At Annamie Paul’s virtual National Town Hall
Murray joined us for last night’s Green Party of Canada National Town Hall. The more I see of Annamie, the happier I am she is our new leader.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CH0aQMKAmz0/?igshid=12nr6id7g3dwj
Thank you, Annamie Paul.
If we had a #Canada wide coordinated approach in which all levels of government worked together for the public good, the entire country could be dealing with the same kind of numbers we’ve seen from the Maritimes.
It becomes increasingly clear that Canada needs Annamie Paul for Prime Minister.
#CERB to UBI Fact Check
An NDP advocate org is suggesting Universal Basic Income was somehow first introduced into the Canadian political conversation by the NDP. But that’s not the case at all. The first time I heard any public NDP discussion about UBI was when it was brought forward by NDP leadership candidate Guy Caron. Who didn’t win. At that time UBI was *not* NDP policy. Is it now? 👀
It certainly wasn’t NDP policy during the 2019 federal election. 🌻 Only Green Party of Canada candidates were actively advocating for UBI in 2019.
As they’ve done for years. I always thought the strongest resistance to NDP UBI were Unions worried they would become redundant if workers didn’t need to work.
🌻The GPC version of UBI is called Guaranteed Livable Income or #GLI. The idea is to provide not just a bare basic income, but enough to live reasonably on. (Like CERB.)
The GPC’s GLI wouldn’t just eliminate poverty. Nor would it be only a temporary means to allow the most vulnerable to stay home without during a pandemic. GLI would do much more than fill the economic gap left by ever increasing elimination of jobs by Artificial Intelligence (AI) automation.
GLI will provide the economic means that will free Canadians up so we can experiment while still feeding our families. Some of us will innovate and invent. Others will create music or sculpture or books or paintings or movies or games. Some will volunteer for the causes we find worthy. Many will be able to concentrate on education or take the time we needed to raise children. Those who work for others will be better positioned to achieve equity. Social workers won’t need to police the poor, and will finally be able to practice social work.
The one thing we have learned from the growing number of UBI studies and pilot programs from around the world is that Basic Income won’t turn us into a nation of lazy bums. People will work because we want to work. We need to work — it’s in our DNA.
Basic Income— especially if it’s a GLI— means we won’t have to work for other people, doing mindless soul sucking work better done by machines, for companies whose executives will loot our pension funds before driving the company into bankruptcy on the eve of our retirement.
GLI will free Canadians to follow our dreams.
It’s part of the excellent suite of social programs the Greens campaigned on way back in 2015. Programs like Universal Pharmacare.
And Universal Education.
I first learned this was Green Party policy when pretty much the only thing I could find about basic income on the internet was an article about https://m.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/12/23/mincome-in-dauphin-manitoba_n_6335682.html.
A Canadian City Once Eliminated Poverty And Nearly Everyone Forgot
The Mincome Basic Income Pilot Program was a joint effort by the federal Liberals under Pierre Trudeau and Ed Schreyer’s Manitoba NDP. Unfortunately both of those governments fell, as often happens under our First Past The Post winner-take-all voting systems, and the pilot project was allowed to finish, but neither of the succeeding federal or provincial Progressive Conservative parties cared to do anything with the data, so much like Indiana Jones’ Lost Ark it was packed off to a warehouse to be forgotten.
And none of the succeeding majority federal Liberal governments (1980, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2015) or Manitoba majority NDP governments (1981, 1986, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011) ever considered even looking at, much less implementing even a modest Basic Income like Mincome.)
In a last ditch effort to appear progressive to stave off losing power, the Ontario Liberals put forward their own #BasicIncome pilot program designed to continue into the next electoral term. However the Ontario Greens pointed out the OLP’s pre-election budget failed to provide funding to continue the pilot, much less implement it.
The other parties often shy away from policies they are afraid they can’t sell, especially if other parties have been associated with them.
Only the Green Party consistently champions basic income policy. Not because it’s politically expedient, but because it is the right thing to do.
As Annamie Paul says, the Green Party is the Party of Daring.
#COVID19 Changes Everything
Arguments against UBI suggested such a policy was too expensive, or that it would transform Canadians into lazy bums who would not work.
Both of those arguments were thoroughly debunked by the #CERB (Canadian Emergency Response Benefit) which provided weekly payments of $500 a week to enable people to stay home during the height of the pandemic. The program demonstrated that political will was the only real barrier to funding thus basic Income program, and it quickly became clear that CERB benefuciaries couldn’t wait to get back to work.
It is true that Mr Singh advocated for the expansion of #CERB, so if could function as a UBI. But his initial caveat was that his recommendation was only for a temporary emergency measure.
So we are happy to see the positive response to CERB has helped the NDP join us in advocacy for a truly Universal Basic Income for all Canadians.
We’re always happy to see other parties adopt Green policies addressing problems that require equitable solutions.
https://www.annamiepaul.ca/guaranteed_liveable_income
Images included were 2019 GPC campaign graphics.
💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚
Vote for your future. Elect Annamie Paul.
Dear Toronto Centre: Vote for your future!
Annamie Paul is passionate advocate for Toronto Centre. She will fight for the policies we all need — like a Guaranteed Livable Income.
ELECT ANNAMIE PAUL
Dear Toronto Centre:
Elect Annamie Paul
Because you— and all of us in Canada— need Annamie in the House of Commons.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CGutmkjAWp2/?igshid=14vkhgyorlifc
Dear Toronto Centre: What is a life worth?
#Vote4whatUwant
#voteGreen
Elect Annamie Paul
Tomorrow — Monday October 26th, 2020 — is #ElectionDay in two Toronto ridings.
