On September 27, workers across the world went out on strike in the largest global climate strike in history, walking out of their classrooms and workplaces to protest government inaction on climate change. This comes following the September 20 ‘School Strike for Climate’, which saw millions of young people and students in over 150 countries walk-out three days before the U.N.’s Climate Summit.
Our federal election should let us choose a climate justice plan to remedy global climate disruption and growing economic inequality. But, at best, the major parties offer only extremely partial solutions.
The push for a Green New Deal (GND) that’s become a big topic of political discussion in the US has come north. At the beginning of May 2019, the Pact for a GND was launched publicly in Canada. It was endorsed by a range of organizations and prominent individuals. Behind the scenes, staff from a number of major NGOs including Greenpeace and Leadnow are playing key roles in the initiative.
“No Is Not Enough” is not a new theme for Naomi Klein. I remember vividly reading an article that quoted Naomi in the Nation magazine in October 2011 at the height of the Occupy movement. She stressed the need then for resistance to the economic system of corporate greed causing inequality, the 99% vs 1%, saying “no”, but also the need for creating alternative institutions on a local level as models for a larger vision of a system we want for a sustainable, just, democratic and more equal society, saying “yes”.
We already know that Christy Clark wants to export Alberta’s dirty oil. Now it seems her supporters want to import Alberta’s toxic politics.
Jim Shepard, the premier’s former economic adviser and architect of a million-dollar blast of anti-NDP attack ads in 2013, published a piece last week called, “B.C. should be concerned about NDP Leap Manifesto.” It could have been cut and pasted directly from the Wildrose party playbook.
