Vision Green: The Details

As all candidates for the Green Party know, there has always been one item that gets thrown back at us all the time. That is the criticism of the Green Party as a single-issue party.

It hasn’t been true for several elections, not since the turn of the century really. Certainly (if the party was ever single-issue, I’m not sure) the change occurred before I joined the party. I know this since it was the Green Party’s Tax Shifting philosophy that first convinced me to join.

But this criticism comes so often, particularly from the media who you expect to be doing some actual research, even as late as last week following the Green Party of Ontario’s triumphant tripling of their vote to 8%, that it’s clear that the Green Party needs to put the issue to rest, once and for all.

So today, in simultaneous events in Vancouver and Ottawa, the Green Party released Vision Green, a comprehensive, 160-page policy document covering all aspects of Canadian life. It outlines our view of current issues, our vision for Canada in 2020, and specific policies that the Green Party in government will implement to get us from here to there.

As Chris Tindal notes, it’s the Death of a One-Issue Party.

Either skimming this document, or reading it in detail, I think you’ll find that this will finally end the incorrect stereotype that the Green Party has no policies in areas other than the environment.

Elizabeth May, Green Party leader, summarized it as follows:

“The Green Party is the only party that’s telling Canadians the truth,” said Ms. May, “and the truth is that the days of politics dominated by short-term band-aid fixes are over, that the old battles between left and right are irrelevant, that what we need is a fundamental shift of direction towards a stable, fair and sustainable future. Vision Green is the detailed, practical expression of that change of direction.”

Ms. May said that in her travels around the country since becoming Green Party leader last year, she had become aware of a growing sense of unease and disappointment among Canadians – and a growing alienation from the politics practised in Ottawa.

“They feel it in their bones – something is askew. They are working longer hours, leading more stress-filled lives in a deteriorating environment and yet their leaders keep telling them that they are better off,” she said.

“Green Party policies are designed to support a society where the pressure to make a living doesn’t crowd out having a life, where having more is less important than being more. Unlike the other parties, we understand and accept the scientifically verified limits to growth imposed by the carrying capacity of our planet. We acknowledge that if we do not work within these limits we will exhaust resources, destroy our environment and put our economy, health and children’s future at risk.

“Our opponents who dismiss us as a one-issue party now have their response. The solutions contained in Vision Green cover every aspect of Canadian life – the economy, social policy, the environment and our place in the world.”

For the record, the timing of this release, coming one day before the Throne Speech that may throw us into an election campaign, is no coincidence. We aim to emphasize the contrast between the cynicism of that approach and the straight-forward, practical solutions proposed in our
own.