Federal Green climate change critic and prominent environmentalist Guy Dauncey is one of six activists urging party members to vote "None of the Above" at their upcoming Saanich-Gulf Islands nomination meeting - scheduled for this coming Saturday. The reason: according to an open letter distributed by Dogwood Initiative executive director Will Horter, "The candidates already nominated to run against Lunn" - specifically Liberal Briony Penn and New Democrat Julian West - "have strong environmental credentials, are strong advocates for electoral reform, and are not likely to bow down to traditional party politics." And, if the Greens run a candidate in the upcoming election, votes for that individual "could cause the election of (Natural Resources Minister) Gary Lunn, a key player in Stephen Harper's anti-environmental government."

The letter goes onto to state, "The Green Party constitution doesn't specify what happens if 'None of the Above' wins on the nomination ballot. However, the Green Party executive, which has to certify all candidates, is unlikely to override the democratic choice of local members and force a candidate onto its (sic) the ballot." Andrew Lewis is the only candidate running for the nomination. The following is a complete copy of that letter.

***

-----Original Message-----
From: Will Horter
Sent: July 11, 2007 5:10 PM
To: bcenvirowatch@lists.onenw.org; LW-List; oog@lists.onenw.org; ofc@lists.onenw.org; gsx@lists.onenw.org
Subject: [oog] Open letter to Green Party members in Saanich - Gulf Islands

Dear members and supporters of the Green Party:

Re: Upcoming nomination meeting in Saanich - Gulf Islands We are living in extraordinary times. Global warming will require each of us to change the way we relate to one another, and to our communities and our planet.

This will be a big challenge, requiring each of us to do extraordinary things. We know you care deeply about the future of our planet and your community, and that you understand that slight changes to business as usual will not address these challenges at the scale or on the timeline necessary.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May recognized this when she allied with Stephane Dion to put "progress ahead of partisanship" by agreeing to not run candidates in each other's ridings.

Unfortunately, despite this courageous action, our political electoral system remains broken. As it is currently structured it inhibits, rather than facilitates, the scale of discussion and action required to address the challenges that face us.

Addressing these challenges will be hard, but we can succeed if we work together. Elizabeth May and Stephane Dion took the first step, saying, "While the need for cooperation may be obvious to the average Canadian, within political parties, one is not supposed to allow even limited cooperation. We admit we are different from most adversarial, political leaders... We will always put the country and the planet first."

We, concerned British Columbians, also need to put our country and our planet first. Too often issues that matter - the future of nuclear power, oil tankers in British Columbia's inside passage, coastal drilling for oil and gas - get captured by a partisan political process that puts sound bites and partisan attacks over solutions.

We need to fix that.

Extraordinary times demand extraordinary actions.

This is why we are jointly writing to you to make an unusual request: We are asking you personally to go to the nomination meeting for the Green Party in Saanich-Gulf Islands which may take place this Saturday afternoon (July 14th) in Sidney, and vote for "None of the Above." We don't make this request lightly, and here's why we're making such an extraordinary request. Make no mistake, we do understand that this IS extraordinary: we are deep believers in the process of democracy, and do not take lightly such a request.

People in the Saanich-Gulf Islands federal riding are among the most environmentally conscious voters in the country. Unfortunately, for the past four elections, their political support has been split between three federal parties: The Liberals, the NDP and the Greens.

This has allowed the Conservative candidate to be elected four times by a minority of the voters. In 2006 the voting was: Conservatives (37 %); Liberal (26%); NDP (26%); Green (10%) The simple fact is that if the Green Party runs a candidate in the coming federal election it will make it much more likely that the Conservative candidate will win once again.

And this is not just any Conservative candidate. Gary Lunn, the four-time incumbent, is Stephen Harper's Minister of Natural Resources. And "Dirty Gary" sure does like developing resources. As the Tyee recently wrote, "Lunn . is trying to push nuclear power, rev up the oil sands, and make way for more pipelines and supertankers on B.C.'s coast."

Mr. Lunn is the leading BC voice for the Conservatives' plan to circumvent the 35-year old moratorium banning oil tankers in northern BC waters. He recently claimed the tanker moratorium to be a figment of the public's imagination, stating that it "has never existed" despite numerous documents which verify that the tanker ban was created by his own ministry before Harper took power.

Lunn supports breakneck expansion of the Alberta tar sands despite the fact that it is Canada's biggest and fastest growing greenhouse gas emitter. He favors nuclear power as the solution for the power addicted tar sands, which needs massive amounts of energy to steam the dirty tar out of the sand.

Lunn was quoted by CanWest early this year saying, "[w]e burn a lot of natural gas to extract that oil from the sands right now. So there's a great opportunity to pursue nuclear energy -- something that I'm very keen on."

"Dirty Gary," who the Times Colonist has described as "an enthusiastic champion of nuclear power", recently approved a plan to bury nuclear waste underground. With this plan, the TC columnist Susan Riley wrote, Lunn "has given the green light to a near-moribund industry that is now rebranding itself as green."

And that is not all:

* Gary Lunn killed the popular EnerGuide program that helped thousands of Canadians offset the cost of retrofitting their houses to become more energy efficient, bringing it back a year later as a much weaker programme.

