Last evening (Saturday, January 16th) I was nominated again as the NDP Candidate for Lethbridge Federal Riding. The nomination meeting was well attended given it was a Saturday night. Also in competition was an arts event. The audience was pleased to hear what Judy Wasylycia-Leis had to say. My nomination speech was well received and, as a result of requests, I'm posting it here.
Notes for Nomination Meeting speech
Mark Sandilands
January 16, 2010
First, thanks to my nominator, Tom Moffatt. Your kind words make me want to work hard in the upcoming election, whenever it happens. I also thank all who worked in the 2006 campaign with Melanee Thomas and in the 2008 campaign with me, and since, to make us the clear alternative to the Conservatives in Lethbridge.
A few weeks ago I was having a conversation with a young woman, who, I think, is a supporter. She said that she’s disappointed with politicians (like me, I guess) who always seem to criticize each other and never say what they’d do if they were in power.
It seems, though, that from the point of view of those on the progressive side, there is so much wrong with the way Stephen Harper is governing Canada, that it’s easy to criticize. So I’d like to begin by discussing some of the most galling aspects of Conservative rule, and then talk about some of the ideas I’d like to see implemented in a new government.
Just a couple of examples: The issue that seized Parliament in the days before the prorogation was the reports of torture of the Afghan detainees, and that the government was aware of it. Harper and company even had the brass to call critics of his government’s approach disloyal to the troops. I say: by not putting in place a system for the safe handling of Afghan prisoners and showing such a cavalier attitude toward them, even the ones who may be innocent, Harper has sent a message to the Afghan people that he’s not really interested in bringing democracy to that unfortunate country. I believe that Harper is the one who’s been disloyal to the troops and the one who’s endangering them unnecessarily.
On the environment, Harper has spent the past four years blaming the lack of Canada’s action on climate change on the Liberals, but done nothing about it himself. When it came time to introduce stimulus spending to avoid a serious recession, he chose to spend Canadian money on nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage and, even including these questionable projects, he’s spending less on green energy in his stimulus package than just about any other developed nation. Obama is outspending him 14 to 1 per capita on green stimulus.
But enough of this. What would I do? Here are some of the choices we'd make:
1. Harper promised more accountability, but he's even less accountable than Chretien and Martin were. That's the first fix. I note that Democracy Watch gave the NDP the best overall grade in accountability in the last election.
2. Harper's climate record is abominable. As I said, Canada is spending less on green recovery than almost any other OECD country. This would be the second fix--moving Canada to a green economy.
3. Health care--rather than dismantling the health care system and turning a blind eye to privatization, we'd work to make it more efficient.
4. Dealing with crime: The NDP would do better than just locking people up working toward safe neighbourhoods, for example.
On broader issues, very recently I came across an author, Riane Eisler, who’s written several books, the most recent being The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics.
Eisler says, “The real wealth of nations -- and the world — consists of the contributions of people and nature.” Eisler suggests there are two approaches to categorizing societies, the partnership system and the domination system. Most societies we’re familiar with, be they capitalist or socialist, are domination oriented. Domination systems are top-down: “man over man, man over woman, race over race, religion over religion, nation over nation, man over nature.”
On the other hand, core elements of a partnership system “are a democratic and egalitarian structure in both the family and state or tribe; equal partnership between women and men; and a low degree of violence, because it's not needed to maintain rigid rankings of domination.” (For more, go to http://www.rianeeisler.com/ )
I believe the New Democratic Party espouses values that are best in synch with a partnership system, and I will work to make these links more evident.
I could say lots more, but I’m sure everyone wants to hear what Judy Wasylycia-Leis has to say. Before I go, though, a few thoughts: In the last election, only 53% of voters in the Lethbridge riding actually voted. We can work to get the other 42000 votes in our column.
As so eloquently said by Pierre Ducasse in the 2003 NDP Leadership race: “To achieve the results you have never achieved before, you must do what you have never done before!” And, of course there is the still very much relevant NDP slogan from 2007 and 2008: “Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done!” The work begins NOW!
Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment