The Truth About the Rules on Climate Ads in the Canadian Federal Election

Elections Canada reviewed ad rules which have significant implications for the promotion of climate action during the forthcoming federal election. This clarification was in response to reports that Elections Canada had told environmental groups that they could not run ads about climate change. An August 20th Elections Canada statement indicates that environmental and other groups are free to address climate change. Stéphane Perrault Canada's Chief Electoral Officer issued the public statement in the wake of media reports that seemed to misunderstand the prohibitions against promoting climate action during an election campaign.  The confusion stems from misunderstanding "partisan advertising" and "issue advertising" (see Canada Elections Act).

No Reprieve for the Environment as Slacktivists Hand Majority to Canadian Conservatives

The 2011 Canadian federal election vindicates those who characterize young people as apathetic. Had Canada's youth voted in larger numbers they could have prevented a Conservative majority, instead they generated a lot of online buzz, but failed to pull the trigger when it counted. In many parts of the country it appears that the under 30s did not leave their computers and cell phones long enough to cast a vote.

Although we will not have hard data from Elections Canada for a few weeks, publications like Saanich News are reporting low youth vote turnout: "Despite expectations, early numbers suggest social media hype before Monday’s election did not translate into more young people making it to the polls."

The election of US President Barack Obama succeeded due in large part to the youth vote. Many were hoping that similar youth involvement in Canada would impede the Conservative's assault on the environment. With fewer than 14 million ballots cast in the last federal election, Canada's 5.5 million Canadians under the age of 30 could have been a game changer.

The reason why younger voters are so important is because they tend to favor parties other than the Conservatives. In the 2008 federal election less than 40 percent of young people voted and although advanced polling suggested that we would see a surge of young voters, Canada's youth did not materialize in sufficient numbers to deny a Conservative majority.

The fact that the Conservatives won 167 seats indicates that young people did not get out and vote en masse. Although Canada's youth did help propel the NDP to a second place finish with 31 percent of the popular vote. An “orange crush” of historic NDP support swept through Quebec, parts of Ontario and the Prairies to give the party 102 seats. “You, young Canadians, are an inspiration and a source of hope for our country’s future,” NDP leader Jack Layton told a large crowd in downtown Toronto.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff resigned after his party lost more than half their seats leaving them with 34.“We’ve seen tonight, I think, the emergence of a polarization in Canadian politics,” a defeated Ignatieff told supporters in Toronto. The people may be polarized, but the power is now in the hands of the Conservatives. Canadians failure to vote against the Conservatives have given a majority to a party that will aggressively support tar sands oil and largely ignore the environment and the green economy.

In British Columbia, Green Party leader Elizabeth May won the party’s first-ever elected seat in Saanich—Gulf Islands. The Green Party's first seat along with Liberal losses and NDP gains make this a historic election. This election is also historic as a missed opportunity to reverse Canada's anti-environment trajectory.

According to an early Elections Canada report, 61 percent of eligible Canadians voted in the 2011 federal election. The 2011 turnout was only slightly more than 2008's dismal electoral participation of 59 percent.

More than 70,000 youth had pledged to vote as part of the “I Will Vote” campaign, but efforts to boost the youth vote with social media and vote mobs were insufficient to prevent a Conservative majority. The outcome of the 2011 election indicates that while Canadian youth like online campaigns, they are not interested in doing much to manage climate change, even when it concerns an action as simple as voting.

Some attribute lower than expected youth voter turnout to a lack of engagement by Canada's political parties and the need for more face-to-face mobilization. The truth is the 2011 election results show that Canada's youth are indeed an apathetic group of slackers, (hence the expression slacktivists). Even though the under 30s claim to care about efforts to manage climate change, through their inaction they have effectively given the Conservatives carte blanche to continue to ravage the environment.

Young Canadians could have moved beyond raising awareness and started changing the world. Instead the under 30s stayed home in many parts of the country. Canada's youth missed a historic opportunity to use their democratic rights to lead the country into the future and enjoin the battle against climate change.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Next: The Last Best Hope to Combat Climate Change

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Youth Vote May Determine the Outcome of the Canadian Federal Election

The youth vote could oust Harper's anti-environment Conservatives. Although polls in the days before the election indicate that the Conservatives are losing ground to the NDP, that shift may be even more pronounced than the results suggest. National polls of party preferences, draw upon the views of people with land lines. However, the majority of 18 to 24 year-olds use cell phones so they are not counted in polling results.

At the very least young people are likely to foil a Conservative majority. If the youth vote doubles from 2008, it is entirely possible that the NDP or Liberals may form a minority government. If the youth vote triples, we may even see an NDP or Liberal majority.

