Green New Deal/LEAP

Doug McCorquodale is a thirty five year member, activist and official with unions in mining and construction. June 10, 2016 - The Leap Manifesto has caused quite a stir on the Left and the Right. Tens of thousands have signed on as supporters. The right wing press, the one per centers and rightist minions of the “free” market economy often viciously denigrate the Leap Manifesto.

The People’s Climate Plan Teach-in, held in Toronto June 4, took great strides forward in presenting a forceful alternative to the inadequate and deceptive climate action proposals of Canada’s federal government.

With each day the bad news spreads. A gigantic wildfire now covering some 4,000 km² is spreading through northeastern Alberta and into Saskatchewan — devastating much of Fort McMurray, the city in the heartland of the tar sands. Some 90,000 residents have been displaced and thousands of homes, many local industries and businesses, destroyed.

[Editor's note: The Leap Manifesto says: "Since so much of the labour of caretaking - whether of people or the planet - is currently unpaid and often performed by women, we call for a vigorous debate about the introduction of a universal basic annual income."  Following is an article with some cautions about such an income.]

[to go to the link for this article you need to go directly to Ricochet Media]

It’s been a tough month for climate advocates, who at the close of last year would have been justified in feeling Canada had turned a corner on climate change, with even our laggardly politicians starting to grasp its uncompromising scientific realities.

[For the section on climate change and the Leap Manifesto click on 'Read the full article' below and then go to minute 20.35 of the speach.]

April 22, 2016 -- A fracturing of Canada's social democratic party has opened as party members and much of its electoral base express their dissatisfaction with the conservative economic, social and environmental policies that predominate in the party's decision-making echelons.

Dissension came to a head at the New Democratic Party's national convention in Edmonton, Alberta April 8 to 10. Party leader Tom Mulcair was rebuked in a confidence vote on his continued leadership, failing to reach even fifty per cent support of the 2,800 delegates gathered.