| Not only is the 2004 federal election bound to be remembered as part of the missing generation thanks to so many voters who won't bother to show up, it will also be subtitled as the election where the real issues went missing.
Those issues should be at the top of the media and political agenda, but their absence can be easily explained by the way our political and media managers have dumbed down the campaign process so that they can understand it, and hope that, in the process, they prevent voters from becoming confused with reality.
Hence, they always go to health care, crime, sex and war to garner votes.
Until last week, the real issues such as same-sex marriage, abortion and the environment were nowhere to be seen. Not only is the country's fourth national party being shunned by the staid and grey mass media, but the NDP were almost looking as if they had abrogated their genetically inherited position as the party of conscience.
There are, however, sleeper issues out there. Former Reform party leader Preston Manning sees the environment as an issue that can make or break a party’s success, and it's at the top of the agenda of many voters. If you believe what David R. Boyd writes in his recent book Unnatural Law, neither of the two major parties, Liberals or Conservatives, has done much of anything to move environmental law to an enlightened stage, where Canadians could be confident that their government is actually making progress with proactive environmental actions. (Another book I recommend you read and put beside Unnatural Law if you are a true environmentalist that wants to keep informed on the issues is The Empty Ocean by Richard Ellis).
Dr. David Schindler of the University of Alberta, a world-renowned ecologist, has issued a warning that we have an impending water crisis in the West leading us down a path of no return that governments have yet to realize – as evidenced by the provincial government's approval of water-use applications at a breakneck speed for the oil and gas industry.
Schindler's findings are showing that river flows have decreased by 30 per cent for northern rivers in Alberta, such as the Athabasca, and 80 per cent for southern Alberta rivers, such as the Oldman. This is a trend he says will only continue due to the shrinking of mountain glaciers and their water supply, which can only be attributed to global warming. Alberta farmers already knew this, it seems our political leaders don’t.
Why talk of clean air, potable water and some far off cesspool at the bottom of the oceans? Because environmental problems are global.
Canadian scientist Simon Donner feels the question we must ask ourselves and the politicos who want us to vote for them is, "Will Canada become a leader in preventing dangerous climate change, in promoting new energy technologies, higher fuel efficiency, improved urban infrastructure and sustainable international development?"
Recently, the Globe and Mail reported that one of the environment initiatives proposed by Jack Layton, leader of the NDP would be to increase the use of alternative energy sources, pledging to see 10,000 wind turbines built across Canada.
In the whole environmental policy plank of the NDP, there are some interesting ideas, such as: establishing a university degree program in green technology transportation; using half of the federal gas tax to improve public transit, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure in urban areas, freight rail and rural roads; providing GST rebates on greener cars; and making employee public transit passes a tax deduction for employers.
One further policy the NDP could adopt is the refusal to give any urban centre any funding support unless it is used for mass-transit purposes. That means no ring road, no new asphalt, no new roads for more cars to spew more pollution.
The Green party seems to have become a true Canadian party with its environmental platform. It has tried to balance the environment with reality and is proposing many very well-thought-out policies that are a balance between cleaning the environment by using carrots instead of sticks and proposing tax changes and incentives where prudent to do so.
As an example, they propose to remove tax breaks on pesticides; implement a carbon tax on gasoline, diesel and coal but exclude ethanol blends and biodiesel from fuel tax increases; establish a special five-year tax break on energy efficiency retrofits in commercial and residential buildings; and seek intervener status in legal actions that impact the health of the ecosystem.
The last issue is one where I happen to agree and would go farther by using the Constitution to base the federal government’s intervention in provincial environmental practices. The air and water, after all, cross provincial and international borders, so the federal government has a responsibility to step in and make the decisions in the best interest of the country’s environmental health. So too to voters. |
Copyright ©2004 FFWD. All rights reserved.