The Green Issue

Thoughts from someone in Elizabeth May’s riding on Vancouver Island, who worked for the Green Party of Canada, about strategic voting, voting for 3rd parties and for the Green Party in particular.

So, things happened that impacted my ability to write of late and to work. It was difficult for health reasons to exist in the world. It messed with my goals. (I’m writing a follow up piece about that, stay tuned.)

But in the day-to-day of living my joyous life experience, I’ve been following — and lovingly raging at — the storm on our borders, while praying and hoping for the present and future character of our beautiful home here in Canada.

And I realized that I should talk to you about the election, because it’s important.

Listen, I’m not a journalist — just a human being who cares deeply about the planet and all the non-human people and human animals living here. Because reminder, humans are animals, even if we pretend in how we talk about other species that we are not, and old school science is still preaching that only humans have feelings and intelligence.

And so, if you want actual polling data, breakdowns, or just really funny commentary from a political expert — the heart of my heart has some excellent Substacks you can read.

I recommend starting with this one, because I’m going to refer to it here.

• Red Light for Green Party - Mark Leiren-Young (substack)

• Believe the Polls…. But Not the Local Ones - Mark Leiren-Young (substack)

• Mark Leiren-Young on Canadians Voting for the Ocean and Against Trump - Skaana Podcast

And these are also good too.

• Carney’s Checkmate: How Canada's Quiet Bond Play Forced Trump to Drop Tariffs - Dean Blundell (substack)

• Canada Silently Killed Trump With A Bond Villain Playbook - Mockler HQ (substack)

• The Conservative Party I Voted For Doesn’t Exist Anymore - Wayne Horton (substack)

And thus the opinion begins.

Remember you chose to be here.

Vote. Vote vote vote.

Support the party that has the best chance of beating the Canadian pollution party (aka the Conservatives), and if you are considering voting Green, and perhaps especially if you live in the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding also consider the following.

Canada has been in a sort of eco-adolescence when it comes to our green policy.

This election there are important, nation-defining decisions being made, here and across the country. Fundamental questions about who we want to be as Canadians and where we go next.

Might I suggest respectfully, that it’s time for us to collectively grow the fuck up as a nation and practice some national adulting.

We don’t need a saviour wearing a green shirt and a logo to show up and do the work, so that we can feel morally better about our issues because we voted for them.

We need to stop abdicating our ownership of our planet’s future — to our Green Queen Mum.

By which I mean, take responsibility for the problem directly, and start paying for our own dinner, instead of saying

“Look, it’s fine. Mom will sort it out and take care of the bill”.

How many of us are green but not Green? As current events and recent history should show us clearly, we can’t afford to create a whole movement of people who “are not a feminist”, but do believe in women’s rights. It’s so delightfully easy to backslide and lose everything. And however little time we think we have, we don’t have as much time as even that.

There are multiple players at the same table, but somehow the Green Party is the one who everyone expects to write cheques that will not bounce when it comes to sustainable governance.

Meanwhile, we’re growing up as a country. Stepping out of the shadow of our Big Brother down south, learning to stand on our own two feet. How about we stop squeezing green into one tiny corner of the whole and stop letting one party own the title of “the one true eco-party”?

Because let’s be realistic for a moment, one or two, or even four Green seats in parliament isn’t remotely sustainable.

Especially when there are so many amazing candidates — across multiple parties — who care about these issues and are savagely, exceptionally qualified to work towards changing the landscape in Ottawa.

And how about we choose — intentionally — to fight together to see that green goes mainstream into the very lifeblood of our main parties. Not as an exception, but so normal it becomes boring.

Hey….. that’s not vegan sausage, that’s an Impossible Whopper

Let me be frank. I worked for the Green Party in 2019, and I walked away from a salaried position on the Victoria campaign with a broken heart after seeing how the vegan sausage was made (it really is more like an impossible whopper).

I haven’t wanted to publicly come at the Greens because Things happened during that campaign.

Things I have actively worked to forget about, because I spent a lot of time in therapy after my experiences. This is not a joke.

I have zero interest in reliving both how awful I felt about myself as a person and all the ways I questioned my value and relevance as a human being when I left that campaign, or how much I hated that my experiences fed every stereotype of the absolute worst kind of political chicanery.

I’ve worked hard to move beyond this. And based on current polling, saying this right now feels a bit like kicking puppies. This isn’t about sour grapes or revenge.