Canadian youth are strong supporters of the environment and many hold staunch anti-Conservative views. Vote mob websites, and opinion pieces in university newpapers single out Conservatives for criticism, not the Liberals, NDP or Greens. The environment is an important issue for many of those who organized vote mobs. A number of these people have been actively involved with the progressive environmental action groups like 350.org.

No one can be sure exactly what percentage of those participating in vote mobs will actually cast a vote, but by the end of election day we may find that the youth vote has been vastly underestimated by the pundits and the pollsters.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Vote for Canada Vote for the Environment Vote for Change

Under Harper's Conservatives Canada's environment is under threat. Canada's ecological problems include a wide range of issues that impact people, individual species and entire ecosystems.

The ruling Conservative government is at odds with Canadians on climate change. Harper's Conservatives have a history of contempt for the environment. Despite the fact that the world urged Canada to do more on the environmental front, Conservatives have amassed a deplorable track record on some of the most important environmental issues, including the way they have handled international climate change summits and greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

Due to the country's dependence on oil, Canada is a world leader in GHG emissions. Harper's Conservatives are working to ramp-up tar sands oil production which cause up to five times the climate change pollution of conventional crude oil. The proposed Canadian Enbridge Northern Gateway oil sands pipeline would cut through British Columbia’s pristine temperate rainforests and coastal ecosystems to export tar sand oil to Asia. For more information or to take action click here.

Canada's woodland caribou are an example of one species that is in urgent danger. In Alberta, some herds have less than 100 caribou left. Caribou are considered threatened species under Canada's Species at Risk Act, yet Alberta's tar sands development and forestry industry operations are driving vulnerable herds to the brink of survival. For more information or to take action click here.

Canada enacted the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA) in June 2003 to address the mounting threats to Canada’s endangered animals. But the Canadian government is failing to fulfill its duty of care toward our nation’s wildlife by refusing to properly implement the Act.

Many of Canada’s endangered animals live in the Arctic, which is suffering disproportionally from the consequences of global warming. Research shows that temperatures in the Arctic are rising at almost twice the rate of the rest of the world. As a result, Arctic sea ice is shrinking by up to 5% every ten years. This is crucial because sea ice not only provides hunting ground for polar bears, but shelter and transportation for seals, walrus, arctic foxes, and the Inuit people.

The underside of Arctic ice provides a surface for algae that support cod, char, beluga, and narwhal. The white sea ice also has a cooling effect on climate by reflecting light away from Earth's surface. As the Arctic continues to melt, global warming will advance even more quickly. For more information or to take action click here.

There are a total of 256 species that are listed by the Scientific Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) as being extinct, extirpated, endangered, threatened or vulnerable. In Canada environmental degradation is widespread. For more detailed information about the state of Canada's environment see the WWF's Canadian Living Planet Report

A comparison of the environmental platforms of the four national parties in Canada reveals that the Conservatives are the worst choice for the environment. In 2008 they laughed at Dion's Green Shift platform and we have had ample opportunity to see them put their environmental disregard into action.

Contrary to the traditional view, Conservatives are not the party for the economy either. Their lack of action on the environment undermines Canada's international competitiveness and this is a high priority economic issue.

By voting strategically, Canadians can make democracy work and perhaps even restore Canada to its rightful role as an environmental leader.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Video: Leadnow's My Canada

This video from Leadnow.ca was created by Smart Bubble Society, it targets younger voters and encourages them to vote for the Canada they want. Leadnow is famous for its Declaration For Change which is intended to set the agenda for the new Parliament. The Declaration for Change calls for political cooperation that amongst other things, protects our environment.

This video was written and produced after Leadnow.ca hosted a cross-country process that brought Canadians together online and in their local communities to create the Declaration for Change. The video reflects Canadian's priorities articulated by 4,000 online participants, and over 80 local events.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

Strategic Voting by Canada's Youth Threatens Conservatives

Canada's youth are mounting a serious challenge to Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government. With the Conservatives leading and Canadians heading to the polls in a few days, organizations like Avaaz have been working feverishly to oppose Harper's bid for reelection.

Compared to the opposition parties, the Conservatives do not have much of an environmental platform and opinion polls decisively show that a majority of Canadians oppose Harper on all the major issues. Harper's Conservatives are at odds with Canadians on a wide range of issues including Canada's role in the war against climate change. According to an Avaaz national poll, conducted by Environics Research, 82 percent of Canadians want a UN treaty on climate change. Rather than work towards signing a binding treaty, Conservatives blocked progress at international climate change summits, they also made no progress on greenhouse gas emissions reductions and they left Canadian oceans vulnerable to oil spills

In addition to their crimes against the environment, Harper and the Conservatives have amassed an impressive rap sheet, they shut down parliament for months, fired civil service whistleblowers, ignored lawful requests for financial information, created a handbook on how to disrupt parliamentary meetings and processes, and flooded the airwaves with vicious attack ads.

