Saturday, December 08, 2007

Andrew Ference, my new favorite NHL player?

Andrew Ference may have just become my new favorite NHL player.

Why?

[Andrew Ference and David Suzuki] are teaming up to help offset the greenhouse gas emissions produced by NHL players whose jobs require them to travel by planes, trains, buses and cars. link

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Aftermath

The election is over and Norm Sterling has won a ninth term in office. I could have written that first before the election writ was dropped, sadly.

John Ogilvie came in 3rd with 10.5% of the vote. An awesome step forward for the Green Party locally.

We need to congratulate ourselves for the effort we put forward and congratulate John on the fine campaign he ran.

Well done folks, now we move forward. We look to build on the ever growing team we put together throughout this election. Get ready for the, possibly, coming federal election and the GPO AGM.

Friday, October 05, 2007

John Ogilvie Endorsed by the Ottawa Citizen

John Ogilvie, the GPO candidate in Carleton-Mississippi Mills, has been endorsed by the Ottawa Citizen.

If the voters of Carleton-Mississippi Mills want to make a difference at Queen's Park, they should elect John Ogilvie as their MPP.


Unfortunately the article is not currently available on-line, but pick a copy of the Friday October 5th edition of the Ottawa Citizen, page F4.

UPDATE: found the link to the article on-line.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

GPO release MMP list plan

The Green Party of Ontario has outlined its process for nominating list candidates.


The Greens' list, de Jong said, will feature alternating male and female candidates, beginning with the party's Leader and its Deputy Leaders, who are elected democratically in party-wide ballots. The current Deputy Leaders are Victoria Serra, the candidate in Huron-Bruce, and Dr. Sanjeev Goel, who's running in Brampton West.

Also on the list are the top female and male vote-getters, by percentage, from the previous election, in order to reflect the will of party supporters. The balance of list candidates will be chosen through a democratic election among members at the Green Party's annual general meeting. (link)

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The case against FPTP

Andrew Coyne has another excellent article on MMP, specifically the case against First Past The Post.

Here is an exert:

The winner is not the candidate who receives a majority of the votes cast, but simply the one who comes in first place. With four candidates, it can be done with as little as 25% plus one of the vote. The other 75% of the voters are rewarded for doing their civic duty with … bupkus. All in all, between one-half and two-thirds of all the votes cast in a given election are, in this sense, wasted.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Loss of Respect

I used to respect Sheila Copps, that is until I read this article.

In it she goes on about why she is against MMP in Ontario. The primary tool in her argument is fear mongering. She claims religious extremist will take over the government.

I used to have respect for her. All of that is now gone. She has demonstrated herself to be a bigot.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Not doing your homework Paul?

Paul Arbour, federal CMM NDP candidate, either likes to deliberately mislead the public, or simply can't be bothered to read beyond the headlines.

How else can you explain this blog posting. He accuses the Green Party of Canada (GPC) of wanting to raise your taxes. Which on the surface looks like what the GPC was trying to do. Why only on the surface? Because the GPC plan calls for imposing a carbon tax and taking that revenue and lowering personal income tax and payroll taxes. The net result is revenue neutral. Elizabeth May has a great blog posting about the proposal.

Paul doesn't even allude to this possibility in his posting. I hope he puts more research into other things he does or having him as our MP would be very similar to having Gordon O'Connor. Mr. O'Connor seemed to be apologizing for misleading parliament every other day.

Vote Yes for MMP

It should be no surprise that I am a yes supporter for MMP.

Donate $10.10 to cause. I have. Why $10.10? Find out here.

It is time to give Ontario the government that it actually votes for. Vote yes for MMP on October 10th.

Learn about MMP here.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Walk Score

Stumbled onto an interesting mash-up site.

You put in your address and it gives you a score out of 100 indicating how walkable your neigbourhood is.

I live in a rural area and got a very low score of 8 out of 100.

What is your "Walk Score"? Find out at www.walkscore.com

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

CMM Greens AGM - live thread

I'm sitting at the CMM Green FGPA AGM.

We're currently waiting for quorum to show up so we can elect the executive.

It's far too sunny outside to have an indoor meeting.


Update 7:00PM: We're good to go! Jake Cole kicks it off.

Nominations for CMM Greens FGPA executive positions.
CEO - Murray Reeves
FA - Bill Pickett
Sec - vacant
Membership - Carl Bovell
Fundraising Chair - John Ogilvie
Volunteer Chair - Rick Lorenz
Communications Chair - Ronald Servant
Youth Chair - vacant
Policy Research Chair - Jim MacKenzie
Campaign Readiness - vacant
3 Members-at-large - Rex Benning, Andrew MacDonald, Bozena Lech
Organizing Chair - Diane Smith

No contested positions.

