Author: Sudbury Steve

2 degrees Celsius is fast becoming the most critical number of the 21st Century. It is the number on which economic decisions are going to have to be based on as we move deeper into the decade. As an economic target, it is more important that GDP growth, more important

What a whirlwind the last couple of days have been for the Green Party of Canada. Not only did the Green Party double its caucus on Friday, with the addition of Thunder Bay-Superior North MP Bruce Hyer, but the Green Party became the focus of attack by the NDP this

There’s been a lot of speculation all week that Thunder Bay-Superior North Member of Parliament Bruce Hyer (Independent) is getting ready to join the Green Party of Canada. Last week, Hyer made it known to local Thunder Bay media that he would be making an announcement on Friday, December 13th,

What’s a Green to make of New Democratic Party Leader Tom Mulcair’s December 3, 2013 speech to the Economic Club of Canada, which lays out his party’s vision for Canada’s future energy policy? On the one hand, it’s easy to be flattered that the NDP has finally come around to

There has been an evolution of words, terminology and ideas which has informed public discussions about climate change over the last 30 years. In the mid-1980s, popular science talk was all about the “greenhouse effect” – how greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. This

I am reproducing here a copy of a recent letter to my Member of Parliament, Claude Gravelle, urging him to support MP Michael Chong’s “Reform Act” when it comes before parliament for a vote. —– December 1, 2013 Claude Gravelle, MP2945 Highway 69 North, Suite 203Val Caron ON P3N 1N3

“Make no mistake, the NDP is no longer the hopeful, optimistic party of Jack Layton. It is the negative, divisive party of Thomas Mulcair. It is the Liberal Party tonight that proved hope is stronger than fear.” –Justin Trudeau, celebrating Liberal Party by-election victory in Montreal riding of Bourassa, November

The other night, I meant to catch TV Ontario’s “The Agenda” with Steve Paikin, as Paikin was hosting the candidates of the Toronto Centre by-election for a debate on public issues. However, several children of mine who didn’t want to go to bed at their usual hour kept me away

This week, Elizabeth May, member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands and Leader of the Green Party of Canada, is in Warsaw, Poland, attending the 19th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, aka “COP19”. For the third year in a row, May is there

As a Green partisan, I find myself salivating at the notion that the NDP will embrace the Canada-Europe Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) heading into the next election in 2015. If the NDP wants to cede ground on opposition to CETA to the Green Party of Canada, in pursuit of

I often engage anonymous right-wing trolls at the Sudbury Star and Northern Life website’s comments sections. While some of the online conversations that I’ve engaged in have been, to say the least, acrimonious, tonight I’ve experienced something which has never happened to me before. An anonymous poster who goes by

Enough is enough. Which version of the “truth” will Prime Minister Stephen Harper try to sell Canadians tomorrow on his involvement in the Senate Scandal – a scandal which threatens to consume his government, his political party and himself. Back in May, when confronted by the media with information that

The Green Party of Canada prides itself on doing politics differently. Often, that’s what sets us apart from the other old-line political parties, and our progressive approach to politics is usually worn as a badge of honour. But sometimes it can get us into hot water. Doing politics differently, in

I have been trying to get through B.C. NDP campaign manager and former federal leadership challenger Brian Topp’s August 21, 2013 “Campaign Post Mortem” (Topp’s own name for this document) of the NDP’s performance in the recent provincial election. I have struggled with this incredibly cynical document, written by Topp

In my earlier blogposts, I looked at the dual nature of change, and what that means for a left-wing political environment which is wedded to the current economic status quo. I wrote about some of the challenges facing the emerging alliance between labour and environmental movements, but concluded that not

Change is inevitable. That was one of the first lessons taught to me when I went to Planning School at Ryerson University in the early 1990s. It was a pretty easy lesson for those of us born in the latter part of the 20th Century – a time which saw

My oldest daughter, Veronica, has started to speak in ways that I don’t always understand. Having turned 3 years of age this past summer, I’ve noticed that she has picked up numerous phrases, vocal intonations and songs from sources that I know nothing about. Undoubtedly, some have come from her

The following text has been modified slightly from text which was recently submitted as a letter to the Editor of a local newspaper with general circulation in Greater Sudbury. At this time, it remains unpublished. —– This past August, when asked about the approval of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline project,

Why does the provincial NDP seem intent on tearing itself apart over the now-dated Adam Giambrone nomination meeting scandal? With 5 provincial by-elections in the rear-view mirror, and the NDP making a decent showing, winning 2 (including one big upset in London), what’s the point now for NDP insiders to

The following letter to the Editor of the Sudbury Star was published on Friday, August 30, 2013, under the headline, “All forms of energy subsidized in Canada”. I wrote this letter in response to a column from long-time Star-contributor Ruth Farquahar, titled “Farquahar: Islanders talking about wind turbines“,published in print