Saanich Gulf Islands Greens

03/22/2026

Suzanne Simard has created a petition calling on the BC Government to protect old growth forests. Please sign and share.

Sign the Petition Calling on the Province of British Columbia (BC) to Follow Through on Transformative Stewardship and Industry Promises.

01/17/2026

I was recently interviewed by Jack Etkin on Community Forum. If you are interested in changing our electoral system from the antiquated, unfair first-past-the-post system of first-past-the-post model that all the most successful democratic countries use a version of, check out the link below.

Is Canada’s voting system truly democratic?In this episode of From Canada Citizens Forum, we examine proportional representation (PR) and why many believe Ca...

12/18/2025

Here's a cartoon from Paris. It's funny, but think what's behind it if we don't reduce fossil fuel emissions, and make personal changes like reducing flying etc.
It's been 10 years since the Paris Agreement.

12/15/2025

This is bad enough, but not to forget what happens when the dilbit from the oil sands sinks, and cannot be recovered. Oh well, 'we need the economy'!

12/10/2025

Steven Guilbeaut is one ethical politician.

Letter from Steven Guilbeault This "grand compromise" looks like a fire sale

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith in Calgary on November 27th

Former Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault harshly criticizes the energy agreement recently concluded between his boss, Mark Carney, and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

Published yesterday at 5:00 AMShare
Steven Guilbeault
Steven Guilbeault
Member of Parliament for Laurier–Sainte-Marie
Many have described the energy memorandum of understanding signed late last month by Premier Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith as a major compromise. We've been through this before.

Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also struck a "grand compromise" in 2018 when, through his mediation, Canadians purchased the Trans Mountain (TMX) pipeline. Canada would buy a pipeline, and Alberta would fight climate change. Unfortunately, successive Conservative governments in Alberta have systematically dismantled their plan. So today, diluted bitumen from Alberta flows through the pipeline to the Pacific, but the promised emissions reductions made by oil companies in this quid pro quo have vanished like smoke.

My political reflex would be to note that the Liberals lost all their seats in Alberta and Saskatchewan in the subsequent 2019 federal election, while environmentally conscious voters from British Columbia to Atlantic Canada greeted Liberal volunteers at the doorstep with an incredulous "You bought a pipeline?!"

I have never hidden my disagreement with the TMX agreement, but we took advantage of the space it created, at least in my view, to move forward with a series of emissions reduction measures that, for the first time, put Canada on track to meet its international commitments.

It is in light of this history that I view the most recent federal-provincial energy agreement as a significant step backward in the fight against climate change, a cut-rate sale rather than a major compromise. The Canada-Alberta memorandum of understanding abandons several key, hard-won measures that were rigorously modeled, consulted on, negotiated, and implemented, or proposed, over the past decade.

What makes the situation even more incomprehensible is that Canadians seem to receive nothing in return for all that is being sacrificed.

The federal government hailed the agreement as a major achievement, in part because the Alberta government agreed to raise its pollution pricing for industry to $130 per tonne. Industrial carbon pricing (which every province must achieve, whether through the federal program or a provincial equivalent) is supposed to increase by $15 per year to reach $170 per tonne by 2030, but the memorandum of understanding does not appear to commit Alberta to annual increases beyond $130. Just last week, Danielle Smith weakened Alberta's carbon trading system, making it much more difficult to achieve a real price of $130 per tonne.

The ceiling on pause
The protocol also puts on hold the proposed cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector, a regulatory tool designed to ensure that the country's largest emitting sector (31% of total Canadian emissions) actually does its part. Historically, absolute oil and gas emissions have increased in line with production. Electricity, on the other hand, has increased its energy production, but overall emissions from the Canadian electricity sector have fallen by nearly 60% since 2005.

There is no credible scenario for achieving the 2030 targets if the country's most polluting sector does not do its fair share. This is precisely why the cap was proposed: not to target anyone, but to guarantee genuine accountability.

Another major problem: the memorandum of understanding would suspend the clean electricity regulations for Alberta. This undermines the long-term certainty that investors need to develop clean energy, while also sending a signal to other provinces that national standards are now optional.