Newly elected Green Party of Canada leader Annamie Paul is running to win the Toronto Centre seat vacated by former Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau (amidst WE scandal ethics questions) . Annamie is both a brilliant candidate and an excellent choice to represent this, her home riding.
Photographer Sasha Zavarella is running in York Centre, where another Canadian National Party Leader — this time Peoples Party of Canada’s Maxime Bernier.
Neither of these by-Elections will change the balance of power in Ottawa.
That means voters are free to vote for what they want — they don’t have to worry vote splitting will result in the party they fear winning majority power.
Since by-Elections historically have poor attendance at the best of times (and a pandemic is surely not one of those times!) fewer votes cast means these votes will have more weight. This is a brilliant opportunity for voters in these formerly safe seats whose votes never elect anyone to cast a vote that may be heard. Greens across Canada are rooting for Annamie, because the sooner our leader can take her seat in Parliament the better we’ll be able to hold the government to account.
It is important to remember the other big parties “whip” MP votes, which means their MPs represent their party first, because, if they don’t, they can lose party support which invariably means losing their seat. Whipped votes used to be a rarity, but in recent times they have become the default for NDP, Liberal and Conservative MPs.
Green MPs differ from other major party MPs because first and foremost they represent the constituents of their ridings. If there is a conflict between what is best for their riding or what’s best for the party, the best interest of their constiuents come first. Always.
If you live in either of these two ridings, your vote for Annamie or Sasha will mean something. We’ve seen what an impact Mike Schreiner has made as a single Green MPP. Electing another Liberal will just be more of the same old. But Greens will always make a difference.
And we can give our votes more power if we can convince our friends and families to vote too.
Even in our terribly unrepresentative voting system, voting is incredibly important. Even our vote is unlikely to change the outcome, it puts our choice on the record.
If you live in one of these ridings, please vote tomorrow. (And make sure to wear a mask when you do!) It is so important — and perhaps even more important:
VOTE FOR WHAT YOU WANT.
(Even if you don’t want what I want.)
If enough of us vote for what we want, we might just get it. And Annamie has an excellent chance of winning this one.
So get out and Vote!
An important Canadian by-election is underway in Toronto Centre. When Liberal finance minister Bill Morneau resigned, he left the Liberal stronghold unrepresented. But the reality is this riding has not been very well represented for decades.
Because it has been a safe seat, high profile Liberals (like Mr Morneau) are routinely parachuted in. Because they lack strong community ties, they represent the Liberal Party in Parliament, but don’t do a very good job for most of the people who actually live in Toronto Centre. That’s why all important social issues have run rampant here, despite the powerful MPs who are supposed to represent it.
Annamie Paul just won the Green Party Leadership while beginning her campaign to represent the voters of Toronto Centre. Even if she didn’t have strong ties to this community, Annamie Paul would represent the citizens of Toronto Centre far better than any candidate from the other major parties because Green MPs represent their constituents first.
Mike Schreiner has demonstrated what a single Green MPP can accomplish with a majority PC government. Imagine what Annamie Paul could do for her constituents in a minority Parliament!
I don’t live in Toronto Centre, although I worked there decades ago. It’s where I had my first experience of homeless people. Despite all the powerful MPs Toronto Centre has had since, not only has that problem grown, it’s spread nation wide without any end in sight. Only the Green Party has effective policies to address poverty and homelessness.
I am so impressed with Annamie I want to help. But though I don’t live there, I can lend my grass root support to her campaign by volunteering to make phone calls.
And you can, too. See what you can do to help elect this amazing woman. We need MPs like Annamie in the House of Commons if we are ever going to get our governments to make the changes that need to be made.
That’s why I’ll be making phone calls for Annamie this week. I hope you can help Annamie on some way too.
BE DARING! GO GREEN!
Annamie Paul | Leader of the Green Party
New GPC Leader Annamie Paul’s press conference on why Greens will not support the Throne Speech.
Government failure to adequately address Long Term Care, properly provide for all Canadians with a UBI, and jeopardizing the future by failing to address climate change.
Thank you, Annamie.
A sunflower is the emblem of the Green Party of Canada. After spending most of my life as a nonpartisan voter, voting always for the candidate who would best represent me, regardless of party, I became a member of the Green Party of Canada in 2015 when my husband was asked to be a candidate.
Working for his campaign, I learned enough about Green Party policy to not only remain a Green after the election, but to throw myself into working hard to help build the Green Party between elections.
Because the fact is, Canada is facing many problems, but instead of fixing them, the best Canadian governments manage is promises and the occasional bandaid. So problems get worse. We have too many problems to keep kicking them down the road for our kids and grandkids. Which is why kids are leading #FridaysForFuture.
The Green Party has answers, and most important, the political will to make those answers work. Green politicians aren’t career politicians, they are smart people who know things need to be fixed and are tired of waiting for the others to make it happen. Individual action is important, but we need the power of government to make systemic changes.
We can try to ignore politics, but politics impact on all of our lives. The time has come to get involved.
As we enter the 2nd wave of #COVID19, if Green Party policies resonate with you… policies like Guaranteed Livable Income (a #CERB for all where no one falls through the cracks), Universal Pharmacare, Healthcare, Post Secondary Education, a National Housing Strategy, and Climate Action built on science not propping up the fossil fuel industry, it’s time to start thinking green.
The Green Party of Canada just elected a brilliant capable leader. We need to help Annamie Paul take a seat in the House of Commons. And what better way to do that than help her win the Toronto Centre seat just vacated by scandal ridden Liberal Bill Morneau.
If you’re a Canadian it doesn’t matter where you live, you can donate and volunteer. The time has come to be daring.
