From Lois Corbett, National Campaign Manager, Green Party of Canada

It’s Earth Day—what better day to put your boots on and head out to vote Green in today’s advance poll?

Four decades of public concern and very hard work has seen some success. Parliament set up Environment Canada in 1971. Public concern in the next two decades helped push through the Canada-US Acid Rain Treaty. A few especially noxious chemicals, like DDT, were banned. And governments in Canada and the US forced the soap companies to reduce phosphates in detergents—helping, in part, to stem off attack on lakes and rivers in Canada, especially Lake Erie. 

Another high mark was signing the Kyoto protocol in 1997, pledging to bring greenhouse gases down to 1990 levels.

And now decades of your hard work is threatened. Harper’s government held power for less than a year before trying to change the Kyoto emissions target from 1990 levels to 2007 levels. Just before being found in contempt of Parliament, the Harper government tabled a budget that cut 20% of Environment Canada’s funding—while tar sands’ subsidies were left untouched.

Environmental regulations are under assault and the tar sands are expanding. We are seeing the impact of environmental chemical exposure on our children’s health. There is no cap on greenhouse gases and corporations profit and pollute with no thought to the future bill that ordinary citizens will be forced to pay.

The Green Party is the only political party in Canada fully committed to earth-friendly changes.

I won’t lie to you. This won’t be easy. You probably already know that. Even in the small things—it was a lot easier when your all your garbage was tossed into one big, black bag. But it wasn’t better. The grocery store takes much more thought—balancing organic vs. 100 mile vs. packaging vs. your budget can make a shopping trip seem like higher math. But you do it. You separate your waste materials for recycling and composting. You choose to spend more for food that is local and pesticide-free.

Today, of all days, it’s more important than ever to vote with the passion of a person who knows that our earth is in peril. It’s time to stop letting MPs get away with lazy, short-sighted decisions. It’s time to elect Green MPs to raise heck about the environment. It’s time to work on honouring the commitment Canada made to the Kyoto Accord. It’s time to remind MPs that cooperation on important issues is a virtue rather than a crime.

It’s time MPs worked for your future, instead of their next election campaign.

It’s time to ask why the government prefers to invest in dangerous nuclear energy instead of clean solar energy. It’s time to ask why Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence, one of the great marine bio-nurseries, is again in danger of offshore oil development—with drilling platforms that will be even riskier than the type that created ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. I could keep going, but I want to leave you enough time to get to the polling station!

If you really want to celebrate Earth Day, I can’t imagine anything more important than getting out and voting Green in the advance polls. Even better, call a friend who intends to vote Green and go together, whether by foot, bicycle, transit, or hybrid vehicle.

Happy Earth Day!