Hello list members and contacts: This is the sixth press release that
has just been sent out for our Central Nova electoral campaign. We
will put out one more release and then that will be it. The actual
federal election is on January 23rd. Our last release will deal with
education and young people. It will be part preparation for one of
the three remaining all-candidates meetings at the university in our riding.
Best, David
******
To vote for the Green Party or the NDP, that is the question
Press Release
January 9, 2006, Saltsprings, Pictou County
Many people ask Green Party candidate David Orton "Should we vote for
Alexis MacDonald, a
good NDP candidate who polled almost 10,500 votes in the last
election, or should we vote for you
and the Green Party?" Orton acknowledges that people who are
interested in social justice issues
and also in environmental issues in Central Nova, find themselves
facing a difficult choice in this election.
The Green Party also has a strong social justice thrust in its
election Platform.
Orton said "Members of the progressive community in Central Nova must
look beyond the two
individuals at issue and look more at the environmental policies of
the NDP, past and
present, and those of the Green Party, in making a judgement call
about who to vote for."
Orton agreed that "Sometimes the GP policies are not deep enough, for
example supporting
carbon emissions trading, and that perhaps a particular environmental
policy of the NDP may be
more progressive than that of the GP. However, it is only within the
Green Party that a certain
kind of agonizing debate is taking place, about the fundamental shift
in consciousness needed
in how we humans have to relate to the Earth." Also, "The Green Party
says it supports deep ecology,
which provides the philosophical basis to oppose 'resourcism', the
dominant human-centered worldview
of industrial capitalist society, that the Natural world exists
primarily as raw material for the human purpose."
Orton continued, "The existing industrial capitalist societies, in
Canada and worldwide, are destroying
the very conditions of life, not only for humans, but for other
species and the Earth itself. The Green Party,
theoretically - although the struggle is ongoing - sees itself as a
voice for those species who have no representation,
hence our welcomed stand finally, after long internal struggle, on
opposing the annual seal slaughter. The annual
so-called hunt of harp and hooded seals, is a barbaric, totally
unnecessary wildlife slaughter, which has been supported
consistently by the NDP, Tories and Liberals in the House of Commons."
"The NDP," said Orton "due to its overall orientation, is not an
ecological party, because of their belief that
the major ecological problems can be resolved within industrial
capitalist society. Yet it is this very society which has
caused the Earth-threatening ecological crisis." Orton explained, "We
need to think much more deeply. Ecocentric justice
is more inclusive than human or social justice. 'Community' has to
include not just humans, but other animals, plants and the Earth itself."
Orton said that people who in the past have supported the NDP should
understand that:
"1. The NDP is totally human-centered in its overall orientation and
will always put human interests first, particularly
unionized workers' interests, which still play a major role in the
party's social base."
"2. The NDP is committed to economic growth and consumerism within a
capitalist economic framework. It does not
understand or accept that ecology imposes 'limits' upon all of us.
The NDP has no alternative economic model to that
of the global market economy."
"3. Everywhere the NDP has been in political power provincially, it
has worked within the industrial capitalist exploitive
paradigm, be it in forestry, agriculture and the fisheries. Thus, in
industrial forestry, the NDP has supported clearcutting,
spraying, handing over forested crown lands to industry,
unconditional support to the pulpmills, etc." Orton pointed out
that while NDP interventions have a bias towards workers' interests,
both worker and capitalist interests disregard the
interests of the forests and their non-human inhabitants and degrade
the forest base over the long term. And, he said,
"It's a similar story for the industrial fishery and industrial agriculture."
"Other examples of NDP's ecological ineptitude," said Orton, "are
their support for the uranium industry in Saskatchewan;
and for the auto industry, where the NDP, by upholding the job
interest of the auto workers, seriously undermine their
commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and to reductions in global warming."
Orton pointed out "The ecology movement draws from all the 'isms' in
society. People come to the Green Party from social democratic,
liberal, conservative, and other political backgrounds." In urging
NDP supporters to vote for the Green Party in
Central Nova, David Orton said that strategic voting to try and
defeat the neo-conservative candidate Peter MacKay, will not
bring about the fundamental shift in ecological consciousness that is
needed. Orton also pointed out that "Real conservatives
are not slaves to the endless economic growth and consumerism market
ideology. Real conservatives conserve, not destroy, Canada's
environmental and social heritage."
He concluded by saying, "I believe that only the Green Party has the
potential, as a political party, to contribute to the needed
shift in consciouness for humans in relating to the Natural world.
Unless we vote for what we believe in, we will never get it."
- 30 -
Mark A. Brennan
Campaign Manager for The Green Party Candidate for Central Nova, David Orton
GREEN PARTY OF CANADA www.greenparty.ca
Phone Central Nova Campaign Manager (902) 396 4397
Green Party Candidate, David Orton (902) 925 2514
Email David Orton; [log in to unmask]
"Make Peace With Nature, Vote Green"
Authorized by the Official Agent for David Orton
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Visit the Green Web Home Page at:
http://home.ca.inter.net/~greenweb/
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