#greencoastbc

[greencoastbc]

Judy Wilson is concerned about Canadian politics. Here's what she said about hearing Elizabeth May speak. #elxn42 #voteOct19 #greencoastbc

[greencoastbc]

Clive Gammon is a Glenn Sollitt supporter in the Courtenay-Alberni. Here he is showing off his political colours at the Comox Valley Green Party of Canada launch event .. #elxn42 #voteOct19 #greencoastbc (at Glenn Sollitt Comox Valley HQ)

[greencoastbc]

Glenn Sollitt listening to Courtenay-Alberni voters at today's Green Party of Canada launch in the Comox Valley .. #elxn42 #voteOct19 #greencoastbc (at Glenn Sollitt Comox Valley HQ)

[greencoastbc]

Greg Sabo used to be a Liberal supporter. He's now voting for Green Party of Canada candidate Glenn Sollitt in the Courtenay-Alberni riding .. #elxn42 #voteOct19 #greencoastbc

[greencoastbc]

Michelle and Andrea - solid Sollitt supporters /p>

Michelle Borden and Andrea Lang at the Glenn Sollitt Comox Valley launch event. Andrea has known Glenn for years, and was voting Green long before him. Michelle, however, was always a Conservative Party supporter. She voted Conservative for decades because of their fiscal policies, and because she believes they stood for "Canadian values." In this election she's voting for Glenn Sollitt and the Green Party of Canada because she likes their policies better, and because she likes Glenn's values. He's a business man who's committed to defending BC's coast, and the families that rely on a healthy coastal environment for their economic well-being. Do you know other conservative voters who are looking for an alternative? Citizens who want to be proud of this country again? Tell them about Michelle. She's one of thousands of Vancouver Island conservatives for whom voting Green is making a lot of sense.

[greencoastbc]

Vancouver Island Green Candidates

There are at least two things you can do to get a #GreenCoastBC result on October 19, 2015. One is to get out and vote for Green Party of Canada candidates (they’re listed here, and you’ll also find a handy reference on how to register to vote online, below). 

Another way you can help make a #greencoastBC happen is to use online tools – email, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Instagram, etc – to spread the word about why you’re voting Green on October 19. With the new changes to the (un)Fair Elections Act, and with the very long campaign PM Harper has thrown all of us into, your actions on the social media and internet front are more important than ever. 

In a nutshell: get out the vote on October 19th, AND in the weeks leading up to that date, get out the media: like, comment on, and repost stories you like on Facebook or elsewhere on the internet, reTweet Tweets you support, give people the links to register and ways to vote (below), and use email to send important information to your friends and family. More than ever, grassroots media action is going to play a role in determining the future of our communities and our country. 

The candidates

Who are the Vancouver Island #greencoastBC alternatives to the Conservatives? Let’s start from the north of the Island, and work our way south. Like their Facebook pages. Follow their Twitter accounts. Share their blog posts. And: vote on October 19th! 

Brenda Sayers is the candidate for North Island—Powell River. You’ll find out more about Brenda here:

http://greensofnorthisland-powellriver.ca/

https://www.facebook.com/NIPRGreens

https://twitter.com/niprgreens

Glenn Sollitt is the candidate for Courtenay-Alberni. Find our more about Glenn here:

http://www.glennsollittgpc.ca

https://www.facebook.com/GlennSollitt

http://www.twitter.com/glennsollitt

Paul Manly is the candidate for Nanaimo-Ladysmith. Find our more about Paul here:

http://paulmanly.greenparty.ca

https://www.facebook.com/VoteforPaulManly

http://www.twitter.com/PaulManly

Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi is the candidate for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford. Find out more about Fran here:

http://www.franhuntjinnouchi.ca/

https://www.facebook.com/FranHuntJinnouchi

http://www.twitter.com/FHJinnouchi

Frances Litman is the candidate for Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke. Find out more about Frances here:

http://franceslitman.ca

https://www.facebook.com/franceslitmangreenparty

https://twitter.com/franceslitman

Jo-Ann Roberts is the candidate for Victoria. Find out more about Jo-Ann here:

http://joannroberts.ca/

https://www.facebook.com/JoAnnRobertsYYJ

https://twitter.com/JoAnnRobertsYYJ

https://instagram.com/JoAnnRobertsYYJ/

Elizabeth May is the candidate for Saanich-Gulf Islands. Find out more about Elizabeth here:

http://www.elizabethmaymp.ca

https://www.facebook.com/ElizabethMayGreenLeader

https://twitter.com/elizabethmay

https://instagram.com/_elizabeth.may/

https://www.youtube.com/user/canadiangreenparty

Are you registered?

You can find out if you're registered – and register to vote – here: Register to vote online.

