Parkdale-High Park Greens

Turmoil in the sock-market and bad news about unstable Banks in the USA and Europe have Canadians asking some hard questions about the economic credentials of the last 2.5 years of Harper government.  We should point out that we are fortunate to have stable, well capitalized banks in Canada.  The Greens acknowledge that this is due in part to regulation, but also in part to a risk-averse banking culture.

The Green Party has been promoting a recipe for economic health in our country that differs significantly from Harper’s arch-conservative hands-off, globalizing approach to the Canadian economy.

Without getting into the details of everything Mr. Harper’s government has done wrong, a few of the highlights that have put Canadians in a vulnerable position include:

• distorting our economy by focusing the government’s attention exclusively on Tar Sands development, exposing us to greater threat when commodity/resource prices fall (our economy needs to have a more diverse set of engines driving it than this if we are to avoid Dutch Disease)
• creating a sudden spike in the value of the Canadian dollar by allowing massive buyouts of Canadian companies by foreign investment interests at speculative prices
• playing cheap regional games with provincial economies (note the finance minister’s attack on Ontario as the last place to invest, meanwhile oil companies in the west receive massive subsidies from government coffers)
• an enormous loss of productive skilled manufacturing jobs in Ontario, while the economy creates low-skilled service sector jobs

The Greens have an approach that will generate a healthier economy by focusing on the real, productive economy rather than speculative sectors. To help make us resilient to market swings we must have an economy based on

• real productivity, not speculative activity of foreign investors
• a limit on foreign investors buying up Canadian companies which (in part) needlessly drives up the Canadian dollar
• a Canadian dollar valued around 0.80 US which will allow the productive manufacturing sector to bounce-back
• a return of high-skilled, productive manufacturing jobs
  (Notice that these lead naturally one to another?  It’s part of the systemic, sustainable economic approach of Greens and very different from isolated points of other parties.)
• an end to the massive subsidies of highly profitable oil and gas companies as they continue to make the worlds most profitable product (yes, some of your income taxes has been going to them)
• no new Tar Sands projects for now (Elizabeth May has toured Suncor’s research facilities and there is some hope that the next generation of bitumen extraction can be much, much cleaner than the current process.  Greens will wait for the cleaner technology and process to be available before approving new projects.)
• a reduction in Corporate and Income taxes which will allow growth in many sectors of the economy, and provide families and their employers with the flexibility to meet rising energy costs, and also help improve home and work budgets in an already hard year
• a tax on pollution (carbon as well as toxic output): pollution has consequences for us now, but also for our children.  Besides, pollution is waste and not part of productive economic activity.  If we want a more efficient use of resources, and a more productive economy then we must attach a cost to pollution and waste.  In the case of Carbon Dioxide the price will be $50/tonne.

Voting Green isn’t just a vote for environmental sanity and sustainablity.  It’s a vote for economic sanity and sustainability.  Part of the Green vision for our economy is for Canada to be more resilient and shock-proof to global economic whirlwinds.  Sustainability is a core principle of the Greens, and our approach to the economy reflects this.  Join us in this election and vote Green for a more sane and stable economic future for you and your children.