The electricity regulation, which does not come into force until 2035, aims to provide a clear roadmap to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, a target that all provinces, including Alberta, have committed to achieving.

However, nothing in the protocol indicates what will replace the approximately 182 million tonnes of carbon that this clean electricity regulation was intended to eliminate. In fact, without these regulations, Environment Canada estimates that the industrial price of carbon would have to rise to $400 per tonne to achieve the same result.

And all this while further supporting the expansion of fossil fuels and allowing taxpayers' money to be used to increase enhanced oil recovery production, something the Government of Canada had pledged not to do just a few weeks ago in the 2025 budget.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is certainly an important technology, one among many, in the fight against climate change, but it is not a silver bullet. In the oil sands, CCS would only allow for a reduction of about 12.5% ​​in emissions, according to the Alberta-based Pembina Institute.

According to the same organization, moving forward with CCS while adding 1 million barrels of oil per day (which is essentially what the Government of Canada is committing to do with this protocol) would leave us in a more polluting situation than maintaining current production… without CCS.

The price of a protocol
So, what is the price of this memorandum of understanding?

Environmental integrity, not a fleeting political agreement, will be the true measure of the cost of this deal. The federal government must ensure that the final agreement in April guarantees a $130 industrial price signal by increasing the annual rate for each additional tonne of production.

Alberta must also agree to reverse its discriminatory regulations on land use for renewable energy, and the province must present a credible plan to achieve its 2050 carbon neutrality target.

Yes, the global political and economic order has been disrupted, but the climate won't wait for us. Canada was reducing its emissions at a rate unprecedented in our history while maintaining a growing economy.

Last year, the country ranked third in the world for foreign direct investment, behind only the United States and Brazil. And according to the Canadian Climate Institute, an independent organization, Canada's previous emissions reduction plan had an 85 to 90 percent chance of meeting our 2030 targets. All that was needed was a little more ambition at the provincial level and, for the federal government, to stay the course on a plan that was working.

Unfortunately, with the rollback of hard-won measures such as carbon pricing for consumers, the cap on oil and gas emissions, clean electricity regulations and the abandonment of our commitment to stop subsidizing fossil fuels, it is now impossible to see how Canada can meet these targets, or even achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

These are the challenges we face as the Government of Canada negotiates the details of this fire sale. Ever the optimist, I still cling to a glimmer of hope that this could prove to be a defining moment of leadership for the Premier of Alberta. Because the risk of utter failure is immense.

Correction:
An error crept into a previous version of this text which wrongly referred to a reduction in overall emissions from the Canadian electricity sector of around 650% since 2005. The reduction is actually 60%.

11/27/2025

Great news!
Fair Vote Canada

BREAKING NEWS:

BC all-party committee on Electoral Reform recommends a Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform! New polling shows BC voters support proportional representation.

Please share now:

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You can also share this post on Bluesky.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

BC all-party committee on Electoral Reform recommends a Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform. New polling shows strong support for proportional representation in BC!

BC’s Democratic and Electoral Reform Committee has just released its report recommending a Citizen’s Assembly on Electoral Reform.

"The Committee received significant input related to retaining or changing electoral systems, the opportunities and challenges presented by each electoral system, and how electoral reform could unfold should BC proceed in that direction. The Committee acknowledges that altering the electoral system, a key component of BC’s democracy, requires further conversations with British Columbians to ensure there is support for and public trust in any potential changes.

With this in mind, the Committee recommends that the government consider establishing a peoples’ assembly to examine and make recommendations on the model for electing Members of the Legislative Assembly.

Additionally, the Committee recommends that the provincial government consult local governments to determine the level of interest in alternative electoral systems for their communities."
Earlier this year, 93% of submissions about the voting system to the committee’s public consultation recommended proportional representation. This includes submissions from individuals and 46 groups.

Only 2% advocated keeping our current first-past-the-post system and 5% advocated for other systems such as the winner-take-all ranked ballot (Alternative Vote).

November 2025 EKOS polling shows BC public strongly behind proportional representation

New polling from EKOS shows strong support for proportional representation in British Columbia.

