Pie Palace

This is my five hundredth published post on Pie Palace. That doesn’t include the half written drafts, nor the posts I deleted before publishing. But it does include:

• My first post, which, unsurprisingly complains that reporters are all too human. And adept at missing the real story behind an event.
• The coverage of the 2006 Green Party Leadership Race. And my complaining when David Chernushenko came in second.
• My eulogy for Rosa Parks. My belief that people who don’t know how to write also don’t know how to read was confirmed by the first comment. (Why bother to write a response when you haven’t bothered to read the post?)
• Waaay too many Green Party posts.
• Posts about my pet projects: Blogawa and engagement announcement.
• The progress of my masters thesis.

• I’ve seen fit to comment on 116 good things, but only 81 bad things. In the worst case, that means I’m an optimist.
• Only 26% (134 of 500 posts) are marked as being self absorbed, meaning I have to start commenting on my breakfast more often.
• My first post was in January, 2005. I’ve posted roughly once every two days. I clearly need a life.

Except for the occasional slip, I’ve managed to avoid posting personal information, compromising pictures, nudity, LOLcats, useless links, and drunken rants. I’ll try to do something about that over the next 500 posts.

Image credit: Mrs Magic.

I’ve always voted for hope. Every time I’ve walked into a polling both, I’ve said to myself: “what do I want the future to look like?” I have a soft spot for sustainability and social justice, so I’ve usually given my vote to the Green Party. But thanks to yesterday’s fiasco at Governor General’s, I don’t want to play nice anymore. I want to punish Stephen Harper.

I feel like voting strategically for the first time in my life. I just want to see Stephen Harper fail.

Democracy can only thrive under the rule of law. In the case of a parliamentary democracy, such as Canada’s, the “rule of law” is a set of polite conventions that every parliamentarian is expected to follow. A party cannot govern without the tacit support of 50%+1 of the sitting MPs. If a party loses that support, the Governor General may either choose to trigger an election, or allow a coalition of other parties to take the reigns of power. This week we’ve seen Harper running scared. Instead of losing his minority government he first delayed a non-confidence vote that would have toppled him, then prorogued the House of Commons.

This is not how our Parliament is intended to work. When a politician knows their time is at an end, they should gracefully step aside, regroup, and attempt a come-back. Not take their ball and go home.

From my perspective, it looks like Harper values power more than anything else. He’s hoping that a two month break will be long enough for him to gather enough popular support (by demonizing Quebec) that he will get a majority in a mid-winter election.

In the background, our economy is slowly grinding to a halt as the Canadian dollar falls, tens of thousands of jobs are lost, and the government hemorrhages money due to fiscal mismanagement.

Photo credit: harperdictatorship.ca.

In 2000 the Conservatives made a deal with the Bloc Quebecois. The Bloc agreed to support the Conservatives, if they could pull together a minority government. Thanks to some deep investigative work by the tireless Pie Palace Parliamentary Bureau¹, we are able to bring you, dear reader, a copy of that very agreement.

Here’s are the highlights:

We, the leaders of the Canadian Alliance, the Bloc Quebecois and the Progressive Conservative Party, have met and agree that Canadians have delivered a clear message in the election held on November 27, 2000: [...]
Canadians also made it clear by their votes that they desired ___ Members of Parliament from the Canadian Alliance, the Bloc Quebecois, and the Progressive Conservative Party to govern. [...] we will be required to govern by consensus.

And here’s the original document, from our shadowy parking-lot dwelling informant.

Of course, this wouldn’t be such a big deal, if it weren’t for the bruhaha that the Conservatives are tossing up about the deal.

1. Yes, it was emailed to us out of the blue, but it is from a reliable source. Regardless, please take it with a grain of salt. (back)

Dear Michaelle Jean,

As you have likely noticed, our present government is a bunch of wankers. Their recent fiscal update provides no economic stimulus package, makes it illegal for federal workers to strike, and overstates the likelihood of ongoing federal surpluses. All this after the Parliamentary budget officer blamed Tory policies for the evaporation of the 2006 surplus.

For once, the opposition parties are talking about bringing down the government rather than their usual song and dance of tacit support.

On Monday, if the opposition parties really do go through with their threat, please, please, please do everything you can to encourage them to form a coalition government. No, I don’t like them either, but I don’t think that now is the time for another $300 million election.

Sincerely,
esf

All throughout the US election, Canadian news outlets kept running stories that featured Americans saying things like “I just can’t bring myself to vote for someone with a name like Obama, it sounds too Muslim,” or “I don’t think Obama was raised with Christian values,” or “Should we really elect someone with the middle name Hussein?”

Don Miller has written a brief blessay that may explain this mind-numbing xenophobia. It gybes nicely with Jesus Camp and The Assault on Reason: essentially stating that the unicorn chasersreligious right is born out of a horribly segmented and alienating society.

The same election that made Obama president also denied marriage to millions of Americans. California, Arizona and Florida voted to ban gay marriage. Arkansas banned same sex couples from adopting children. I can’t fathom how the same people who would elect a black man as president would deny consenting adults from making long term commitments to each other. I guess that shows what kind of community I grew up in.

Link to Don Miller via Matthew Helmke.

The election is over. The NDP and Conservatives gained a few seats. The Liberals lost a few. The Greens doubled their percentage of the popular vote (6%, up from 3%). The only way I can describe the the last 35 days is as a waste of time. The next time Steve-o decides to call an election, Governor General should look to the other parties to form a government.

Election day is Tuesday. I’m going to be voting for my Green Party candidate, Jen Hunter. As a long-time Green, that shouldn’t be too surprising, but I am happy about a number of planks in the Green Party platform. My favourites are:

Fixing Our Electoral System

In case you hadn’t heard, our electoral system is broken. It needs to be fixed. Duh.

Afghanistan

I’m not a fan of Canada’s current mission in Afghanistan. I do believe that Canada should be doing its best to promote the expansion of human rights, but I’m concerned about the way the mission is being run. I’d like to see more civilian oversight, a broader humanitarian mission, and a wider coalition of forces in the country. As such, I approve of the Green Party’s proposal that Canada should push for a UN mandated mission, and operate within that framework.

Removing Corporate Subsidies

Corporations are odd beasts. At their best, they reward innovation and generate wealth for their employees, investors, and suppliers. At their worst, they gerrymander government policy, squander economic resources, stifle innovation, and mistreat their employees. The Green Party policy reflects my belief that economic entities should not receive long-term subsidies from the government, nor should they receive large one-time perks. Yes, I’m looking at you, Fort McMurry.

Fair Trade

Imagine the crappiest job that you’ve ever had. Now imagine that job with a fraction of the pay, a 60 hour work week, and physically dangerous conditions. Toss in some physical and sexual abuse to make things a rollicking good time. Don’t forget that you’re enjoying these conditions so fat bastards people in the first world can buy a t-shirt for less than $10. Or save ten cents on a coffee.

Certified fair trade is a mechanism that exports human rights to countries that make our stuff. First world countries pay a little more for goods, and the premium is rolled into educational programs, local infrastructure, and health initiatives in countries where the government is either unwilling or unable to provide for those needs.¹ The Green Party wants to include those principles in our international trade agreements, and government procurement.

Yeah, there’s other stuff: decent healthcare policy, doing something about Darfur, and, yes, even environmental policy. But those are the things that caught my imagination. I don’t particularly care about income splitting. Nor do I care about nixing nuclear weapons.

Vote how you will. I’m voting for tomorrow.²

1. It’s a little more complex than this. In some cases, it also involves agreeing on prices before the start of a growing season, third-party verification that labour and environmental standards are being adhered to, etc. TransFair has a fairly opaque website, but they’re the most trustworthy certification body that I know of. (back)
2. Or possible next Wednesday, we’ll see. (back)

Anyone who read this blog in the summer of 2006 will know that Elizabeth May was not my first choice to lead the Green Party of Canada. That was two years ago, and I’m not good at dropping grudges, but here’s why I think she’s doing a good job now:

She represents

The Green Party has some pretty complex ideas. Tax shifting is probably the easiest to understand. Things get more complex when someone asks what the Green Party actually stands for. Elizabeth has been able to articulate our stance on a number of positions (a UN mission in Afghanistan, devaluing the Canadian dollar, and electoral reform) in an accessible manner. No, it doesn’t subject the viewer/listener/reader to a long and fairly dry discussion on what we stand for, but it does explain what we want on those issues, and why that’s a good idea. ¹

Shes reasonable

Thursday night’s debate was a great example of Elizabeth looking good. Her arguments were succinct, direct, and researched. She presented the Green Party position with a minimum of complexity. She makes the Green Party look a little bit more respectable.

I certainly don’t think we’re going to win this election. I’m not even sure if we’re going to win a seat. But I do think that Elizabeth is making the Green Party more attractive to people who wouldn’t have considered us as an option in the past. The test will come in longevity: will Elizabeth be able to keep people interested in our party long enough to dig deep and get the goods on what makes us different?

Image by rjmoorhouse, used without permission.²

1. If someone asked me what the Greens stood for, I’d say something along the lines of “we want to change some of the basic choices that our society has made over the past hundred years, to make Canada more egalitarian, more democratic, and more sustainable.” Now, that doesn’t answer many questions, (and it isn’t supposed to) but it’s honest. (back)
2. Yes, that means I’ll take it down if requested to do so. (back)

This might sound like a bit of a truism, but I hadn’t realized how mean-spirited Conservatives tend to be. I was at the pre-debate rally at the NAC tonight. As expected, supporters of each party turned out to wave, scream, and generally wave their colours.

What I didn’t expect was the general nastiness of the Conservatives. While we Greens were happily waving to passersby, the Conservative supporters started yelling “Get a job!” and “Get a real leader!” at us. I don’t mind that they were doing that (they stayed on their side of the street, and they’re welcome to be pricks over there), but I’m surprised that they found seventy or eighty Green Party volunteers and supporters to be so threatening. What happened to politeness?

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While we Greens were happily chanting “Oui May!” a couple of the folks from ecoSanity marched up behind Harpers’ peeps with a banner showing a dinosaur with the words “Harper: Race to Extinction.” They Conservatives tried to cover it up with their signs, but somehow managed to convince the ecoSanity sign bearers to take the sign down. As far as I could tell, no tazers were fired during the incident.

I recently found this in my inbox. The sender (aside from being my sweetie), used to (a) support the Conservatives, (b) think Harper would do a decent job as PM, and (c) think that Elizabeth May would be terrible for the Greens, and terrible for Canada in general.

for those that watch the debates I think Elizabeth May will destroy Stephen Harper’s crappy record, or at least put a good sized dent in it.

She’s releasing the Green Party platform right now and she’s taking all comers, put them in a head lock then doing pile driver – you should be proud to have the strongest leader of a major political party in Canada.

Elizabeth is a doing a great job in front of the crowds. And I’m sure she’ll do a great job on the debates.