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An election that really matters

May 26, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

The proposed highway 413 is set to destroy 2,000 acres of prime farm land within the precious Greenbelt and many acres of wetlands and other delicate environments within the 50 kilometres of its span at a cost between $6 and $10 Billion at a travel saving of about 60 seconds.

Caledon Dufferin’s MPP and Solicitor General of Ontario, Sylvia Jones’ attentiveness to community events is appreciated but she sticks to Ford and his policies of stripping Ontario’s Health system, cutting back on funding to education and his disastrous intentions against Ontario’s environment. This time, voters must not return Ms. Jones to Parliament.

Talk about jobs has always been the big scam of the fossil fuel industry, excusing the harm it does to the planet with the notion that only fossil can power the world. Where energy is produced, however it is produced, there will be employment. It is old news and well known that green energy and the ever-growing innovations to produce energy in clean and safe ways is more efficient, cheaper, cleaner and employs people.

There are much better ways to invest in transportation than tearing up wetlands and destroying valuable farm land; there are better alternatives to bulldozing orchards to build inefficient non -sustainable houses that are too big and selling for ludicrous sums.

To chase the solutions that the various parties wanting your vote offer, I had a listen to a recent debate sponsored by the Dufferin Board of Trade (DBOT) which featured Laura Campbell, Green Party of Ontario GPO, Bob Gordanier, Ontario Liberal Party, Sylvia Jones, PC Party of Ontario, Tess Prendergast, Ontario NDP/NPD and Andrea Banyai New Blue Party.

Listening to those five candidates present their parties take on a series of questions submitted by members of the community and selected by the DBOT was very enlightening for many reasons. The answers were partly spontaneous even though the participants brought notes with them. It was fairly obvious that the questions would deal with housing, the climate crisis including the issue of the proposed 413; employment crisis namely the shortage of people coming to work; basic income, gender based violence against women and 2SLGBTQ+, and the problem with supply chains.

They are a well-informed line of individuals and it was reassuring when one or the other would call out Ms. Jones on some of the claims she made on behalf of the Conservative party. Elsewhere, when one wanted to critique the statement of another, it was handled with calm and civility. 

They were all polite, well spoken and considerate of the seriousness of the occasion and the importance of voters.

In this writer’s opinion, the strongest stand and the clearest sight came from the Green candidate Laura Campbell and the NDP’s Tess Prendergast but every citizen voting might do well to watch this event and hear the clarity in which policies were outlined without bombastic rhetoric. 

Given the damage that the Conservative and, in fairness, previous parties have done to this province, this is a really important election and it matters more than ever that we all vote, all contribute to the immediate and long term future of this area and this province.

Currently Ontario, Canada and the world stand at a turning or terminal point. So far, our leaders have attended one gathering after another from global conferences to town hall meetings but there is a slippery slope here and we are at the tip of rushing down it. 

Progress is slow almost to nonexistent and oil companies are still drilling, licking their lips at the thought of what is under that rapidly melting ice in the Arctic. Governments are still pandering to them and big corporations.

Years ago, people whined about the rapid changes in our world but inevitably shrugged off our dislike for the differences by call it all “progress” saying, “you can’t stop progress.”

Really? Okay but “progress” has to mean something else entirely now.

Progress has to mean the end of harm and the beginning of healing in very many ways, to begin with ending how we power our world now and start to do it right, immediately.

Money is not the issue – money is a phantom – a means of establishing class to benefit the few who stand on the backs of the many. It is a means of manipulation and where there is wealth, there is limitless money and where there is scarcity, money is withheld. 

There is no limit to how much money can be spent on saving this planet. If a person can propose $44 billion to purchase a website and still have plenty of money left over to build space rockets with plans to travel to Mars, then there is lots of money to over haul and in a great hurry – how we supply energy for every kind of need.

Please make a great noise about this. Write letters to the newspapers both print and online. Please vote and to help you decide, please watch this video of the debate.

youtube.com/watch?v=Ot_YvsL2MUw

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