Who We Are...
Wind Energy: Click here to read
Wilfred Sorensen's Proposal
Click here to see the
Sustainable Kingston 2025 Report
The Greens are not a one issue party
The Green Party understands that the issues facing Kingston specifically,
and Ontario, Canada, and the world in general, are complex and interwoven.
For that reason, Greens do not claim to have any magic pill or simple solution.
Nor do we wish to divide the problems into black and white, left and right, good and evil. These
approaches only serve to further polarize our society and make consensus and reasoned reflection all the more difficult.
We understand that reality has more shades of grey. We understand that real progress will not simply
arise from a tax cut. We understand that our challenges will not be overcome by throwing borrowed
money at them and by running up the debt. We know that real solutions to the problems we face will not be founded
in extremes, unlike those who propose either runaway development or a ban on all development. As in all things, our aim is balance and true sustainability.
What the Green Party CAN offer is a fresh new approach to social and political issues.
Although the Green Party is relatively young, it has evolved quickly and
has attained a level of sophistication that rivals any other established
political party. Green Party policy is comprehensive and progressive, with a
reasoned and well-researched plan for each specific area of governance, from the economy and social justice to
education and the environment.
We take as our first and guiding principle, to all decision-making processes, the concepts of sustainability and balance.
We consider first the longer-term, ecological or whole system perspective. We believe our policies, firmly
grounded in ecology, true-cost economic accounting, and social justice, will begin
the progressive renewal of ecosystems and reverse the continuing erosion of our
quality-of-life and of our democratic participation in the society in which we live.
Green policies are the policies for the future
There is a certain inevitability to the policies proposed by the Green Party. The ecosystem of the planet
demands them.
It doesn't take an economist or a politician to acknowledge the priority of the
environment to all life on the planet. It's simple.
"Priority" has as its
root the word prior, meaning "before". It suggests that the environment comes before all else.
The planet's ecosystem underpins everything. It dictates the food we eat and the water we drink. It provides the fuel we burn to keep ourselves
warm and to power our machines. The money we spend is ultimately based on the value of the planet's resources, many of which are either non-renewable,
finite, or very slow to renew.
The planet's ecosystem represents all the money we have in the bank, and all we ever will have.
Of course, the principles of a society and its government depend in large part on how that society wishes to administer the
inherited investment.
For most of our tenure on this planet, humans have been digging deeply into that
inheritance and spending with reckless abandon without any thought to the future. Now, however,
the future is upon us. The manager of the ecosystem bank is sending us anxious messages, warning of
severely overextended credit. Our inheritance is quickly running out; we are spending it much faster than
we are reinvesting it.
We ALL live downstream. - David Suzuki
But that's only a part of the story. We also have a very large extended family that has an equal claim
to our inheritance. For the most part, we have shown no regard to the plants and animals, our cousins,
who share the planet with us. Every day, one or more of these relatives, not having a great enough share of the inheritance, are evicted
from their homes and eventually perish. Forever.
The ecosystem is quickly forcing our hand.
Take one simple example -- the unhealthy addiction to burning fossil fuels.
Record smog days in Ontario are causing enormous amounts of
physical, economic, and psychological damage. Global warming caused by massive fossil fuel burning is melting the polar
ice caps thereby creating the potential for a world-wide ecological and economic catastrophe. The lives of millions world wide are now threatened
through flood, drought, and violent storms resulting from these radical environmental changes.
Continuing to burn fossil fuels in the face of
such frightening consequences benefits only a tiny few; oil companies, automobile manufacturers and other multi-nationals mostly, while endangering
the vast majority.
The costs of treating widespread cancers caused by polluted air and water,
rebuilding and insuring roads, houses and other infrastructure that are destroyed by floods
or ravaged by storms,
and feeding those without food due to drought are much greater than is the cost of switching to the much less expensive and abundant
energy resources promoted by the Green Party.
The established political parties, who are beholden
to various powerful interest groups and lobbies, continue to resist this common sense approach.
But as these costs rise, those who would rather mortgage the future for short term gain will soon
have no choice. There will be no money left in the bank -- no breathable
air, no drinkable water -- and the decision-makers of the 20th century will be dragged kicking and screaming into the new millenium.
So, Green Party policies will be implemented by our governments some time in the near future. They may be co-opted
by the Liberals, Tories, or NDP. Or voters will have elected the Green Party to parliament. But whatever name the governing party goes by, they will definitely be Green.
The only question that remains is whether Green policies will be adopted in the next five years, ten years or fifty years.
One thing is for sure, we have overspent our collective future, and the future of our children,
for many decades now, and time is running out. We urge you to make the inevitable decision now,
before the damage to our environment, that fragile foundation that makes all else possible,
becomes so great that it is irreversible.
Green Party concerns and approaches are truly global
There are Green political organizations in virtually every democratic nation
of the world. The Green Party is becoming a significant voice in the democratic
assemblies and parliaments of several countries, most notably in Germany.
Green power and membership is gaining momentum everywhere around the globe.
And in every case, the values and philosophies of the Green organizations are generally the same.
This is a very important point.
It is indicative that the Green movement is truly universal. The values and philosophies of the
Green party do not speak to only one nation of people. They do not look out for the interests
of only a small number of the world's population. They do not seek to divide and categorize.
They are inclusive. If they apply to
a Kingstonian, they apply to a Torontonian. If they apply to a Canadian, they apply to a South African.
Green party philosophy is encompassing, comprehensive, and serves as
a Greenprint of social and political organization for all of Earth's residents.
Lafarge Tire-burning proposal: A Primer
Seven Big Myths about Climate Change
To read the Charter of the Global Greens in HTML format click here.
To read the Charter of the Global Greens in PDF format click here.
Whatever befalls the earth
befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a
strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself... - Chief
Seattle
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