Read the full poll results.


A strong majority of BC voters agree with the fundamental principle of a proportional system - that the seats in the legislature should reflect the popular vote.

This agreement is even stronger when asked whether seats should be proportional to votes in each region.

NDP voters in the north, Conservative voters in urban areas, and Green voters everywhere should be fairly represented in the legislature.

Support for proportional representation is high among all voters: 78% of BC NDP voters, 73% of BC Conservative voters, and 82% of BC Green Party voters support PR.

Furthermore, voters support an electoral system in which every vote counts and that incentivizes parties to work together:

Only a more proportional system can deliver on these values.

In the last BC election, voter choice was slashed when BC United dropped out, resulting in a polarizing election and barely more than a two-party system.

A strong majority of BC voters think a two-party system is bad for democracy in BC:

In the United States, with winner-take-all politics and a two-party system, polarization has reached a dangerous level.

Political polarization is a growing concern in Canada. An April 2025 poll showed that in both Canada and the US, strong majorities now believe that the party on the opposite side to them is a “threat to their country”.

British Columbians believe legislators should act:

The research evidence is clear: Countries with proportional representation are less polarized.

With proportional representation, voters have more options on the ballot, so elections do not boil down to a divisive “us vs them” choice. People in countries with proportional representation are used to seeing parties across the political spectrum find common ground and work together.

Around the world, proportional representation is achieved by multi-party agreement - the result of negotiation and compromise.

A non-partisan Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform, tasked with providing feedback to the BC legislature about how to implement proportional representation in BC, would be a significant step in the right direction.

Fair Vote Canada

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10/08/2025

We need electoral reform in order to give everyone a voice and protect democracy.
Shelagh
Fair Vote Canada

RESULTS ARE IN!

93% of submissions to the BC Democratic and Electoral Reform Committee committee called for proportional representation. Please share no

The BC NDP and BC Green Party's “Cooperation and Responsible Government Accord” included an agreement for an all-party Committee on Democratic and Electoral Reform.

This committee includes five BC NDP MLAs, two BC Conservative MLAs, one One BC MLA and one BC Green MLA.

This summer, the committee conducted public hearings across the province, inviting presentations and written submissions from individuals and groups.

Of the 865 presentations or submissions that included an opinion on the voting system, 93% advocated for proportional representation. Only 2% advocated for first-past-the-post.

Proportional representation was supported by 43 of 46 (94%) of the organizations who gave a recommendation to the committee about the voting system.

Now it's up to us to share these results so the government knows that British Columbians are paying attention and want leadership on proportional representation!

There's no time to waste.

The Democratic and Electoral Reform Committee is deliberating this week about what recommendation to make to the government.

Please share these results and tag and the to tell them to listen to British Columbians and take action on proportional representation:
Share the results of the consultation on social media now!
The committee will release a report with its recommendations on November 26.

Sincerely,
Anita Nickerson
Executive Director, Fair Vote Canada

09/30/2025

Green party supporters took part in Draw The Line activities on September 20th.

09/22/2025

DOES BC JUST WRITE CHEQUES TO TRUMP NOW?
Elizabeth was the only MP to object. What a difference one ethical MP can make!

Last week in Parliament, Elizabeth May was the only MP to sound the alarm on a $24-billion contract — the largest federal contract in Canadian history — that hands control of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories to U.S. corporations with ties to the nuclear weapons industry.

She asked the government: “Do we just write cheques to Trump now?”

And what did other MPs say?

Nothing.

No NDP MPs.
No “progressive” Liberals.
No “fiscally conservative” Conservatives.
No Bloc MPs.

They all stayed silent.

Only our Green MP demanded answers. Only Elizabeth sponsored a petition, signed by nearly 2,500 Canadians, calling for an independent audit before this deal goes ahead.

