Waiting for #Elxn2019 – This Ain’t No Green Godot
When we last visited our intrepid Green Party heroes, May Green and Green May (MG and GM for short), they were nestled beneath a baobab tree, waiting…..thinking of Samuel Beckett…
Sudbury Steve
Andrew Scheer’s Shameful Support for Truck Convoy Riddled with Racists
Climate change-denying conspiracy theorists in big trucks and yellow vests rallied in Ottawa earlier this week* to demand Canada build more pipelines and shut the doors on immigration. They also…
By-election Round-Up: A Good Night for the Green Party
One should never try to read too much into by-election results. Everyone knows that. By-election results are more often representative of local political microcosms as viewed by a generally smaller…
Is the Green Surge For Real?
So, I’m seeing pundits starting to refer to the “green surge” as if it were maybe a real thing. Most recently, the words came from one Canadian media’s most well-known…
A New Political and Economic Paradigm is Necessary to Confront the Climate Crisis
History teaches us that even the sturdiest economic and political paradigms eventually crumble, often quite suddenly. My generation remembers the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the…
Blanding’s Turtle Will Have Little Chance for Survival as North Bay Sets its Sites on Becoming Ontario’s Least Friendly City to the Natural Environment
It looks like opposition to a new casino in North Bay is starting to grow. But it might be too little, too late, as North Bay Council has now twice-voted…
Greater Sudbury Going Off the Rails Again with Strategic Planning Process
Here we go again – or should I say, here we go off the rails again.I read with interest a recent article published in Sudbury dot com about the upcoming…
Crystal Ball Gazing: (Mainly) Political Predictions for 2019
It’s been a few years since my last end-of-year “Crystal Ball Gazing” blog (although in the summer of 2017, I did manage to successfully predict just how Greater Sudbury Council…
Courtesy Shmertecy! Greens are Making a Mistake in Burnaby
Let me just start this blogpost by pointing out that Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May is one of the classiest politicos that I know. She sure as hell…
From Disruption to Insurgency – Climate Change Action in 2019
In hindsight, 2018 might prove to have been a watershed year in the fight against climate change. Certainly, 2018 saw its share of progressive steps forward, like the federal government’s…
More Misinformation About the KED Coming From City Hall
The attached screencap was shared with me recently, along with some questions about whether Councillor Kirwan is being honest with people in his Valley East group about what’s actually going…
Conservatives’ Climate Plan Takes Ontario Back to the Past
At this critical moment in history, when we’re being warned by the best and the brightest that we have just 12 years to get our act together if we’re going…
Shifting the Climate Change Conversation from the Possible to the Necessary
Credit where it’s due: Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the federal plan to price carbon pollution for provinces like Ontario that refused to adopt provincial pollution pricing…
The Kingsway Cases at the LPAT: An (Unrepresented) Party’s Observations, Part 7: So Much for the Downtown
In Part 6 of this blogseries, I laid out what I considered to be the three big land use issues that the LPAT will need to make a determination on…
The Kingsway Cases at the LPAT: An (Unrepresented) Party’s Observations, Part 6: The City Strikes Back!
This blogpost has been a very challenging one for me to write. I began writing this post shortly after receiving a copy of the City’s Response Case Synopsis to my…
The Kingsway Cases at the LPAT: An (Unrepresented) Party’s Observations, Part 5: Wasn’t That a Party?
For a while now, I’ve had the Irish Rovers’ song, “Wasn’t that a Party?” rolling around in my head. I think that after the LPAT deals with the matters I’m…
PowerUp Initiative Seeks to Drive Down Energy Use, Carbon Pollution
What will our city look like in 30 years? Can we expect to see bike lanes on every major street, and houses covered in solar panels? Will we continue to…
The Kingsway Cases at the LPAT: An (Unrepresented) Party’s Observations, Part 4: The Strong Case Against a Casino
If matters leading our municipal Council to decide to throw away a decade’s worth of direction for a new arena as articulated in our land use planning and economic development…
The Kingsway Cases at the LPAT: An (Unrepresented) Party’s Observations, Part 3: Valid Appeals and Municipal Contempt for a Public Process
I’ve been overdue with my updates on my experiences with the LPAT. After a summer of inaction, a lot has been going on lately, so I’m hoping to add my…
Trans Mountain Decision An Opportunity to Green the Liberals
The Trans Mountain pipeline will never be built. Acknowledging this reality should be the starting point any further discussion on the subject between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet.…