But a few people I trust encouraged me to share this, with the hope that because what I’m saying is coming from a real person who not only supported the party, but worked for them, it might have more meaning to those of you trying to determine if you want to “Vote change. Vote green.”

Don’t get me wrong - there were many truly wonderful people, genuine people. Truly competent, exceptional, amazing, and caring people. Including candidates.

<waves> 
       Hi David Merner 
                            :) 
              Thank you 
            for 
    being 
awesome.

And that’s part of why I’ve tried to quietly put my time there behind me.

I am not coming down on you if you work or volunteer or have supported the Green Party, okay? OKAY?

Even if I disagree deeply at this point, I respect the work you are doing, and that you really care about this. You do matter. I hope you know that. I am not trying to devalue your hard work and the time you have devoted to the cause.

Because it is for you, the truly decent, motivated, genuine people, the ones who really believe, the many many people giving their all, heart and soul, that I’m writing.

And it is for you that I have grieved both then and now.

To be clear I didn’t work for Ms. May’s riding directly - although I helped several campaigns on the island, including hers.

The toxic culture came across in both the micro and the macro. In the time I was there, as an example, head office went out of their way to prevent full-time team members from being paid as employees, forcing them to work as contractors, even though they worked at our office. This meant that none of those employees who worked for the campaign qualified for benefits, or EI, including a team member who had a child being born near the end of the campaign.

When I left my job as Communications Director, I stayed on to make sure that the website I was building was completed before I left. I didn’t leave them in the lurch. I was still volunteering on other campaigns in other ridings, and had extended my support for all social media accounts I had set up and overseen as part of my role.

Then I was booted from all the social media accounts for the campaign, on my birthday.

This was just a few days after I had found out that my best friend had passed away unexpectedly. I had spoken about this both on my social media accounts but also publicly. It wasn’t that I didn’t expect to remove myself from the accounts - it was just so petty to do it on my birthday, Canada Day, when I had done nothing but try to be accommodating in a situation that was deeply uncomfortable.

This was just one more small jab in a long line of “gifts” from the campaign. It was part of a clear pattern of emotional manipulation — all courtesy of the party that bent over backwards to cover up and defend one candidate’s truly terrible behavior, simply because they were the candidate Elizabeth supported.

I was yelled at publicly, in front of donors, volunteers and supporters and during events for doing my job (filming and photographing the candidate). More than once. It created a charming atmosphere for all.

And that’s without getting into what I had to deal with in private. I spent the last several months I was there afraid of being alone with one specific person. I even asked other team members to be present with me when I had to meet with them. What was happening wasn’t a secret.

And in general when it came to dealing with head office there was a level of political manoeuvring, backstabbing and general fuckery that left me feeling truly astonished, and just…. disappointed. Because maybe it’s like this in all parties…. but the Green Party claims that it is not politics as usual.

And actually, on this point I agree… for so many more reasons I’m not going to get into here.

For a long time after I left, I questioned my memories and second-guessed my feelings, telling myself it couldn’t have hurt as much, or affected me as deeply, as it did. Even now, part of me sometimes wonders.

So I decided to ask ChatGPT if I was making too big a deal out of this. Chat read this part of my story and asked me

Would you also like me to help you break it down even more (like how it could be framed if you were writing a formal complaint)?

Was I my best self throughout all of this?

I don’t know. I don’t know if I handled any of this well — I did the best I could, but I was bullied regularly while doing my job. I spent a lot of time afterwards asking what I could have done differently, wishing I’d stood up for myself better, and just trying to come to terms with how truly awful it was. It’s entirely possible this brought out the worst in me too.

I’m not trying to paint myself as a victim here…. just tell you about what it was like to be there.

I was never asked by head office about my experiences, even though they came to review what was going on in our riding. Every other member of the campaign team was asked about their experiences and recommendations for improving the situation. That was one of the reasons that I felt voiceless and the experience stayed with me for so long afterwards.

I should be clear that I felt completely respected when I was doing media training, web consulting, filming or photography for other campaigns.

I’ll add a footnote here for simplicity, not because it isn’t important — because I could and possibly will write another piece about this.

It is also true that there was a level of antisemitism that still makes me really really angry if I waste time thinking about it. That included a direct confrontation with someone who has held leadership positions in the Provincial Party and run for office. For the record this was 2019 and it wasn’t about Israel.