Here are the ways you can vote in this election: Ways to vote.

[greencoastbc]

What about the economy? 

Canadian Business magazine says Elizabeth May "showed another way forward." And that includes putting people to work on things that need doing if we're going to be serious about facing the issues, it means investing in our communities. 

Here’s the full story, from Canadian Business Magazine:

Why Mulcair and Trudeau fought on Harper’s terms—and lost

There is nothing more refreshing in politics than a leader who has nothing to lose.

A victory for Green Party Leader Elizabeth May in the October election would be any opportunity to hold caucus meetings around something bigger than a coffee table. The low threshold for success means she is free to play offense—as she did Thursday in the Maclean’s leaders debate. Unencumbered by expectations, May was the most comfortable of the four performers. Most of the intelligent things that were said about the economy came out of her mouth.

To his credit, Prime Minister Stephen Harper did well, given he was the target of nearly every attack. Harper is an ideologically arrogant leader entirely convinced of his right to foist his worldview on the country, even though 60% of voters in the last election cast ballots for someone other than a Conservative. But arrogance was an advantage in Thursday night’s setting. Harper was rarely flustered. He effectively shrugged off the Bank of Canada’s prediction that gross domestic product contracted in the first half of the year. Growth will be positive on the year, he said. Message: stick with me and everything will be fine.

The opposition leaders were good at pointing out that Harper has been rather poor macro-economic forecaster. His vision of Canada as an energy “superpower” wrongly assumed oil prices had shifted forever higher. And when the foundations of the global economy were trembling ahead of the financial crisis, Harper denied that a recession was coming. In fact, in the autumn of 2008, when the rest of the world was scrambling to deal with the fallout of the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, Harper made a priority of curbing public funding for political parties. The move triggered a political crisis that wasted weeks of precious time. The prime minister eventually presented a credible economic stimulus plan, but only after experiencing a near-death experience in Parliament.

Harper is vulnerable on the economy, which is why his campaign also is emphasizing “public safety” as another reason to give the Conservatives another mandate. Yet the two main opposition leaders did a poor job of exploiting it. New Democratic Party Leader Tom Mulcair cleverly noted that Harper’s legacy as economic manager could include two recessions. Justin Trudeau, the Liberal leader, pointed out that his predecessors bequeathed Harper big budget surpluses that he turned into deficits.

Why the federal government shouldn’t balance the budget Yet neither Mulcair or Trudeau really hurt Harper on the economy. That’s because they chose to debate the prime minister on his terms. Harper wants the debate about economic policy to revolve around balanced budgets. He says anyone who votes for a New Democratic or Liberal candidate is asking for Greek-style debt crisis. The charge is absurd, but no more so than the repeated attempts by Mulcair and Trudeau to smear Harper for running “eight-consecutive deficits.”

Any responsible leader would have run shortfalls in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Harper’s failure is his refusal to plan for a ninth or even a tenth deficit. Business investment is weak. Exports are struggling. Households are too indebted to carry on spending in their post-crisis pace. If there ever is a time for a more active role for government in the economy, this is it. The federal government easily could do more because its debt is low and borrowing costs may never be lower. But Harper won’t because he is ideologically fused to balanced budgets. The Conservatives want to equate fiscal probity with superb economic management. By trying to embarrass Harper for running deficits, Mulcair and Trudeau are playing into the prime minister’s hands. They elevate the importance of balanced budgets by trying so hard to convince voters that they too would run tight fiscal policy. The New Democratic Party and the Liberals, therefore, would do no better at boosting economic growth than the Conservative Party is right now. So why change prime ministers?

And now back to Elizabeth May. She was the only leader who recognized that if the objective is to stimulate growth in the near term, then Ottawa has to change the way it frames economic policy. When asked to rate how important it was to run a balanced budget, May said: “In the scheme of things, not very.” It was a recognition that fear of even a small deficit limits ambition. May said she would unleash an “army of carpenters” to retrofit buildings that leak warm air in the winter, and require occupants to blast their air conditioners in the summer.

This is the kind of creative thinking that Ottawa has lacked for years when it comes to economic policy. May could finance her army cheaply with record-low interest rates and promise—in legislation, if need be—to pay it back as soon as the economy was once again growing at potential. The Greens’ prospects are slim. But on Thursday night, the party’s leader was alone in showing that there was another way forward.

by Kevin Carmichael Aug 7, 2015 Originally published here.

[greencoastbc]

When Elizabeth May invited former conservative Prime Minister Joe Clark to speak on Salt Spring Island he filled the room. Here's how Elizabeth describes what the man who led the federal Tories from 1976-1983 had to say about the current Tory leader. We're talking about the foundations of responsible, democratic government in Canada. On October 19, vote for Canada.