“We need to reach as many people who care as possible to press for Canada to start implementing our promises (to take immediate action to address climate crisis).” – Canada’s Green Party Leader Elizabeth May
A Letter from Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada
Posted December 18th, 2023 on Niagara At Large
Green Party of Canada Leader and long-time environmental activist Elizabeth May
A Foreword from Doug Draper , Niagara At Large – Few Canadians who have been following environmental issues over the years would question Elizabeth May’s dedication in the fight for a healthier planet.
Through her many years as a founding member of the Sierra Club of Canada and her leading role in building and promoting the environmental agenda of the federal Green Party, Elizabeth May has been an unflinching champion for environmental causes from coast to coast.
Elizabeth May is no stranger to our Niagara region either.
A number of years ago, she was keynote speaker at a well-attended fundraiser for enriching the vegetation and habitat for wildlife in Mel Swart Conservation Park along the shores of Lake Gibson in Thorold.
And speaking of fundraising, the message below from Elizabeth May, which has important things to say about the need for action from our governments and from all of us in the battle against a climate emergency we face now contains a call from her to us to help fund the Green Party of Canada so it can continue its advocacy for our environment.
Normally, Niagara At Large does not post funding requests from political parties. But compared to the federal Liberals and Conservatives which both receive mountains of funding from a broad spectrum of individuals and organizations, including some of the largest emitters of harmful carbon gases in the country, the Green Party is continuously struggling to get the financial resources it it needs to reach out to us with messages like the one below.
With that, here is Elizabeth May’s message to all of us coming out of the past few weeks’ global climate summit in Dubai –
Letter from COP28: A Climate Lifeline Worth Grabbing
Elizabeth, second from left behind the banner, at one of many protests she has participated in, protesting the construction of fossil fuel pipelines from the Alberta tar sands to Canada’s west coast.
From Elizabeth May, December 2023
I know you have likely been following the news from the United Arab Emirates and Dubai. What a place to hold critical climate talks – few failed to see the contradiction!
But against the odds, and despite the presence of thousands of fossil fuel lobbyists, we got a global commitment from nearly 200 countries, INCLUDING CANADA, to “transition away from fossil fuels.”
Elizabeth May in 2018 – one of many activists arrested at a construction site in British Columbia for the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline, with a cost to Canadian taxpayers that has now ballooned to more than 30 billion dollars and counting.
We also got a commitment from those same nations to triple renewable energy installations and double energy efficiency by 2030.
All of the pledges were framed against the IPCC message of urgency- that we must make significant changes before 2025.
There are dozens of other pledges, large and small, around justice, equity, eliminating poverty and even pursuing the “circular economy” that we advocate for as Greens.
OUR CHALLENGE NOW IS TO ENSURE OUR OWN COUNTRY, CANADA, DOES SOMETHING WE HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE – KEEP OUR WORD.
As Leader of the Green Party of Canada, I talk to so many young people who are giving up.
We have to communicate- especially to young people – that we are not giving up.
We are not walking away from the opportunity – small and vanishing as it may be – to hold to no more than a 1.5 degree C global average temperature increase.
Eco-Grief is a real thing – BUT IT IS NOT TOO LATE.
This (past) week in Dubai, we took a step away from the abyss. But there is a mountain of work to do to build on this small first step toward sanity. We need to reach as many people who care as possible to press for Canada to start implementing our promises.
I so wish I had the kind of budget other parties have, where they disseminate misinformation, and worse, disinformation. Where they want people to hate and fear each other – we need to share a positive message of a Green future, one people can believe in.
Could you take a moment right now and donate to help me get the word out? (Here is a link for those who may wish to donate to the Green Party of Canada – https://www.greenparty.ca/civicrm/mailing/url?u=387068&qid=161638578
Thanks to the bigger parties writing the fundraising rules, donations to political parties get better tax treatment than donations to charities, so giving now may cost less than you think – you can get up to 75 per cent of your donation back with your tax credit!
Please do help Greens across Canada grab this lifeline and build on it – fast!
ELIZABETH MAY, O.C., MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands, Green Party of Canada
P.S. Here is a link to a longer, more detailed report, ‘A Climate Lifeline Worth Grabbing, that Elizabeth May wrote from the climate summit in Dubai. To read it, click on – https://www.greenparty.ca/civicrm/mailing/url?u=387070&qid=161638578
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