school. The parties really have nothing to say about these kinds of things. They just don't fit into the established political channels. And yet these real-life concerns go to the central issue of public life - how do we create communities where we can lead satisfying lives? Sure, schools and health care are part of that but none of the traditional parties is asking us how to provide that service. All three start from the assumption that education and health are properly government work where key decisions are best made by people who don't live here. The only place to find any kind of fresh thinking is the Green party. It's easy to dismiss the environmental party as NDPers who've spent a bit too much time with the hydroponic products, but they're the only ones who are asking the right questions. We're told that high technology and automation are wonderful things, for example, but the bottom line of some of our new technology is that people are being replaced by machines. The banks have a concerted campaign to drive us all to the Internet and bank machines by cutting back human services in the branches. Voice mail has replaced receptionists. They're using automatic check-ins at the airport. Even the guy you sprays your car at the car wash has been let go in favour of an automated system. These changes offer a mixture of convenience and frustration but the often-ignored bottom line is that there are fewer jobs for people who lack advanced skills. Can that be good? The Greens propose a 32-hour work week, opening up more jobs for the unemployed and putting some time back into the lives of others. The Greens suggest, and this is the greatest heresy, that there could be some values in life that transcend the advertising-driven desire to consume. They are also the only party to actively criticize the car. Its downside is well known: pollution, costly roads, traffic deaths, disruption of residential streets, suburban sprawl - not to mention the cost of operating a vehicle. We ought to be consciously constructing communities, where people can walk or cycle to their destinations. Only the greens see this as an issue. On education, the Greens would allow Waldorf and Montessori schools into the public system, promoting more choice. They would give more control at the local school level, something akin to charter schools. Only their party believes parents are capable of making choices for their children. As in other areas, they place their greatest reliance on the individual in the community to make a good decision, not the bureaucrats at Queen's Park. The Greens are viewed as vaguely left wing, but this is a profoundly conservative approach. The Greens also want to conserve our farmland, water, and forests through proper husbandry. The other parties are blinded by the opportunity to exploit resources for jobs and taxes. The Green program is not without its faults. No one seems to have costed the thing so we don't know what the implication of taxing bad environmental practices would be or the effect on the treasury of a shorter work week. Their health care policy stresses prevention but most of the so-called health care expenses for any of us come in the few months before death and are largely unavoidable. The Greens remind is that the way we live our lives is not truly sustainable. We're burning down the road of 'progress' leaving a trail of pollution behind, headed for a crash we know is ahead. We can waste a lot of time debating when the crash will come but the Greens urge us to change before it's too late. That's a more important message than any the government we will elect tomorrow has to give. ------------------------------------------------------------- Frank de Jong, leader, Green Party of Ontario 416-929-2397 office, 416-533-6798 home, www.greenparty.on.ca Green Party address: 244 Gerrard Street East, Toronto, Ont. M5A 2G2