Montreal-area NDP candidates speak in favour of urban transit and housing proposals central to proposed ‘Green New Deal of the North’
hen the largest demonstration in Canadian history happened, Montreal’s car traffic came to a standstill. It was predictable — hundreds of thousands of people were expected to descend on the downtown that day, conditions that aren’t exactly ripe for the free flow of cars.
While many Canadians are looking to the October 21st federal election for solutions to global climate disruption, the climate plans from the four major parties offer none.
Any genuine solution will require reining in an economic system that demands eternal growth in a finite ecosystem, mitigating or adapting to multiplying environmental and social disasters, and drastically reducing consumption. Deadline: yesterday!
Free public transport is not a pipe dream. It exists in over 100 cities across the world - and has transformative impacts.
If we are to believe transport experts and practitioners, abolishing fares for all passengers is the last thing public transport operators should be doing. For Alan Flausch, an ex-CEO of the Brussels public transport authority and current Secretary General of International Association of Public Transport, “in terms of mobility, free public transport is absurd.”
The New Deal and World War II are reminders of past transformative times, reverberating in current severe hardships and extreme dangers. Emergencies can bring clarity and reason about what to do, though at the opposite end, crises can elicit the worst outcomes, such as outlined by Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine.
