Good Sunday Morning!

In a welcome antidote to rising right-wing populism, as predicted the British Conservative party went down in humiliating defeat. Labour leader Keir Starmer is the new UK PM after fourteen years of Conservative government, from David Cameron, Theresa May, to Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and the forgettable Liz Truss, who lost her own seat. The far right made gains under the Reform party with Nigel Farage winning a seat for himself within a caucus of 5. But less reported was the smashing success of the Green Party of England and Wales, winning 7% of the popular vote and gaining four seats. Up until the July 4 vote, my dear friend Caroline Lucas had been the sole Green MP. In 2010 she became the first Green in any First Past the Post voting system country to win a seat becoming MP for Brighton Pavilion. But until this week not a single additional Green MP had won in England and Wales.  It is worth noting that the perverse effects of the winner-take-all system of FPTP mean that the “landslide” win of Labour was achieved with only 33.9% of the popular vote with only 60% of eligible voters deciding it was worth their time to vote at all.

With Caroline choosing not to run again, some were predicting Greens would not hold a single seat. Instead, Greens had a huge win with four MPs. Here’s a quick summary.

Both Green co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsey won their seats. Carla in Bristol where Greens have long been strong but historically not able to topple Labour.  Molly Scott Cato had been a Bristol Green MEP (prior to Brexit and UK exit from EU.) running under FPTP to win Bristol. Molly had always done super well but Labour poured disproportionate resources to stop Greens. Another dynamic of toxic politics reinforced by FPTP is the nastiness of the Labour-NDP type parties toward Greens as occurred for years in the UK elections and that we experience in Canada. This disappeared in New Zealand only after they moved to consensus based voting and proportional representation. Under fair voting, NZ Greens and Labour cooperated to gain a government under Jacinda Ardern. Back to the recent British election, brilliant Green Co-leader Carla Denyer at long last beat out Labour in Bristol to gain a seat. Her co-leader Adrian Ramsey won in an area in which Greens had never been strong. Adrian’s win is in the previously never-Green territory of Waveney Valley which is more rural and traditionally Tory.

The other two seats were for Sian Berry, former co-leader/former London council member, who ran in Brighton Pavilion–so that is a Green hold. The last of the four seats, like Adrian Ramsey’s win, took a more rural seat from the Conservatives. In North Herefordshire, Ellie Chowns defeated the Conservatives. Conservatives had held the seat in the last election with a 25,000 majority. So, in summary, the four Green seats were one seat hold for Greens, two seats from Conservatives, and one from Labour.

Watching electoral politics south of the border, which probably should come with a health warning, I see a worrying rise of associating environmental protection with aspects of a culture war. Trump has tried to describe various environmental measures as attacks on his lifestyle or the American way of life–or even of his ability to wash his hair! Most of what he says is nonsense, as detailed in this story from The Guardian.

“Trump’s niche fixation is not new. While in office he complained about having to flush a toilet 10 times and that newer, energy-efficient lightbulbs made him look “orange”. His administration subsequently rolled back efficiency standards for toilets, showers and lightbulbs, rules that Biden subsequently restored.

But Republicans in Congress are now following Trump’s lead, introducing a flurry of recent bills in the House of Representatives targeting energy efficiency standards for home appliances. The bills–with names such as the “Liberty in Laundry Act”, “Refrigerator Freedom Act” and the “Clothes Dryers Reliability Act”–follow a conservative furore over a confected, baseless claim the Biden administration was banning gas stoves, which prompted further GOP legislation…”

“The wide-ranging blitz on anything seemingly green has been taken up by Republican-led state governments, too, most notably in Ron DeSantis’ Florida, which has erased references to climate change in state law, curbed offshore wind projects and banned lab-grown meat, which has been touted as a more environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional meat.”

This is a different tack from the usual right-wing efforts at disinformation, such as in backing the fossil fuel lobby attempts to discredit climate science. This “culture wars” propaganda feels very different and has spread to Canada. In parliamentary debate I have heard Conservatives attack paper straws as “woke” as they yearn for more single use plastics.

