Read below to find out what happened in Week 4 of the 2004 federal campaign (archived).
 Voting Day
CLICK HERE to see what happened in Week 3
CLICK HERE to see what happened in the first two weeks
While the national media and the campaign machinery of the big three parties
conspire again to make this a federal election about sound bites, optics, and the televised performances
of the leaders, the Green Party continues to try to inject ideas and innovation into the mix.
Here in Kingston, federal candidate for the Green Party Janina Fisher Balfour is demonstrating
her tremendous energy and vision as she makes every effort to let Kingstonians know about the
real alternative they have in the Greens. She has attended each of the candidates debates and she
has pounded the pavement, meeting voters in their neighbourhoods, in the markets, and on the streets.
With honesty and optimism, Janina has brought the unique and forward-thinking Green Party platform
to the Chamber of Commerce Debate, the Senior's Association Debate,
the Queen's AMS Debate, and the Sisters of Providence Debate on Missile Defence, an event Conservative
Blair MacLean and Liberal Peter Milliken didn't feel it necessary to even attend.
There is one more scheduled debate that all of the candidates have committed to attend and that
is the important Environmental Issues Debate, hosted by the Society for Conservation Biology - Kingston Chapter.
The debate will take place 7PM on Monday, June 21 at Chernoff Auditorium, Queen's University. This is an important
event because it is one of the few opportunities to highlight environmental concerns and the Green Party's
program for addressing some of these issues.
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Those concerned about looking for new sources of plentiful, renewable energy need look no
further than our own candidate, Janina Fisher Balfour. Since the election was called she has
hit the ground at a sprint, and hasn't looked back, organizing the headquarters, rallying volunteers,
attending debates, delivering speeches, speaking to the media and canvassing the city's neighbourhoods.
If this is her level of passion and dedication during the campaign, imagine what Janina Fisher Balfour would bring
to Ottawa as an advocate for Kingston.
If you keep the kind of pace Janina keeps the campaign trail can be gruelling.
You can read Janina's account of the Missile Defence debate, and other events in a typically busy day
of campaigning by viewing her web log in the discussion forum.
The televised leaders debate took place without Green Party leader Jim Harris.
The mood of many across the country, captured in the Toronto Star editorial cartoon to the right,
was that either the debates were poorer for the Green's exclusion or that the Greens were richer
for not being invited. It was a scrappy affair with some sound and fury, but very little substance.
One of Mahatma Gandhi's most famous quotes, and one that currently resonates quite strongly with Greens
around the world, goes like this: First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you
win.
Judging by some of the recent attacks on the Green Party, perpetrated primarily by
those partisan to the NDP, it would appear that the Green Party of Canada is entering the third stage of
Gandhi's 4-step description of social change.
In week 4 of the campaign, in what appears to be an orchestrated attack, within days of each other
articles were published in the
Globe and Mail, Eye and Now magazines in Toronto comparing the Green Party unfavourably to the NDP.
The basic tenor in each of the articles seems to be that the Green Party is unfairly bleeding votes
away from the NDP.
The article that caused the most consternation in these parts was the Murray Dobbin article
in the Globe and Mail. The Green Party has issued a comprehensive, point-by-point rebuttal of the Dobbin article by the Green Party
platform chairperson Michael Pilling (edited by our own campaign manager, Nancy Salay). To read the full Dobbin article
and the subsequent rebuttal you can click the links below. There is also a link to the
Green Party of Canada website for access to more resources on Green Party policies and analyses
of the platform from various perspectives.
Anti-Green Murray Dobbin article
Green Party rebuttal of Dobbin article
Other platform resources on Green Party website
One thing seems very telling about this whole NDP vs. Green
issue: The word "environment" was mentioned just once in two hours during the televised leaders
debate, by Jack Layton, as an aside in his summing up. Environmental issues were not raised
as main topics of debate by any of the candidates or any of the media representatives asking questions.
Would this sorry state of affairs have held if the Greens had been invited to the debate? We think not.
Clearly, there is only one party in Canadian politics capable and willing to address the very
real environmental challenges facing us all.
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Printed with permission from Theo Moudakis () of the Toronto Star (