09/11/2025

The world is in dire straits but we have the responsibility to do what we can. Here is an opportunity to do that.
Draw The Line - Global Day of Climate Action
Saturday, September 20

Communities are mobilizing across the country, demanding that Prime Minister Carney and the Canadian government pick a side: injustice, violence, and climate destruction— or a just and safe future for all of us. Find your local event here

Prince George, Junction of Highways 16 & 97, 2626 Recplace Drive
Powell River: Old Arena Site, Willingdon Beach, 4365 Marine Ave, noon
Campbell River: Spirit Square, Shoppers Row. 2 pm
Courtenay: Courthouse Lawn, 420 Cumberland Road. 2:30 pm
Denman Island: Community Hall, 2 pm
Port Alberni: Friday 5 pm, The Lawn at City Hall
Nanaimo: Maffeo Sutton Park Lions Pavilion, 1 pm
Salt Spring: Saturday market, 9 am
Duncan: City Square, 4 pm
Victoria: BC Legislature, noon
Sechelt: Davis Bay Pier, 4700 Block Sunshine Coast Highway, 12:30 pm
Vancouver: Public Library, Georgia, 2 pm. March to Science World
Lillooet: Main St, 1 pm
Cache Creek: Market, Corner of Highways 97 & 1, Tim Horton’s. 9 am
Kamloops: Riverside Park, 1 pm
Shushwap-Enderby: Splatsin Community Centre, 5767 Old Vernon Rd, 9 am
Vernon: Greater Vernon Museum, 3009 32nd Ave, 11 am
Kelowna: City Hall, 1435 Water St, 1 pm
Penticton: Gyro Park, 11 am
Nelson, Market at Cottonwood Falls, 199 Carbonate St, 11 am, then Baker St & Kootenay, noon
Castlegar, Millennium Park, 11:30 am
Kimberley: Kimberley Plaza, 10 am

Organized by an ad hoc group, including youth, members of Common Horizon Victoria, 350 Canada, Seniors for Climate, and Climate Justice Victoria.
Seniors Rock
Saturday, September 20, 10 am, Corner of Fort and Douglas, Victoria, BC
Seniors in rocking chairs will sing, read stories for children and talk about alternatives to investing in fossil fuels as part of the Draw the Line event. Bring your own rocker!
Climate Impacts Bike Tour
Saturday, September 20, 10:30 am, Café Fantastico, Victoria, BC

Join other riders for the free Climate Impacts Bike Tour, led by Andrew Gage of West
Coast Environmental Law. Explore some of Victoria’s sites where climate change is
harming Victoria and its residents. Meet at 398 Harbour Rd. (Café Fantastico Bar/Deli)
between 10 and 10:30. The tour will start at 10:30 am to explore some of Victoria’s climate-related sites. At noon, join others after the tour’s final stop for a Draw the Line event. Register here
Red Rebels
Saturday, September 20, 11 am, Victoria, BC

Red Rebels will support Elders for Ancient Trees at a ritual for the threatened Walbran old growth forest starting at 11 am Saturday, Sept. 20th at the Sequoia tree in Victoria's Centennial Square next to City Hall.

The Red Rebels will continue at noon from the Victoria Legislature grounds and will join the public march to the west side plaza area of the Johnson Street Bridge where there will be music and activities by a variety of groups congregating at approximately 1 pm.
Ribbon Parade
Saturday, September 20, Noon, Legislature Building, Victoria, BC
Watch for pennants picturing the future we want and bring your own with pins to attach it to the ribbon (or your clothes) starting at the Victoria Legislature at noon and continuing to the Johnson Street Bridge.

08/29/2025

The author of this article certainly admires Elizabeth May, and correctly calls the strife that nearly destroyed the Party.

The Greens will need more than Elizabeth May to survive
By Adrienne Tanner
Three cheers for Elizabeth May, Canada’s longstanding federal Green Party leader and number one champion for our climate and the environment. Since becoming the first Green elected to Parliament in 2011, May has also unfailingly pushed for justice for Indigenous people, human rights and peace. She is an MP respected by members of all parties for her intellect and contributions to the political discourse on a broad range of issues. Her announcement last week that she will not lead the Greens into the next election leaves the party at a crossroads and begs the question, can it survive without her?

