By Sasha Moedt (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: July 4, 2012
The largest environmental bill that I’ve ever seen came chugging on past the other day. It gave me the finger.
It said, “Fuck you, nature! Fuck you, future generations of Canada!” And then it kept on going, out of sight. It was one of those moments where I should have said something. I should have protested it, lain down in front of it, torched it – something.
I saw that it weakened every environmental law it addressed. It took away and limited public and expert input on environmentally-sensitive projects. It withdrew us from the Kyoto Protocol, gave power to the government to override the National Energy Board’s decisions regarding potentially harmful environmental projects, it stripped the Fisheries Act down, rendering it useless.
It was blatant, out in the open, and offensive.
All I did was comment on some stuff online, and post something on Facebook. And now I’m stuck just running through the things I could have or should have done in my head. It’s gone, passed, law.
We’re so screwed.
Why did we give Harper a majority? The Conservatives have 54 per cent of the seats in parliament. They voted down all of the amendments proposed to this bill. Is this our fault?
According to an article written by Bruce Cox, executive director of Greenpeace Canada, we not only have an environmental crisis at our hands, but a democratic crisis as well.
61 per cent of Canadians did not vote for the Harper Conservatives last year. Meanwhile, today, 74 per cent of Canadians want the government to take action on climate change. This bill, ironically entitled “Jobs, Growth, and Long Term Prosperity Act” isn’t taking action.
Canada’s first-past-the-post system does not do democracy justice. I feel like the majority of Canadians understand that business and economy can no longer take such priority over the environment. This bill is essentially the Conservatives spitting on our values. Canadians should be given more power to slap them in the face in the elections.
Cox writes that if Canada were using proportional representation, things would be very different. Canada would be represented perhaps the way it should. The Conservatives would have had 122 seats out of the 308 possible seats, the NDP would have 95, the Liberals 59. And bill C-38 wouldn’t be here.
Instead, the Harper’s government has 164 of the seats, while the NDP’s got 101 and the Liberals have 35.
Almost 40 per cent of Canadians did not turn out to elections in 2011, when Harper received his undeserved majority. Maybe it’s because even when more than half a country does not vote for a party, they still get a majority in parliament. Perhaps a system that better reflects what voters want would create more voter turnout. Because this, this horrible, insulting bill, certainly isn’t what Canadian’s want.
Next time I see anything like that big, ugly bill, I’m going to flip my fucking lid. 2015 can’t come quick enough for me, and I can only hope that even with our crummy system, something will change.
