Council of Canadian Government!!

Post-election Canada and the New Liberal Government

By William Doyle-Marshall

Tears of joy and disappointment have been wiped off many faces. Lawn signs and other campaign material are being removed to be stored up for another run at this four-year game. Yes, that’s what veterans do because election campaigns cost lots of money and we finance the undertaking in the hope that next time things will be better.

   While Stephen Harper goes off and do whatever he wishes in his retirement members of the new parliament would have to fix everything he broke and that starts with a lot of things that are non-partisan, Elizabeth May, the lone Green Party Member in parliament, says. They would have to think of repairing the damage and rebuilding the kind of country they want, starting with cooperation in the parliament, May believes. This chore is now in the hands of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal team; the Conservatives without Harper; Thomas Mulcair and his reduced New Democratic Party line-up and the one-woman Green Party of Elizabeth May.

Anxious Canadians listen to promises!!!!

   Political parties made promises as they campaigned to gain voters’ confidence. We heard what would be done to improve living conditions of First Nations’ communities; raise in minimum wage to $15.00 an hour; environmental improvements; rejection of the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement; they will do something for students about debt and possibly abolish tuition, money will be spent on infrastructure, culture and sensible economic development initiatives. Now you the voters (who are the employers of these politicians) in government and opposition have to keep very close tabs on their affairs. Your involvement here is essential. The term ‘holding them accountable’ must have serious meaning. And yes, there are things you can do. Get community groups together for action. If every citizen takes a small step and let these parliamentarian know they are on probation, things will be better.

Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi and Frances Littman

  As far as Elizabeth May is concerned it’s time for all Canadians to make sure they are thinking about the collective well-being of the country as a whole not the middleclass versus the billionaires class, versus the poor. Simply put, it is time to pull together. “So in that spirit we are advocating something that I think is a brilliant notion: the Council of Canadian Governments,” May contends. It exists in Australia that is a lot like Canada – Commonwealth country with divisions between the State governments and federal government.

   The Green Party Leader visualizes federal, provincial and local government around the same table to serve all the big goals. Canada currently has no energy policy, no transportation policy, no education policy, no cultural policy, no housing policy, no manufacturing policy. “We have adhocary with each level of government pulling in different directions. No wonder people think: how come I am paying taxes municipally, provincially, federally and those levels of government don’t seem to be willing to work together,” she observes.

  The Council of Canadian Governments would be all about pulling together: federal government, provincial, territorial, representation from municipal government, not every Mayor in Canada but a good representation at a seat at the table for First Nations, Metis and Inuit leadership looking at all big picture questions. Then when we establish a goal, we are all pulling in the same direction.

   “It doesn’t need to open the constitution to do this, it just needs to say that maybe the constitution as devised in 1867 doesn’t work all that well in 2015. So we think our ideas are good ones. We hope and actually I am quite certain other parties will follow and pick up on these ideas.

   The Green Party’s platform in regards to short term and long term on refugees and immigrants: calls for an overhaul of Canada’s policy. There are 50 streams to be able to come into Canada and we need to be able to help to streamline policies when we have refugees and when we have immigrants so that the process for them to become citizens, there needs to be a way, says Fran Hunt-Jinnouchi, the unsuccessful candidate for Cowichan-Malahat-Langford. She insists there is a need to ensure that the skills and the education that immigrants and refugees are bringing are recognized quicker. Trudeau said unequivocally since his election, his government plans to welcome 25,000 refugees by next year. But May would prefer 40,000.

   “We have always been a country of humanitarian and helpers,” Hunt-Jinnouchi contends. She told a Victoria gathering she needs only to put herself in the situation of the women and grand ma’s running with their children, running from the war and having bombs and shellfire on them. She regrets Canada was part of starting that. “We dropped four air strikes so we can’t be involved in war and not expect people are going to try to find peace and shelter. So it’s very mixed messaging and like no other time our Prime Minister is putting that fear mongering with smoke screens about niqab and whatever to get people afraid,” Hunt-Jinnouchi continues.

