Why I'm running in University-Rosedale

I am sometimes asked (usually by people who do not themselves take on the burden of running for public office): Why am I running in University-Rosedale, where the incumbent is NDP? Why don't I run in a riding where I can defeat a Ford Conservative?

The short answer: I couldn’t have parachuted myself into a Conservative riding somewhere else and expect to be elected. Running for office for a small party is extraordinarily demanding and depends on deep local roots nurtured over many years. Mine are in University-Rosedale, and nowhere else.

I certainly understand the danger of electing Conservative MPPs through vote splitting by the Liberals, NDP and Greens. However, that is not a risk in University-Rosedale. Now that I have knocked on thousands of doors across the riding, it is clearer than ever: this area hasn’t voted Conservative in 40 years, and is not going to do so in June 2022. That gives voters in this riding who care about a liveable future a rare luxury: to vote for their true values.

I do wish we could see more collaboration between the non-Conservative parties. Alas, the NDP will have none of it. They reprimanded Ian Arthur for even appearing together with Liberals and Greens to oppose one of Ford's destructive omnibus Bills. They won’t even reciprocate leader’s courtesy; instead, they run hard against every Green. Perhaps there will be a better chance for such collaboration after the election, especially if there is a minority government. I certainly hope so.

These 15 months have also illustrated again why Green MPPs are necessary, and are not simply irritants in the NDP’s way. Have you noticed how the NDP have been voting in the Legislature? For example, on March 3, 2022, the NDP voted again with Doug Ford’s Conservatives to pass Bill 84. This allows Ford to implement his vote-buying gimmick of waiving car licence fees, thus cutting another $1.1 billion every year from public Treasury.

Mike Schreiner, leader of the Ontario Green Party, was the only MPP to vote against this destructive Bill.

There are many reasons this Bill is bad for Ontario. For one thing, the Conservatives will undoubtedly use this self-imposed reduction in government revenue to justify further caps and cuts to public services, such as healthcare and education. But this particular cut is especially harmful. As I documented when I was the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, driving is already the largest cause of Ontario’s climate pollution. How could any party that claims to be serious about the climate crisis vote for this $1.1 billion a year handout - encouraging driving by making it less expensive? Especially the very week that yet another damning IPCC report shows that burning fossil fuels (such as gasoline) is creating an atlas of human suffering, and amounts to arson of our only home?!

Instead, we would spend that money on mental health care, which is badly underfunded in Ontario.

Last year, the NDP voted with Ford’s Conservatives to keep Line 5 running. Again, Mike Schreiner was the only MPP to vote against it. Line 5 is a dangerous, out-dated oil pipeline, a ticking time bomb under a busy shipping channel in the Great Lakes. Its design life ran out in 2003, nearly 20 years ago; it has already leaked 33 times. Did the NDP learn nothing from the $1 billion catastrophic oil spill that the same company caused from a similar pipeline nearby in 2010?

The NDP also refused to vote against the Ford Conservatives when they cut protections for endangered species in Ontario’s forests.

Unfortunately, these three votes are consistent with the NDP’s long-standing approach to environmental protection, and with their current policies. Although many individual NDPers care deeply about a liveable future, their party is not serious about it when it counts. The NDP consistently chooses to make it cheaper to burn fossil fuels in the short run, instead of turning swiftly towards the immense opportunities of the new climate economy. They act as if what we burn now has no consequences. Even today, the NDP is fighting for government regulation to keep down gasoline prices, i.e. to make it cheaper for people to keep burning immense quantities of gasoline.

All of these have reminded me why I chose the Green Party instead.

I know that each of you, like me, cares passionately about a liveable future for the young people that we love. The February 28 IPCC report shows again the terrible and irreversible consequences if we breach 1.5°, even temporarily. The Green Party Roadmap is consistent with a 1.5° future; the NDP plan is not. Please check out some of the differences between the Green and NDP party platforms.

Please let me know if you have any questions.