Although the Conservatives were first elected to office in 2006 on the promise of having an honest and transparent party, Conservatives from top officials to staffers are being charged or investigated. The conservatives are the first party in office to be brought down on contempt charges in the history of the Canadian commonwealth. Recently four of the Conservative's top officials have been charged with election overspending and two RCMP investigations have been launched against former political staffers.

This election is in large part about accountability, and now with the election looming, there is another massive misappropriation of taxpayer money. A report leaked earlier this month indicates that the Harper government illegally poured 50 million taxpayer dollars into a single Conservative riding and covered it up as G8 summit spending.

Even though the majority of Canadians oppose Harper, pundits predicted his reelection because Canada's democracy is fractured and the votes are split across 4 opposition partied. In some ridings this translates to Conservative wins with less than one third of the votes.

However, the momentum is shifting as Canada's youth are showing signs that they are serious about trying to defeat Harper on May 2nd. A new poll has the NDP gaining even more ground on the Conservatives, and experts say exceptional youth interest in the election could be responsible.

The latest Angus Reid Public Opinion survey, conducted on April 25 and 26, has the New Democrats sitting at 30-per-cent support, just behind the Conservative's 35 per cent. The Liberals have slipped to just 22-per-cent support. Among decided voters between the ages of 18 and 34, NDP support shoots up to 37 per cent, up seven per cent since the middle of the month. The Conservatives trail behind at 28 per cent, followed by the Liberals with 22 per cent.

Canada needs to reform their electoral system, but in the interim mobilizing the youth vote and voting strategically is the best way to ensure that Parliament will represent the majority of Canadians.

Avaaz and Project Democracy have created a strategic voting tool that could tip the balance in several close races. This online tool helps people to vote strategically by identifying the leading opposition challengers in ridings where Conservatives are most vulnerable. Avaaz used a similar tool in the 2008 election that swung 6 seats away from the Conservatives. With just 10 seats separating Harper from the unchecked power of a majority government, voting strategically can at the very least keep the Conservatives at bay. Click here to use the strategic voting tool.

If the youth vote the way they did in advanced polling, Harper may not only be deprived of a majority, he may even fail to get enough support to form the next government.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Leadnow's Declaration For Change

Leadnow.ca wants to help Canadians move beyond today's political division and short-term thinking, and get to work on the shared challenges of our time. Across geographies and generations, in local communities and online, thousands of Canadians are coming together to create a new kind of politics.

Based on more than 80 local gatherings across the country and an online engagement initiative, Leadnow has issued a “declaration for change," a call for politicians across the political spectrum to co-operate for progress on some of the major challenges facing Canada.

The declaration for change, calls for political cooperation to build a stronger democracy that protects te environment and creates economic opportunity. It also calls for equality, and guarantees that everyone receives the care they need.

Those who sign the declaration of change commit to support action and vote for the politicians who will:

-Establish climate legislation to meet international and science-based targets
-Invest in renewable energy, energy efficiency and home retrofits
-End subsidies to fossil fuel companies

-Establish a plan with clear targets to reduce poverty and provide affordable housing
-Improve access to high quality post-secondary education and reduce student debt
-Ensure access to affordable quality child care and early childhood education

-Create an open government plan to increase transparency and accountability
-Initiate a citizen-led process for a referendum on electoral reform
-Make it easier for people to participate directly in government decision-making

-Ensure universal access to high quality and publicly administered health care
-Invest in programs that prevent illness and promote wellness
-Create a national strategy to increase mental health support

Leadnow is providing Canadians with information, analysis and tools to ask politicians whether they support these priorities, what measures they would take to give them life, and how they would pay for them.

Click here to sign the Declaration for Change.

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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Video: Leadnow Interview on CPAC

In this March 3rd 2011 interview, Leadnow co-founders Jamie Biggar and Adam Shedletzsky appear on CPAC's Prime Time Politics. As discussed in the interview, young people are increasingly apolitical, but Leadnow wants to put the power of social media to work to encourage young voters to exercise their democratic rights. Although Leadnow is a nonpartisan organization, their efforts could significantly change the political landscape. As Chantal Hébert, said in Le Devoir, on april 4, 2011, "In Canada, the current Conservative Party would have much less chance of coming back to power and almost no chance of winning a majority if the youngest portion of the electorate voted in large numbers on May 2."

© 2011, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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