* Lunn has been a mouthpiece for the asbestos industry, allowing Canadian corporations to continue to profit from global sales of killer asbestos whilst allowing a de facto ban at home. Lunn played a role in Canada's undermining the Rotterdam Convention, refusing to allow asbestos to be listed in the United Nations agreement that guarantees that countries shipping toxic substances have the right to know what they are. Minister Lunn's position was supported by only four other countries whose democratic and environmental records speak for themselves: Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and Peru. Surely, we can't allow Gary Lunn to be elected a fifth time by once again splitting the progressive vote among three parties. A recent Tyee article framed the issue well: "[h]ow does a guy like Lunn win a riding that contains areas synonymous with earth love and sustainability?

And if the environment is the challenge of a generation, how come environmentalists can't cooperate to take out a man they all say is one of its biggest foes?" The candidates already nominated to run against Lunn have strong environmental credentials, are strong advocates for electoral reform, and are not likely to bow down to traditional party politics:

* Briony Penn, the Liberal candidate, is a former long-time Green Party member. Briony, a PhD in geography, is prominent environmental activist, reporter and writer. Briony lectured for 15 years at the University of Victoria. She made headlines in 2001 by protesting private logging development on Salt Spring Island with a horse ride through downtown Vancouver au naturel. Briony is active with a number of NGOs and serves as a founding director of The Land Conservancy.

* Julian West, the NDP candidate, is a former Green Party candidate in Cowichan-Ladysmith. Mr. West is a PhD in applied mathematics from MIT and has taught at universities across the continent. West has been active in environmental politics and on electoral reform. He joined the Green Party of British Columbia in 1995. In 1997, he co-founded the Electoral Change Coalition of BC, and in 2000 was a charter member of Fair Vote Canada. Julian has served on the boards of Fair Vote Canada and Fair Voting BC for the past seven years.

These are extra-ordinary times. We can't let a pro-nuclear, pro-oil tanker, pro-oil-sands-growth Conservative like Gary Lunn win again. That is why we are calling on you to vote for "None of the Above" at the nomination meeting for the Green Party in Saanich-Gulf Islands. With two environmentalists running for the other parties, the Green Party is unlikely to replicate its previous vote totals, but these votes could cause the election of Gary Lunn, a key player in Stephen Harper's anti-environmental government.

Playing a role in defeating Gary Lunn, a sitting Minister of Natural Resources, on environmental issues related to climate change, would give the Green Party enormous credibility. In April, speaking at the nomination meeting in the uptown Toronto riding of St. Paul's, the National Post reported that Elizabeth May stated the Green Party might abandon its efforts to field candidates in every riding. May stated, "It's possible we won't have people in every riding. adding that there was a general feeling in the party that fielding candidates in as many riding as possible was important."

We have concerns that the candidate nomination process has likely been subverted because it appears that proper notice has not been given to all members in the Saanich-Gulf Islands EDA. Just last week the nomination meeting was scheduled for Saturday, July 14th, 1-3pm, at the home of Bryce and Laurie Kendrick in Sidney, 8727 Lochside Drive Tel; (250 655 5051). (RSVP required) This late notice does not comply with the Green Party constitution which requires 30 days written notice unless a snap federal election has been called. Also, people have been told that the the executive of the riding is limiting attendance to "current members of the SGI EDA, and invited guests only."

We call on Green Party members in the riding to exercise their democratic right and demand the riding executive comply with the Green Party rules. In addition, when a properly noticed nomination meeting is held we urge you to collectively choose to change the way politics is done in Canada. Vote for "None of the Above" at the nomination meeting and become part of a historic effort to turn this country away from the destructive path Harper's conservatives have set us all on.

The Green Party is already having an impact in the riding, having influenced the two other parties to poach Green Party members as their candidates. Helping to defeat Gary Lunn by avoiding vote splitting could actually strengthen the Green Party in the riding. So how will this work? The Green Party constitution doesn't specify what happens if "None of the Above" wins on the nomination ballot. However, the Green Party executive, which has to certify all candidates, is unlikely to override the democratic choice of local members and force a candidate onto its the ballot.

We all are committed environmentalists - some Green Party members, some Green Party voters, some Green Party supporters. Collectively we believe that the best action for the Green Party to take, both for the environment and for the Green Party itself, is to not run a candidate in the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding.

It should be noted that we are writing to you in our personal capacities, and any organizational affiliations are listed for information purposes only, and do not reflect the views of those organizations. As committed environmentalists we need to work together to ensure that the candidate who gets elected to represent Saanich-Gulf Islands is an advocate for the environment, not an apologist for the oil and nuclear industries.

Please vote for "None of the Above", and encourage your Green Party friends to do the same.

For the future,

Guy Dauncey
Writer, Green Party member
& Federal Shadow Cabinet critic on climate change

Marlyn Horsdal
Book editor, Saanich-Gulf Island
Green Party Member

Casey Brennan
Former Green party candidate for Esquimalt-Juan De Fuca
Environmental activist

Harold Wolf
Saanich-Gulf Island
Green Party Member

Will Horter
Writer, environmental and human rights activist

Dorothy Cutting
Climate Change activist,
Salt Spring resident