Greens Choose Paul

 

Green Party of Canada recently chose a new leader. I was not impressed by the campaign or the outcome.

There was some excitement when the Green party revealed that the membership had grown to 35,000.Thus it was difficult to understand why only 23,000 had actually Voted. How could this be explained. For one thing during most of the campaign there were 10 candidates running., it was difficult to tell the difference between them. This could have been easily clarified by the party itself.. But they refused to do so.

There was another reason. Elizabeth May went on a fund raising tour of Ontario with one candidate.She refused to go with any other. Many people felt that the fix was in.

  There have also been suggestions that the party establishment failed to send ballots  to known supporters of Dimitri Lascaris. In my own case I bought a membership in the party in early July. I also sent in a contribution which be directed to Dimitri . This was done. But when I never received info: on how to vote in the mail in or on my email I went to the party webpage and sent a message.I still did not get any response from the Green Party office.I never voted.


Where do we go from here? 

 
Dimitri  has indicated that he wants to build an ecosocialist movement within the Green Party.' In my opinion this is the wrong way to go. This has been tried a number of times in Canada and without fail they had all collapsed. I think this view underestimates the power of the political party. If you show a possibility of success like the Waffle movement in the NDP in 1971,it is simply expelled.We tend to forget that in parliamentary democracy it is the norm for all parties to allow leader to set policy and to demand conformity. This is also always been the case for social Democratic Parties. We cannot expect the Green party of Canada to be any different.

It seems to me that the coalitions for social justice and the anti-free-trade coalitions were more successful. They were alliances of organizations with only volunteer participation. This limited  their impact. They were also unable to create an alternative vision.
 

But times change. We have seen a young people with the school strikes over over government  inaction on the climste crisis Then there was a broad support for justice for First Nations. Canadians joined in the mass protests in the United States led by Black Lives Matter.
.
Canada, today needs a political party that is committed to the Leap Manifesto and the Green New Deal Canada. .it would be foundedupon a strong commitment for Reconciliation.and UNDRIP

 But this will not happen until there is a broad popular movement for real change.
 it seems to me that we need a new type of political movement where anyone can join. All that would be necessary is a personal commitment to certain democratic principles and goals. This would include  a commitment to the begin with the United Nations social justice principles which were signed by the Canadian government but never implemented. It would generally endorse the principles of ecosoialism. There woud need to be strong commitment to ending militarism.

 

 

Green Party of Canada recently chose a new leader. I was not impressed by the campaign or the outcome.

There was some excitement with the Green party revealed that the membership had grown to 35,000.Thus it was difficult to understand why only 23,000 had actually Voted. How could this be explained. For one thing during most of the campaign there were 10 candidates running., it was difficult to tell the difference between them. This could have been easily clarified by the party itself.. But they refused to do so.

There was another reason. Elizabeth May went on a fund raising tour of Ontario with one candidate,Aminne Paul. She refused to go with any other. Many people felt that the fix was in.

  There have also been suggestions that the party establishment failed to send ballots  to known supporters of Dimitri Lascaris. In my own case I bought a membership in the pary in early July. I also sent in a contribution which be directed to Dimitri . This was done. But when I never received info: on how to vote in the mail in or on my email I went to the party webpage and sent a message.I still did not get any response from the Green Party office.I never voted.


Where do we go from here? 

 
Dimitri  has indicated that he wants to build an ecosocialist movement within the Green Party.' In my opinion this is the wrong way to go. This has been tried a number of times in Canada and without fail they had all collapsed. I think this view underestimates the power of the political party. If you show a possibility of success like the Waffle movement in the NDP in 1971,it is simply expelled.We tend to forget that in parliamentary democracy it is the norm for all parties to allow leader to set policy and to demand conformity. This is also always been the case for social Democratic Parties. We cannot expect the Green party of Canada to be any different.

It seems to me that the coalitions for social justice and the anti-free-trade coalitions were more successful. They were alliances of organizations with only volunteer participation. This limited  their impact. They were also unable to create an alternative vision.
 

But times change. We have seen a young people with the school strikes over over government  inaction on the climste crisis Then there was a broad support for justice for First Nations. Canadians joined in the mass protests in the United States led by Black Lives Matter.
.
Canada, today needs a political party that is committed to the Leap Manifesto and the Green New Deal Canada. .it would be foundedupon a strong commitment for Reconciliation.and UNDRIP

 But this will not happen until there is a broad popular movement for real change.
 it seems to me that we need a new type of political movement where anyone can join. All that would be necessary is a personal commitment to certain democratic principles and goals. This would include  a commitment to the begin with the United Nations social justice principles which were signed by the Canadian government but never implemented. It would generally endorse the principles of ecosoialism. There woud need to be strong commitment to ending militarism.