I am often asked how the Green Party differs from the other parties.
For a quick spot check, I put this little list of “ONLY’s” together. We are the ONLY party calling for the following:
- A carbon tax, an indispensable step in getting the prices right in energy choices and allowing reduced income and payroll taxes.
- “Income-splitting” to reduce the tax burden on middle class couples.
- A continuing role in Afghanistan but within a transformed U.N. mission, legalizing and regulating the poppy trade for medicinal use, and bringing in more Islamic nations into the peace-keeping, security efforts in Southern Afghanistan through the U.N.
- An end to asbestos mining and export to developing countries. (truly outrageous that for all the talk about asbestos, only the Green Party is prepared to call for banning mining and export.)
- The phase out of nuclear power and uranium mining.
- The reform of the Divorce Act to make family law less of a battleground.
- To launch a national dialogue toward a Guaranteed Livable Income.
- The legalization of marijuana, to be controlled, regulated and taxed.
- The six month notice to get out of NAFTA with immediate re-negotiation of key provisions.
- Support for open source software and net neutrality.
- National shift to GE-free, organic agriculture and regional food self-sufficiency.
- A moratorium on new projects in the tar sands.
- Creation of a federal Department of Tourism
- Protect drinking water at its source (no other party will do this--the BC NDP jailed citizens for trying to protect drinking water).
- Amend the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to enshrine the right of Canadians to an ecological heritage that includes breathable air and drinkable water.
- Pass federal legislation to prohibit bulk water exports.
- Establish a National Parks completion budget; protect at least half of Canada's Boreal Forest in a network of large interconnected protected areas as called for in the 2003 Boreal Forest Conservation Framework
- Zero waste, including laws requiring lifetime stewardship of products
- A cancer prevention strategy that includes a toxic-free Canada -- taxing toxics and pollution; ending the production and use of the most dangerous toxic chemicals by 2012.
- Pan-Arctic waste management strategy.
- Shift funding from mega-freeway projects like Pacific Gateway that encourage urban sprawl and use the funds instead for public transit.
- Implement Genuine Progress Indicator (or Index of Well-being)
- Enact "living will" legislation to give person the choice to die with dignity.
- Explore establishing a new crown corporation to bulk purchase and dispense generic drugs - to bring down the costs of pharmacare.
- Pass pay equity legislation; immediately implement full pay equity for women employed in the federal sector and develop tax incentives for companies to meet gender and pay equity.
- Press professional societies to remove unnecessary barriers recognizing the professional credentials of immigrants.
- Canada must support and implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
- Revamp CIDA to focus on developing community-based green economies, poverty alleviation and programmes to combat and adapt to climate change.
- Declare Canada a nuclear free zone.
- Reform WTO, IMF and the World Bank, placing these under the authority of the UN General Assembly and shift the direction of international trade away from free trade to fair trade.
- Scrap the SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership).
Although there are many other commitments, I hope this is helpful short list of where we stand alone. We urge other parties to advance our policies.