As a permanent opposition member, May is not beholden to industry and speaks her mind freely. When Imperial Oil for nine months hid a massive 2022 tailings pond spill that seeped into the waterways near two First Nations, May called it like it was. “This is an outrageous act of environmental racism,” May told Canada’s National Observer, calling the oil company one of the “worst corporate criminals.” She was justifiably proud of her private member’s bill, passed this January, requiring the federal environment minister to address the harms caused by environmental racism.

Yet for all May’s personal successes, the Green Party failed to take off, even when climate change was top of mind for voters. Party activists were elated in 2019 when three Greens were elected to Parliament. May thought the party was trending in the right direction and stepped down as leader. However, her successor Annamie Paul was not seen as a consensus builder — an essential leadership quality in any party, but particularly for one in which all members vote on all party policy. Paul, a centrist, ran fatally afoul of the party’s left wing “ecosocialists,” who found her push for “market-based” policies, such as carbon taxes and border carbon adjustment positions, too similar to the Liberals, wrote Paris Marx for the CBC.

What followed was a drawn-out period of bitter strife between older and younger, white and racialized, and left- and right-leaning party members, in part over Israel and Palestine, the same issue that tore apart this year’s Ottawa Pride parade and is fracturing US universities. Things were so toxic one of the three Green MPs, Jenica Atwin, crossed the floor to join the Trudeau Liberals.

Eventually, Paul stepped down, but not before levelling allegations of racism and sexism against the party brass and dealing a serious financial blow to the party with a lawsuit she filed. Longtime party members were demoralized, and it was not at all clear the Greens would survive.

Things didn’t look up until 2022 when May, once again, ran for leader and won. May was a strong enough leader to finesse a truce between the warring factions, but May is 71, so it was only going to be a temporary fix. It is notable that although she won her seat in the last election, her co-leader and heir apparent Jonathan Pedneault was defeated and so was Green MP Mike Morrice, leaving the party with just one representative in Ottawa.

Green Party stalwarts would no doubt point out that the New Democratic Party’s fortunes were almost as dismal in the last election and argue the US trade war and annexation threats from Donald Trump drove voters into the arms of the two main parties. But there’s more to it than that for some voters, myself included.

Elizabeth May's announcement last week that she will not lead the party into the next election leaves the party at a crossroads and begs the question, can it survive without her? .bsky.social writes for .com
I write for a climate publication and believe climate change is a defining threat of our era. I would love to vote for a party that puts climate policy at the top of its list. Yet, I’ve never voted Green except at the civic level because it’s hard to tell where they sit in other areas. The party’s 2019 campaign slogan — "not left, not right, forward together” — reflects their ambition to appeal to a political spectrum that is too broad. On some of the other issues I care about, such as the need for affordable housing, poverty reduction and a fair deal for workers caught up in the energy transition, they can be all over the map.

While the Greens are consistently strong on environmental and climate policy, they were partially eclipsed by the Trudeau Liberals, who ran on a strong climate platform. Provincially, the Greens have run candidates like former BC Green Party leader Andrew Weaver who leans so far right he recently considered throwing his support to Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad, who is off the dial.

It would be a sad day if the Green Party withers following May’s departure. We need the Greens to push back against the current clamour for development at any environmental price being pitched by the Conservatives. We need the Greens for the scrutiny they can bring to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s so-called grand bargain, which entails a trade-off between emission reduction and development, at least in the short term.

We need a party, however small, to constantly remind voters that trade wars are fleeting. That once the environment is ruined, there is no going back and if humans cause the planet to heat up too much, life will be unsustainable.

The Liberals under Carney are weakening Canada’s climate policy, opening a fresh opportunity for the Greens. But it will take many hands and talent on the scale of Elizabeth May’s to seize it. The work has to start now and can’t be left to one woman alone, particularly one who has so thoroughly earned her retirement.

08/28/2025

Three cheers for Elizabeth May, Canada’s longstanding federal Green Party leader and number one champion for our climate and the environment. Since becoming the first Green elected to Parliament in 2011, May has also unfailingly pushed for justice for Indigenous people, human rights and peace. She is an MP respected by members of all parties for her intellect and contributions to the political discourse on a broad range of issues. Her announcement last week that she will not lead the Greens into the next election leaves the party at a crossroads and begs the question, can it survive without her?

