Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you are finding ways to be thankful in a time of COVID, when gatherings
are not possible. I write this feeling quite chilly. My daughter is visiting and we are not in the same bubble, so keeping the apartment breezy with open windows, bundled in layers and wearing a mask. And ever so grateful that I get to see her in real life at distance, in her mask, but not on zoom!
I just got back to British Columbia yesterday. What a week! The vote on the
Speech from the Throne, debates in parliament and the blast of wonderful media
coverage of our new Green leader, Annamie Paul.

New Green Party Leader Annamie Paul Speaks with Reporters – October 5, 2020

Last night was quite the night for the Green Party of Canada.   Live national coverage and a suspenseful run to the finish from an amazing slate of candidates. On the 8^th ballot, we have a new leader!  And we made history!  Annamie Paul is the first Black leader of a federal political party. And the first Black woman leader of a federal political party. And the first Black woman Jewish leader of a federal political party. (And if you were wondering, the NDP’s David Lewis was the only Jewish leader – although Bob Rae was an interim Liberal leader).

So LOTS of history!  Never mind the labels. We have a strong leader with class, smarts and charisma.  And she is already running in a by-election.  Toronto Centre has been a safe Liberal seat for 27 years.  Let’s hope that is about to change!

Good Sunday Morning!

And we’re off!!! 

To three important campaigns… In BC to ensure the election of a lot more Green MLA’s on October 24…

In Toronto Centre, to support Green candidate Annamie Paul in the October 26 by-election (to replace former Liberal MP Bill Morneau).

And on-line, for Greens across Canada, we are now voting for the next leader!

Good Sunday Morning!

I keep hearing Greta Thunberg’s voice in my head: “Our house is on fire.”

When I first heard her words, I internalized them as metaphorical. They increasingly feel literal.

Good Sunday Morning!

I hope it will be a happy Monday. Tomorrow New Brunswickers go to the polls. I spent some of this week phoning in to New Brunswick communities to help get out the vote for our wonderful Green candidates. The three Green MLAs – leader David Coon, Kevin Arsenault and Megan Mitton – are working to hold their own seats and increase the number of Greens in the legislature.  Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow at noon, we will also know who the new leader of the British Columbia Greens will be.  With talk of a snap election, I so hope we will have a strong experienced leader - a brilliant Green already holding a seat.  You have until midnight tonight to vote for Sonia Furstenau!  If you have not yet voted, please do it before you make that next cup of coffee.

Good Sunday Morning! 

September and amid our COVID blues, we have campaigning!

On September 14^th watch for two big events. 

Keeping track of our life in COVID, this week we enter our seventh month of pandemic.

My first sharing of good news for the week is that the New Brunswick Greens decided I could help more by staying in British Columbia and making phone calls and participating remotely.  (phew!)

It is lucky our interim leader, Jo Ann Roberts, is already in the Atlantic bubble. She got to Moncton this week to participate in the launch of all the Moncton area Green campaigns. All the candidates are female, including Jo Ann’s daughter Claire Kelly! 

Good Sunday Morning

And what a week it was.  Major political assumptions were turned upside down – chief among them “nothing happens in politics in the dog days of summer.”

For a quick review, on Monday, the Minister of Finance Bill Morneau stepped down and also announced he was resigning his Toronto Centre seat.

The next morning, we learned the new Minister of Finance is Chrystia Freeland who remains Deputy Prime Minister. Also present at Rideau Hall for the swearing in was Dominic Leblanc with an increase of duties. In addition to President of the Queen’s Privy Council and responsibilities for democratic reforms, he takes over Freeland’s duties as Minister for Intergovernmental Affairs.

Later Tuesday we learned that earlier that same day, Justin Trudeau had met with the Governor General and she approved shutting down parliament until September 23! 

Good Sunday Morning!

So here’s a good one.  An epidemiologist, a virologist and a pediatrician walked into a bar…. Just kidding.  They are way too smart to walk into a bar in a pandemic.

Is it too soon for COVID humour?

And how about how we can no longer use that expression “avoid it like the plague”? We cannot use it because we know people do not avoid a plague…

And I will not ever say something has “gone viral” ever again.

Good Sunday Morning!

75 years ago today, Canadian uranium from Saskatchewan loaded in a nuclear warhead detonated, destroying the Japanese city of Nagasaki.  The radionuclides from that chain reaction continued to poison people for long after in radioactive fallout.

One reader reminded me last week of Toyama and the other cities destroyed in that dreadful first week of August. Conventional fire-bombing, aimed at demonstrating the new technology of the B-29 bombers, destroyed Toyama and many other cities in Japan.