Update 7:30 PM: John Ogilvie is giving a great presentation on the CMM Greens GPO plans for the fall election.

A presentation by Andrew MacDonald on raising the profile of the Green Party and the green message. Check out www.theworldcafe.com

Update 8:00 PM: Murray Reeves presents the year in review.

Outgoing FA Rick Lorenz gives the current financial report.

Update 8:20PM: Murray updates us on how we did against our operating plan.

Update 8:45PM: We have agreed to have joint meetings of the Federal and Provincial Greens.

Update 9:00PM: Meeting closed!

Friday, July 06, 2007

Live Earth in Kanata

Come out to the Royal Oak in Kanata for Live Earth this Saturday July 7th starting at 5PM.

Go here for event details.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Green Party of PEI

An election is on the horizon in PEI. Let's get together and help them make an impact.

Check out their new website and get involved. http://greenparty.pe.ca/

Thursday, January 18, 2007

What Are You Flushing With?

It's reno time in my house (and I know it's going to go on for years). Currently on the list of 'projects' are redoing the front hallway flooring (it's not level and I don't want to talk about it) and the two main bathrooms. The first, our 'powder room' on the first floor is getting the full overhaul. New flooring, new paint job, new sink and taps and my long coveted item: A NEW TOILET!!! And that is the point of this blog (and yes though it may seem a little brown, overall it is green).

I've been wanting low-flush toilets since I was old enough to know better. But I also try to avoid land fill--so it's hard. But the time has come and the old toilet is out the door and the new one about to appear. Like all things--this required research. Lo and behold all toilets are not created equal (go figure) and price and brand do not translate into quality of product (unfortunately it isn't that easy).

Thank goodness then for the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association. They've been testing low-flush toilets for years now and have a handy-dandy guide you can download (CWWA Maximum Performance Testing of Popular Toilet Models). This lovely document, now in its 8th edition, not only gives you the rather riveting background details of how one tests toilets but provides such nuggets (sorry) of information as what is the average fecal output of an adult. Why do we care? Well, because we want a toilet that flushes what we need flushed in one flush. If it doesn't, it negates the whole idea of buying a 6L toilet.

Here's the wrinkle for me: my 'powder room' has special demands placed upon its white receptacle. For I, as the city suggests, flush all my pet waste (both cats and dogs). I don't just want any 6L toilet. I want one that can handle doing this heavy duty job in, as much as possible, on flush. I needed to know! Is this possible?

The report above not only rates toilets by their ability to flush the average human waste (approximately 250 grams--I know you wanted to know that). But also clearly rates toilets that flush up to 1000 grams! Now I don't know how many of you have big dogs--but I have two. And I need to flush both in one go.

I figure that 1000 grams should about do it (I'm not going to share how I know that). Thanks to the CWWA I now know which toilet can handle the task I'm going to lay in its bowl. It is possible to to get the job done and save the environment twice--by not putting pet waste in landfill but sending it for treatment like human waste AND get this done with only 6L of water a flush! David Suzuki I've taken your challenge into unknown directions!

Now this report isn't just for those of us who share our dwellings with super-sized creatures with fur (and teenage boys). I recommend anyone going out and buying a 6L toilet to check out this report. It's essential reading. You'd be shocked that some toilets declared as low flush cannot even meet the base standard of 250 grams of waste per flush!

I consider it the practicality of going green. We've all got to start somewhere. I've just gone down the toilet!

Monday, January 15, 2007

Canada's Green Party - The New Canadian Center

Elizabeth May met with the Citizen edtiorial board last week. She got two editorials out of it.

Leonard Stern (deep conservative) was mostly favorable (commented that she was not a darling of the left due to things like her stand on abortion, but said she was primitive on things like foreign policy).

Today David Reevely (moderate) disputed the criticisms of his editor Leonard Stern, saying that she does a god job drawing the distinction between pure environmentalism and sustainability (an example is her support of a limited seal hunt. His ending quote is: "It sounds like, at last, we have a party leader who's determined to treat voters with respect".

You can listen to the interview at:
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/features/editorialboard/index.html

These indicate the growing undestanding and acceptance of the Green Party's "socially progressive, fiscally conservative" approach to gorvernment issues in Canada.