October 22, 2015  

no need for war monger politicians

War is Terrible, Wrong, Alien and Must Be Stopped

By William Doyle-Marshall

The horror of war which is captured in Ritchie Yorke’s book “Christ You Know It Ain’t Easy: John and Yoko’s Battle for Peace” was launched at an opportune time, when Canadians were going to the polls to elect a new government -- the Liberals with 184 seats in the House of.Commons It was particularly relevant when Stephen Harper and his Conservatives were campaigning and trying to motivate Canadians to vote with fear in their hearts.

Speaking with me about the reality of war, Yorke noted the majority of victims of World War Two were soldiers but today the majority of people dying in a variety of war activities are individuals off the firing line who are getting killed. He thinks everything about war is awful. “I don’t think a single redeeming feature that makes war a good thing on any level. I think it’s terribly wrong, totally alien. I think war is wrong! Wrong! Wrong!”

 The Lennon Peace anthem crafted in a one week bed-in in Montreal in 1969 resonates today as it did then.  Yorke, the rock journalist and activist has detailed his recollections of that week and The Toronto Varsity Rock Concert. John meeting (Pierre) Trudeau. And his Traveling the World For Peace with Ronnie Hawkins in his new book “Christ You Know It Ain't Easy: John And Yoko's Battle For Peace” was launched in Toronto early October -- two days before Lennon’s 75^thbirthday.

 Yorke hopes young people would read his book because he is confident they are the ones who might change the world. “They are the ones who are voting and they are out there being part of the issues,” Yorke emphasized.

   “Canada next Monday is having a federal election. People should be out voting against the forces that bring war and I can hardly tell you which of the candidates support war and I think that’s what has to happen. People have to go out and vote: they don’t warn this. Please stand up for peace, stand up for another way of doing things.”

 He questioned why would you want for example to go and kill somebody you haven’t met, you don’t know. It’s sort of understandable if someone done something in your life and impinged on your space or your person or property then you might want to do something about that. “But to go and shoot people you have never even met, that’s insane. That’s totally crazy in my world,” the author continued.

   Ritchie was given an ultimatum to either quit his job then as a writer for the Globe and Mail or stay with the Lennon project. It was rather easy for him because he was convinced that working on the side of peace and goodwill and humanitarianism was obviously more important than a journalistic career. “What we are all trying to do is make a better world for ourselves and our children and that’s what I was trying to do,” he concluded.

While he is not certain about the success of that effort, Yorke is aware that there are much room for improvement. “I’d like to think we’ve made some progress but I think there is a lot of room to go to keep doing it to make it better,” he said this week while in Toronto promoting his book. Yorke reflects on his close relationship with Lennon and concludes that the message of the Beatle was very simple “war can be over if you want it. If you want to do something about it and most people have to support war and most people have to support the whole notion of killing other people do it because that’s the only way we would stop it really. We got to get the politicians in there who are totally against war and there is not a lot of them, I don’t think. People talk about it but talk is cheap. Doing something about it that’s what we need to have more of, I think. This is an issue we need to have people talk about all the time.”

   This quote from the book is a worthy climax against those Canadian politicians who are campaigning on the issue of fear. “Still war and suffering drag on. In the past year, 24 million people were displaced by various ill-fated wars, bringing the total of the world’s refugees to 42 million. It is a sobering thought to realize that 44 per cent of all refugees are children. Another damning statistic. During World War I (1914-1918), 95 per cent of war casualties were armed participants and 5 per cent were civilian casualties. Almost a century later, 97 per cent of war casualties are civilians. What the hell are we doing allowing this absurd behaviour on this planet? Where is love and compassion when you need it?”

  Hopefully you now understand the importance of scrutinizing your conscience and always voting according to that. No time to be swayed by half truths or blatant lies. Canadians and others should get themselves a copy of Yorke's book and prepare themselves better for dealing with the new Trudeau Liberal Government. Politicians are your employees and not the other way around.