And yes…..Yes I am bringing it up now.

Because I am committed to seeing a greener parliament across the board, and to supporting green candidates in whatever party they belong to.

This isn’t just a referendum on Trump. It’s also a referendum on integrity, compassion and doing the right g-ddamn thing.

Because we can either choose values that we stand for or accept dogmas that drag us backward.

If we are doing the exact same things as those we stand against, then we have lost the plot. There is no moral or justifiable excuse for accepting bad behaviour from our own and rewarding it with a win.

It’s time for the Green Party to stop bogarting the moral authority to save our planet in the political landscape.

Bogarting: “The meaning intended […] wasn’t about smoking too much, however, but rather about hanging onto the joint for too long without smoking it.” From mentalfloss.com

They talk a very good game about diversity and inclusivity, and about caring about people. BUT those values are aspirational and are not reflected in the “corporate culture” of the organization. And corporate culture comes from the top down.

Because here’s the thing, there is nothing that has happened since then, that has convinced me things have changed. If anything, watching would-be leader after would-be leader fall off the bandwagon and get run over, has only confirmed my view of this.

What it comes down to is that a Green Party that cares only about saving the planet, but not about taking care of the people in its own party, who is willing to throw its own people under the wheels of the bus with the “important” people on it, or when it becomes inconvenient, or when they need someone to take the blame and be the bad guy - is not fucking going to care about you.

Families that enable toxic behaviour, the kinds of families that make one person the scapegoat and blacklist them to maintain the existing status quo for everyone else are called dysfunctional at the bare minimum. It’s not a healthy behaviour.

The Green Party is funnelling the love, care, true dedication and ambition to change the world for the better and tackle these problems head on into building a tiny but very tall tower.

It is the highest, greenest tower. And if you look up… way way up you can see Elizabeth May up there….

What is she doing?

Probably pushing her latest co-leader out a window.

And it’s a looooong drop.

But wait…. look look!! See the pretty beam of light shining up there is a very nice green colour.

---

If you are the smartest person in the tent…. your tent is too tiny.

Great leaders raise up people who they know will outshine them, because to thrive in a crisis and create the better world that is possible means having the best and brightest, shining together.

Is your priority being conspicuously green, so that others can see how green you are, or is it planting trees and building homes for those who need them the most?

If leadership behaves badly, and are forgiven because “they are doing so much more, they are so good and wonderful, truly”, and this happens over and over again, then what do you really stand for?

When you face setbacks, does your media response boil down to all the ways that other people are wrong or why they should have done something different so you can succeed?

If you’re always playing the victim, then what inner strength and resources do you have to protect and uplift others?

---

Elizabeth May has done so much for her riding and she is iconic. She is indeed the hardest working MP in Canada. Her heart is in the right place. But her ability to support others, and build a team of people who can take on her legacy and take it beyond her - it just isn’t there.

I’m not saying she’s a bad person, far from it. She is still only one person, even if she seems to be everywhere all the time. But there’s a reason we talk about the road to a flaming hellscape on earth being paved with good intentions.

As long as the Green Party is a factor in the elections here, it is too easy for everyone else to put less emphasis on this issue. After all we have a party that makes the planet its focus.

We have externalized the solution, or bought our own political offsets if you will. Outsourced and wrapped up in beautiful carbon neutral politicking.

At the moment, as long as the Green Party holds on to Elizabeth May’s seat, and her position of power continues to be maintained, the Green Party will not change. It can’t because Elizabeth, for all of her important work, for all of the things she has done, and the many ways I have respected her contributions to Canadian Politics, she is not able to let go.

And some time ago, that inability to let go of leadership, the broken promises she’s made about stepping aside, her clumsy and contradictory messaging when her co-leader says something she’s not okay with…. well….

There’s something I used to teach my students, and talk with clients about quite regularly. It’s very simple.

If you keep starting new relationships, be they business or romantic…. and the relationships keep breaking up for the same reasons over and over…. if you keep seeing the same results you have a choice.

You can choose to look outward, point blame, see how you are a victim, the ways the other people just aren’t right, or are bad people.… You can keep searching for who the “right person” is, believing you are looking for “the one”.

And you will keep having the same experience.

Or you can take a good hard look at yourself and acknowledge that maybe the problem is you.