Some Conservative rhetoric in Canada has attached notions of “culture wars” to environmental measures in ways that just seem idiotic. But I never discount anything that seems to attract voters without wondering how do we counter it? In other words, the Conservative vote against the Canada-Ukraine trade deal by calling it “woke” may seem to be transparent nonsense. But if people believe it, we need to develop the right language to expose the nonsense.

There have been a number of times that Poilievre’s Conservatives have attacked non-controversial matters as “woke”, so what does “woke” even mean? And why would Conservatives who vote for every trade deal vote against one to help Ukraine?

According to Miriam Webster “Woke” is: “chiefly US slang meaning aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).” It is also an example of egregious cultural appropriation from African-Americans who began to use the word over a decade ago as a term of honour for those who were paying attention to racial inequity and remaining vigilant.

So well beyond US slang, “woke” appears to be a broad brushed maligning of anything “progressive” including LGBTQ rights, measures to combat racism and apparently including measures to protect the oceans from single use plastics or to apply carbon pricing. In the Canadian context, the more Conservatives attempt to weaponize a deeply personal attack on Trudeau’s style, maybe “woke” will come to mean anything Trudeau does.  This is easily magnified given Trudeau’s tendency toward “virtue signalling”– announcements and press releases with little or no follow-through.

Back to the Canada-Ukraine trade deal.  I think the Conservative opposition to supporting President Zelensky is worth analyzing. The first Canada-Ukraine trade deal was negotiated by Stephen Harper. I voted against that one as it included measures to allow foreign corporations to sue under measures generically called “investor-state investment protections.” The first such measure was found in the now removed Chapter 11 of NAFTA.  Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements or “FIPPAs” now number in the hundreds, if not thousands, around the world. One of the worst and most lop-sided is the Harper crafted Canada China FIPPA, passed by Harper’s cabinet without benefit of vote in Parliament as a whole. What Chapter 11 started now allows foreign corporations to sue governments for measures that cut into that corporation’s expectation of profits in nearly every country around the world. FIPPAs are profoundly anti-democratic and I have never, and will never, vote for any trade deal containing one. But the new version of the Canada-Ukraine trade deal just carried over the already approved Harper version so I voted for it.

Conservatives voted against the updated version–twice, falsely claiming it required Ukraine to establish a carbon tax. In fact, Ukraine has had a carbon tax for years, the lowest in the EU since 2011.  Some non-consequential language in the new treaty calls for both countries to “promote carbon pricing and measures to mitigate carbon leakage risks.”  Zelensky personally has shown an exceptional commitment to climate action, even in the face of illegal Russian aggression. Speaking in March 2022 to the Danish Parliament, Zelensky said, “Long before this war, it was clear that humanity should reduce the use of fossil fuels. The era of coal and oil has caused huge damage to the environment, to our planet as a whole. Green technologies and green energy have become a logical and just answer to this challenge… European policy is already aimed at reducing the consumption of environmentally hazardous resources. But Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and against everything that life in Europe is built on is an argument to accelerate green transformation on the continent. Europe must give up Russian oil, give up as soon as possible!”

So, will Conservatives denounce Zelensky as “woke”? Perhaps. The US Republicans are not as supportive of Ukraine as US Democrats. Putin and Trump are buddies.

Meanwhile, plastic straws are embraced by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Conservative MPs. Are paper straws “woke”? And can we create a logic guardrail against lumping in almost any environmental measure in with a whole boatload of prejudices that can be ignited with the word “woke”. In other words, can we plan for the next federal election by ensuring all Canadians can see through the culture wars propaganda to defend evidence-based measures to protect the environment, our health and our planet?

That is our goal as Greens. We just saw our colleagues in England and Wales successfully communicate a green vision. BC Greens, like NB and Saskatchewan Greens are readying for a fall election to move votes to a vote for sanity and a positive future.  We are all in the same boat, fighting for democracy against fascism and for a healthy biosphere.  We are not asleep. We are good and awake, alert and pretty darn woke in the true sense of the word.

Looking forward to seeing so many local Greens today at the Victoria Pride Parade – walking with my Green partner in leadership Jonathan Pedneault, and our local hero, BC Green leader Sonia Furstenau!

Have a great week!

Much love and watch for more Green news on Tuesday as JP and I hold a press conference in Ottawa.

Elizabeth