Canada Archive

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  Greens top 6.8% in Canadian elections - by frog

  
  
  
  I forgot to follow it up this week, but the Canadian general election is over and the Greens have failed to secure a parliamentary seat, despite a nationwide average of 6.8% and party leader Elizabeth May taking 32.2% of the votes in her home riding. In contrast, “The Block” which only garnered 9.97% of the [...] read more
  October 18, 2008 4:23 pm - 1 Comment
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  Canada prepares for mass migration - by frog

  
  
  
  OK, it’s a bit tongue in cheek and it does exaggerate Canada’s liberal nature. However, when it comes to social services, many Americans would enjoy much greater peace of mind over the border in Canada. Or New Zealand. Anecdotally, I understand that we have had quite a wave of Bush refugees in the last few [...] read more
  October 18, 2008 3:58 pm - 6 Comments
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  Canadian Green Party – Shift happens - by frog

  
  
  
  Continuing my sporadic series of political ads from Green parties in other parts of the world, here’s a rather inexpensive but quite sweet one from a small corner of Canada. Canada has an election this week and the Green Party is polling well despite a completely unfair electoral system similar to that which New Zealand [...] read more
  October 11, 2008 7:22 am - No Comments
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  A coffee break - by frog

  
  
  
  TreeHugger has these interesting coffee stats: 20 Million — That’s how many families (about 60 to 80 million people) depend on coffee for their income. After oil, coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world. 100 — That’s how many coffee beans it takes to make one cup of coffee on average. 4,000 [...] read more
  September 25, 2008 11:16 am - 7 Comments
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  Citizens’ Assemblies - by frog

  
  
  
  Ping pong and George Darroch both drew to my attention this article about citizen’s assemblies earlier this week and it’s one worth sharing because this is the model that the Greens propose for sorting out the Electoral Finance Act. And it’s the model that Labour has only reluctantly agreed to and National wants to throw [...] read more
  September 11, 2008 9:42 pm - 11 Comments
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  Televised debate - by frog

  
  
  
  Canada, which is also about to have a national election, has been having an on again off again discussion about whether to allow the Greens to participate in the televised leaders debates.  Greens in Canada are currently tied with the powerful Bloc Québécois party polling around 9 percent (which is impressive for a party operating [...] read more
  September 9, 2008 12:07 pm - 3 Comments
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  Canadians may beat us to the polls - by frog

  
  
  
  Despite four planned and payed for by-elections scheduled for September 8th, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is tipped to call a snap election this week as his minority government struggles to get any work done. This would infuriate the Greens, who have a realistic chance of picking up one of the seats in the by-elections next [...] read more
  August 30, 2008 2:13 pm - 4 Comments
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  Guelph’s going Green! Really - by frog

  
  
  
  I thought we would hold the line here in NZ on interesting place names for Green revolutions. Not so. There is a by- election on September 8th and it’s all systems go for Mike Nagy of Guelph, Ontario. Mike’s ambition is to be North America’s first Green MP, and we wish him all the luck [...] read more
  August 6, 2008 11:42 am - No Comments
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  Canada and the Comoros Islands - by frog

  
  
  
  I’ll ‘fess up.  Unlike Kennedy Graham, I didn’t even know there was such a place as the Comoros Islands, let alone where it might be.  Turns out it is a little beach ridden paradise in the midst of the Indian Ocean, but with more than it’s share of political and economic problems.  And it’s just [...] read more
  July 7, 2008 6:58 am - 5 Comments
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  Campaign theme song - by frog

  
  
  
  The Canadian Greens blog is seeking suggestions for a campaign theme song for their upcoming election.  The Canadian Greens are on a bit of high at the moment with their increasingly respected leader Elizabeth May and their song reflects that up beat North American ‘straight to the point’ sort of attitude – it’s ‘Your English [...] read more
  May 15, 2008 8:54 am - 17 Comments
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  David Suzuki talking about air and alveoli - by frog

  
  
  
  Last month renowned Canadian geneticist David Suzuki used the 11th Annual Commonwealth Address to talk about the impact of 6.6 billion humans on our one little planet. The whole lecture is captivating, but I want to daw attention just to this one small bit about air. The first bit is very sciencey (well, he is [...] read more
  April 3, 2008 2:56 pm - 11 Comments
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  Monsanto is $660 poorer - by frog

  
  
  
  I alluded, in an earlier post, to the legal battle between small Canadian farmer, Percy Schmeiser, who was being sued by Monsanto for having round-up ready canola on his land without having paid for them. It seems that Schmeiser did win a law case after all. It wasn’t the 1998 case for which he became [...] read more
  March 28, 2008 8:37 am - 1 Comment
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  Canada, Japan and US must commit to binding targets - by frog

  
  
  
  There’s an expression that goes something like ‘this is where the rubber hits the road’.  Well, that’s probably the opposite of the outcome we want from Bali. But the time has definitely come to find whether our global representatives can commit to doing something before they leave the Indonesian island. The UN is clearly worried [...] read more
  December 13, 2007 3:27 pm - 3 Comments