That something about you is choosing to recreate the same pattern over and over again. And then do the hard work of changing, seeing your own flaws and learning how to grow.

We all make mistakes, g-d knows I’m made so many. I’m not coming at this as someone who thinks I’m better, or have even figured it out. But I try to learn from mine.

Can the Green Party?

---

We need green leaders not Green representatives.

Imagine a world where the Green Party does something truly sensational and chooses to reuse and recycle instead of creating new political emissions.

If all of those dedicated volunteers and people brought their absolutely warranted rage, and badass energy, to demanding these issues be forefront in every party, that candidates build real change together with their constituents.

If the Green Party truly wanted to transform the political landscape - they would stop running candidates across the board and start building a coalition of green members of all parties that could vote as a bloc and support each other within the existing framework.

Imagine if green-minded citizens joined political parties to vote for greener leaders, showed up at campaign offices in groups asking about these issues, created blocks of power in the parties that currently own all the seats in the house, instead of having one or two or even 4 members of parliament - what if half the cabinet, and members of even the Conservative party were contending with green members in their ranks pushing for solutions to climate change.

Before any Liberals and NDP members reading this have their feelings hurt, I’m not saying this isn’t happening now in your parties. I’m saying it could be happening on a much larger scale.

Looking in the mirror

Green issues are people issues. They are about how we live day in and day out. Green issues are about many things, and that includes quality and cost of life, and about how we face a world head on that is being bent to the will of a small select group of men who want to force the population back into a new form of slavery, and are currently succeeding in a number of ways. The climate crisis disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable people first. And protecting and caring for those people is part of being at the forefront of the crisis.

The issues we face require that the people solving them love people. We are not going to survive unless we care for each other. Not just as a means to an end. But as part of the reason we fight. As a foundational part of a better world, and not just a block to it, or a thing to be overcome.

Democracy is about raising people up to speak with their own voices, listening to them, and feeding their spirits. Offering them ways to grow and become more, not just expecting them to stare at your glorious leader’s aura and appreciate it.

It’s about making hard choices to surrender power or position in those moments when your ego is getting in the way of the good of all.

The Green Party has needed to change for a while…. it had a powerful opportunity in 2019 to break through and transform …. and it failed. There are many reasons for that, most of them self-inflicted.

But Canadian Consciousness about climate change and plastic pollution, and saving endangered species is not on its last legs like the party. The world has thrown challenges at us, it’s true. There have been…. unexpected curve balls. But the need for more green representatives hasn’t changed.

Perhaps, if Elizabeth could finally let go, stop holding back the green wave, and let momentum grow and surpass her…. if that green wave that broke in 2019 on the rocks of the Green Party’s inner demons could merge with the large ocean…. could be allowed to truly build a movement, it could rise up and sweep away so much of the detritus that’s been left lying around by conspiracy theorists and science denial, but also, people who just really feel like they don’t see a spark of hope, or don’t feel empowered to lead, to take up arms, to give.

Being green should never be just a political slogan - being green should be a way of living in the world - so why not allow this experiment to end and release its results?

It is hard to say goodbye to someone we love. It’s even harder when we don’t know what will happen in our world when we do that.

Something new could be born from the ashes of what is currently a very expensive and never-ending wake, for the tragic miscarriage of proportional representation in 2015. It was never even born, but is mourned still. Amen.

Closing a chapter on the lingering prologue to the 8 book fantasy epic, is the only way we can find a healthy, beautiful and empowering new adventure that allows us to truly change the world, to tap into our own glorious ability to make our own choices without needing to look back at someone else to tell us what to do. And also, as is always the way with fantasy epics, to stop Armageddon and save the world.

And all without having to wait for someone else to step in front of us to walk the path while we carry their banner.

It’s time to create a new standard for what it means to be Green. And this means taking water to where people are thirsty, not hoarding all the rainwater in a barrel.

Can we say goodbye to a relationship that truly is not working?

It’s time my beloveds. It really truly is.

Let it go.

---

What do you think? I don’t mean to sound harsh. I truly don’t. I have so much love for the people who give their whole heart and soul and body to working on this crisis.

But at a certain point, if you stand still long enough you become the obstacle instead of a rolling stone.

We can be the change…. but we might need to let go of codependency to really shine in our quest for green governance.

Love, shine bright and know when it is time to let go
Liberate yourself from what you know is not helping you,
Remember, Love is not Weak Sauce.

Rayne