Ask-The-Contestants!

Hi Mary Anne,

Thank you for your question.

As Naomi Klein once said “you shouldn’t have to choose between caring about the end of the month and caring about the end of the world”. In the context of your question, I would say that in order to get people interested in engaging in climate and social action in between elections we need to show them that they can have an impact on these areas in their day-to-day lives.

People are often interested in getting things done in their local communities, but often lack the knowledge of how to get started taking their ideas and setting them into action. When I worked for the City of Montreal, I would get daily calls from frustrated residents asking for help or information about how to get an initiative they cared about, done.

Often the folks would get discouraged at the run-around they got from other city bureaucrats, who were often too busy to help them. I didn’t always immediately have the answers they needed, but since I was “inside the machine” I knew that I could easily access that information and pass it along. The result was that more and more citizen-led initiatives started to get done in our community. Not because I personally did these people a favour, but rather because once the information gets out about which levers of government people need to pull to get a given result, word spreads. People feel empowered to continue pulling levers and putting their ideas into action.

This is why Anna and I believe so strongly in our plan to develop our capacity-building program called the Green Leaders Network. Though the primary goal of this initiative will be to help prepare our Electoral District Associations to run ambitious campaigns across the country, it will also provide our members with transferable skills they can apply in their communities. This will allow the Green Party to position itself as a resource for knowledge sharing in our local communities, by increasing our members’ ability to lead through action and help their neighbours move forward initiatives that are dear to their hearts.

When Greens can show we can build hope through action we will be able to rebuild our credibility within the eyes of the Canadian electorate as well as their trust in us. If we are able to help move the needle on local issues people care about, they will turn to our members and ask: “how did you know how to do that?”, and our members will be able to say: “I learn these skills in the Green Party of Canada if you want to learn too, join us”.

Now, this is not just wishful thinking. We are suggesting this path because we know it works. Anna and I have used these same principles in our real lives.

When Greens are seen to be a trusted source of knowledge and a conduit for positive change, we will be better able to engage with people on bigger issues like climate action and social policies. When we show people they can have a real and direct impact on the policies that affect their lives, then we will increase their appetite for political engagement.

When communities across the country start demanding more engagement, more accountability, and more faithful representation from their elected officials, we will be well on our way to reforming how we do politics in this country.