Taking Stock of the Green Party of Canada

2007-02-28T12:49:00.000-05:00

Today the Green Party of Canada has a lot to feel good about (in addition to the prospect of spring's arrival). Our leader, Elizabeth May, is very good at getting media attention for herself and our party. It now seems likely she will be invited to join the national debate at the time of the next federal election. Environmental issues have a profile with the general public that they have never had before and we are up in the polls. One recent poll has us even with the NDP at 13% of the decided vote. Another key to success, our party is all the time becoming better organized at the riding level.

Nevertheless I would argue that the Green Party in Canada is falling far short of its potential. Our party struggles against the public`s impression that we are a single-issue party, caring only about the environment. In my opinion and that of many others, this is the single biggest obstacle to our electing members to Parliament.

Are the leaders of our party effectively addressing this issue? I do not believe they are. In fact, I would argue that the way they present our party to the public, they are only making our core problem worse.
> Our leaders consistently go out of their way to talk about environmental issues and, as a result, end up reinforcing the impression that we indeed are a single issue party, able to give only passing attention to non-environmental issues;
> When they do stray from their preoccupation with environmental issues, almost invariably they present us as a left wing party, with positions similar to those of the NDP.

In short, our leaders appear unable to speak with passion and conviction about any issue (crime, small business, fiscal responsibility, etc.) that doesn't easily lend itself to an environmental "spin". In a sort of "holier than thou posture", they shout, or so it seems, "we are the greenest of the green". One might even think that we have become the political wing of the Sierra Club.

I would like to submit that our party badly needs a course correction. Without one, I do not believe today's good feelings can last.

I would also argue that the issue of small business offers our best opportunity to begin to correct our course. Small business accounts for more than 99% of all business in Canada. For the most part, it is clean, i. e. non-polluting. It is also the source of innovation in our economy and the engine of economic growth. By all accounts, it is excessively regulated and overtaxed. For the most part, programmes of government are structured so as to make access to them by small businesses almost impossible.

Championing the concerns of this sector would distinguish us from the NDP, a party that is profoundly anti-business regardless of whether it is large, medium or small. As well, it would clearly distinguish us from the conservatives and liberals as both these parties are beholden to the concerns of big business. Most importantly, bringing national attention to the problems of small business and demanding that public policy become more responsive would mean the Green Party was bringing important value-added to political debate in Canada on an issue that was not about the environment.

What might a Green Party "reach out" to small business actually look like? It could involve:
Ø No more grants, guaranteed loans or other subsidies going to businesses with more than 500 employees, a refocusing of government programmes to small business and creation of a single window through which small businesses could access programmes.
Ø Taking up the cause of saving the family farm, not with more subsidies but with support for farmer's markets and branding of Canadian grown and bred farm products in local supermarkets.
Ø Examining the impact of subsidies going to long distance trucking. Fully loaded eighteen-wheelers do fifteen thousand times more damage to road infrastructure than does the typical two-axle family car. Yet these trucks, which collectively represent the warehouses of the "just in time" delivery demanded by `big-box` retailers (Wal-Mart and the like), don't pay anywhere near their share of the costs for highway maintenance. Canadians are in effect subsidizing big-box retailing at a time when our railway infrastructure is seriously underutilized. The Green Party, which today demands that the subsidies going to oil and gas be stopped, should also insist that subsidies for long distance trucking be looked at.
Ø Beefing up the Competition Bureau at Industry Canada and equipping it to deal with excessive market power by buyers or "monopsony". The Bureau has the right mandate, to ensure a fair marketplace, but is starved for resources and likely also needs stronger legislation to address emerging issues.
Ø Ensuring the problem of small business` over-regulation gets no worse by requiring a rigorous business impact test to assess the effects upon small businesses of all major new regulations being proposed. Too often small business has to comply with regulations that were designed to solve problems caused not by them but by large companies. As a result small business is seriously over-regulated in Canada today and in need of regulatory relief.
Ø Looking at the marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies and asking if they aren't corrupting doctor's delivery of medical services while causing prescription drug costs to become exorbitant. With an aging population needing more and more in the way of drugs, the Green Party should wax indignant over the fact that 90% of the cost of most prescriptions represents the costs of marketing the drug.
Ø Demanding that Canada`s chemical companies pay user-charges whenever they manufacture or import persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substances. It shouldn`t be necessary for society to prove the risk of the entry into commerce of such chemicals. They are all well known to be dangerous. Their use must be discouraged and the development of substitutes encouraged through use of the fiscal instrument called taxation.

In short, the Green Party must show it is not afraid of big business and cannot be lobbied successfully by it. At the same time we must be relentlessly pro small business. We like to say we are a grass roots party. In my opinion, before we can really make this claim we need to recognize that in today's global economy the grass roots are in small business. We will not succeed until our leaders learn to express this belief with passion and conviction.

The issue of fiscal responsibility offers another opportunity to correct course. Canada's national debt stands as a monument to our society of instant gratification and overindulgent consumerism. Is it fair that we ask our grandchildren to carry the burden of paying interest on it while paying also for the drugs and other health-care expenses of an aging population? That same national debt is a drag on what could otherwise be an attractive climate of investment for small businessmen. Imagine a Canada with a publicly funded health care system, low tax levels because there is not a requirement to pay taxes to carry a large national debt, government programmes oriented to the needs of small business and ready access to the North American market through NAFTA. Sound like a good place for a small business person to set up shop and sell in export markets?

With the course corrections I have suggested, the Green Party could bring value added to Canada's national political dialogue. Today we come across as seeking only to be greener than everyone else. We need to challenge our leadership to demonstrate that we are a multi-issue political party, not an environmental NGO with a political agenda.

Greenjohn
March 2, 2007

Greenjohn and the Green Party of Canada

Taking Stock of the Green Party of Canada