As a permanent opposition member, May is not beholden to industry and speaks her mind freely. When Imperial Oil for nine months hid a massive 2022 tailings pond spill that seeped into the waterways near two First Nations, May called it like it was. “This is an outrageous act of environmental racism,” May told Canada’s National Observer, calling the oil company one of the “worst corporate criminals.” She was justifiably proud of her private member’s bill, passed this January, requiring the federal environment minister to address the harms caused by environmental racism.

Yet for all May’s personal successes, the Green Party failed to take off, even when climate change was top of mind for voters. Party activists were elated in 2019 when three Greens were elected to Parliament. May thought the party was trending in the right direction and stepped down as leader. However, her successor Annamie Paul was not seen as a consensus builder — an essential leadership quality in any party, but particularly for one in which all members vote on all party policy. Paul, a centrist, ran fatally afoul of the party’s left wing “ecosocialists,” who found her push for “market-based” policies, such as carbon taxes and border carbon adjustment positions, too similar to the Liberals, wrote Paris Marx for the CBC.

What followed was a drawn-out period of bitter strife between older and younger, white and racialized, and left- and right-leaning party members, in part over Israel and Palestine, the same issue that tore apart this year’s Ottawa Pride parade and is fracturing US universities. Things were so toxic one of the three Green MPs, Jenica Atwin, crossed the floor to join the Trudeau Liberals.

Eventually, Paul stepped down, but not before levelling allegations of racism and sexism against the party brass and dealing a serious financial blow to the party with a lawsuit she filed. Longtime party members were demoralized, and it was not at all clear the Greens would survive.

Things didn’t look up until 2022 when May, once again, ran for leader and won. May was a strong enough leader to finesse a truce between the warring factions, but May is 71, so it was only going to be a temporary fix. It is notable that although she won her seat in the last election, her co-leader and heir apparent Jonathan Pedneault was defeated and so was Green MP Mike Morrice, leaving the party with just one representative in Ottawa.

Green Party stalwarts would no doubt point out that the New Democratic Party’s fortunes were almost as dismal in the last election and argue the US trade war and annexation threats from Donald Trump drove voters into the arms of the two main parties. But there’s more to it than that for some voters, myself included.

Elizabeth May's announcement last week that she will not lead the party into the next election leaves the party at a crossroads and begs the question, can it survive without her? .bsky.social writes for .com
I write for a climate publication and believe climate change is a defining threat of our era. I would love to vote for a party that puts climate policy at the top of its list. Yet, I’ve never voted Green except at the civic level because it’s hard to tell where they sit in other areas. The party’s 2019 campaign slogan — "not left, not right, forward together” — reflects their ambition to appeal to a political spectrum that is too broad. On some of the other issues I care about, such as the need for affordable housing, poverty reduction and a fair deal for workers caught up in the energy transition, they can be all over the map.

While the Greens are consistently strong on environmental and climate policy, they were partially eclipsed by the Trudeau Liberals, who ran on a strong climate platform. Provincially, the Greens have run candidates like former BC Green Party leader Andrew Weaver who leans so far right he recently considered throwing his support to Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad, who is off the dial.

It would be a sad day if the Green Party withers following May’s departure. We need the Greens to push back against the current clamour for development at any environmental price being pitched by the Conservatives. We need the Greens for the scrutiny they can bring to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s so-called grand bargain, which entails a trade-off between emission reduction and development, at least in the short term.

We need a party, however small, to constantly remind voters that trade wars are fleeting. That once the environment is ruined, there is no going back and if humans cause the planet to heat up too much, life will be unsustainable.

The Liberals under Carney are weakening Canada’s climate policy, opening a fresh opportunity for the Greens. But it will take many hands and talent on the scale of Elizabeth May’s to seize it. The work has to start now and can’t be left to one woman alone, particularly one who has so thoroughly earned her retirement.

August 28th 2025

Adrienne Tanner
Columnist