The Heat is on with Elections Canada

This Fall I will vote in the federal election according to my ecological conscience. As a Christian, a Canadian, and as a global citizen who trusts that God brought the planet and all its creatures into being. I will make my decision based on the best strategy to address what I have come to view as a climate crisis. I can readily see that the Conservative party has no such strategy with measurable outcomes. The current Liberal government talks a green streak about the environment but is so tied to old-style politics that it bought an aging pipeline to appease Alberta (that hasn't worked) and is promising another. You figure it out from there as to where I'll go with my vote. 

I was shaking my head yesterday at the news that Elections Canada declared that groups which raise climate change as an issue during the campaign could be considered partisan. Here is how this is described in the Globe and Mail:

An Elections Canada official warned groups in a training session earlier this summer that because Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, has expressed doubts about the legitimacy of climate change, any group that promotes it as real or an emergency could be considered partisan, said Tim Gray, executive director of the advocacy group Environmental Defence. 



Maxime Bernier demonstrating he doesn't have a clue about Climate Change

The Canada Elections Act dictates that advertising by third parties, like environment groups, can be considered partisan if it promotes or disputes an issue raised by any party or candidate during the campaign period, even without mentioning that party or candidate by name. If the ad campaign on that issue costs at least $500, the third party has to register as such with Elections Canada.

If a party disputes an issue? Should a political party be formed that argues that the Earth is flat, does that mean those of us who are "round Earth conspirators" (that's what the Flat Earth Society calls us) does that mean no one could contest their erroneous premise? 

There is now a data base of 2,500 climate scientists, world-wide, who support anthropogenic climate change through their research. Are organizations which heed their warnings to be silenced by some earnest bureaucrat from Elections Canada? 

Diane Saxe, former environmental commissioner of Ontario, said in an interview with CBC Radio's Metro Morning that Elections Canada should clarify its position immediately. "The warning is already creating confusion and silencing environmental groups. It's absolutely outrageous. It's wrong in law, it's harmful to this election and it's dangerous to public trust." 

I pray that this gets sorted out in a hurry.