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Sections cover News and Events, General Interest, and On Being Green.
Links to back issues, subscribe/unsubscribe, and join the SGI Greens are at the end.
SGI Greens (Green Party of Canada) News and Events:
Elizabeth May will be thanking campaign volunteers at a volunteer appreciation event in Sidney on June 27. If you were one of the more than 250 local volunteers that helped get Elizabeth re-elected, and you have not seen an email inviting you to this event, please contact Rani.Earnhart@greenparty.ca to attend.
It will be a joyous and fun occasion!
July 6, 11 a.m. (Sunday)
Victoria Pride Parade
SGI Greens will participate with other Greens.
See details below about where and when to meet.
August 9, 2-4 p.m. (Saturday)
Summer Picnic
SGI Greens will meet for a fun time in the park.
August 30–September 1 (Saturday–Monday)
Saanich Fair
SGI Greens will meet the community.
September 6-7 (Saturday–Sunday)
Salt Spring Island Fall Fair
SGI Greens will meet the community.
October 25, 2-4 p.m. (Saturday)
Annual General Meeting
SGI Greens can elect new Executive members.
November
No events so far.
December
No events so far.
“Time to Say Goodbye” – This film about trophy hunting of polar bears was shown on May 18 at the Star Cinema in Sidney, followed by a panel discussion featuring Dr. Eddy Carmack, a renowned oceanographer and climate scientist from Sidney, B.C.
This was the second film co-hosted in cooperation with the BC Environmental Film Festival. Over 60 people attended, making it a financially successful event that encourages us to continue this cooperative venture. The next film screening is tentatively planned for October.
Almost all the people who attended found out about it through an email from the Green Party, or the SGI Greens Newsletter. We’re glad these get read! We wish, however, that posters around town, word of mouth, and social media would attract other people that are not yet members of the Green Party! Please help us spread the word!
Victoria Day Parade on May 19 – The SGI Greens did not participate in the parade this year, as Elizabeth was unable to attend. We intend to be back next year!
Grade 12 Student Scholarships – During June, members of the SGI Greens Executive are presenting $1000 to one winner at each high school in the SGI area. The students compete within their school by writing a short essay about how they act on one or two of the six Green principles. The scholarships raise awareness of the Green Party and are highly appreciated by the recipients (and their parents) for the assistance they provide to their ongoing education.
Cordova Bay Day – The Cordova Bay Association for Community Affairs decided to cancel it this June, due to a shortage of volunteers. We hope this event will be back next year.
Victoria Pride Parade, Sunday, July 6 – Once again, SGI Greens will be in this parade alongside other Greens. Please bring your friends, wear something green, and have a wonderful time.
The Parade will start at 11 a.m. and the runtime will be approximately 90 minutes.
We are in Group E, spot #86.
Check-in is 10:15–10:45 a.m.
We will marshal on Discovery Street, between Store Street and Government Street. Please go to our spot:
#86 Saanich-Gulf Islands Green Party.
We are between:
#85 Victoria Federal Liberal Association, and
#87 BC Green Party.
A volunteer in a yellow high-vis vest can help you.
PRIDE PARADE:
The Parade will end at Parking Lot Q on Menzies St. All participants will be connecting to Oswego from Kingston St and walking down to the Festival. Please respect all marshalls, volunteers and traffic control persons! Some reminders:
- We ask that all parade participants DO NOT throw candy/items at the crowds. Handing directly to folks is fine.
- Please think about our environmental impact on what is being distributed out to the community. We ask that you avoid plastics.
- Please keep music and sounds quiet while marshaling until parade starts @ 11am.
- If you see unsafe activity during the Parade, please speak to one of our cyclists who will be keeping the parade flowing and mitigating issues to keep everyone safe.
- Absolutely no speech that invites discrimination, hate or violence towards a group of people will be tolerated.
- No weapons of any kind.
- Please remember to bring your sunscreen, water, hats, and PRIDE!
- There are facilities open by City Hall in Centennial Square, please do not use the businesses in the area unless you are a customer.
General Interest:
Climate (and other) solutions
Katherine Hayhoe, a leading climate scientist and communicator, wrote this on June 21:
Today is #ShowYourStripes day. What stripes, you ask? Your warming stripes, of course!
Created by climate scientist Ed Hawkins from the University of Reading, the warming stripes show how temperature has changed. Each stripe represents a year. A cooler than average year is blue; an average year is white; a warmer than average year is pink; and you can guess what red means. After 2024, yet another record-breaking year, he had to add another new dark red to the global stripes.
Today’s “what you can do” is simple – show off your stripes! Find your local stripes here, download the graphics, and share them on social media or even on the clothes you wear.
If you’re a knitter like me, you can get a pattern for the warming stripes from The Tempestry Project and knit a scarf that represents them. I’ve seen many creative ways people are showing their stripes on social media including painted fingernails, artwork to hang on the walls of your home, sidewalk chalk art, friendship bracelets, makeup, and dress shirts with 800,000 years of Antarctic temperature and CO2 data inside the cuff.
What do all of these things have in common? They open the door to a conversation about climate change. So #showyourstripes and get the conversation going today!
On Being Green:
Deep canvassing
Before an election, most political parties are busy canvassing on the doorsteps, handing out attractive rack cards with “inspiring” messages meant to sway voters. In the 2025 election, we did that, too.
In the rush of trying to get to 10,000 or more doorsteps (and more people by phone), thoughtful conversations are scarce. There just isn’t time for them. Consequently, there’s a tendency to just “Get Out The Vote” and hope for the best. And voters may feel they’re just being “sold” a bunch of promises (of which they are rightly suspicious).
Now that the election is over, we have the luxury of time – for at least 18 months, and maybe as much as four years. We could actually engage with constituents. We could find out what really motivates them to vote one way or another. We could show that we care about them as people, not just as a possible vote in our favour. We could introduce them – if they don’t yet know – to the international set of six Green principles that guide our aspirations. We could outline our concerns about why other parties are missing opportunities to sustain and improve life for many people, their communities, and the rest of our world.
Most of all, we could simply LISTEN. Why? Because most voters feel they are not listened to, and when they are it tends to be a pleasant surprise that they remember the next time they vote. If you would like to know more about how “deep canvassing” works, or feel inspired to start doing some, please contact Shelagh Levey (shelagh.levey@greenparty.ca). It’s actually not very hard, but a little training is helpful to get it right.
Let’s face it – Greens have taken a beating in the polls!
In Canada’s recent federal election, the Green Party of Canada got only 1.22% of the vote, down from 2.33% in 2021 and 6.55% in 2019. In Germany, the Greens lost their role as part of the governing coalition, with only 11.6% of the vote in 2025, down from their historic high of 14.7% in 2021.
We could spend all day (and more) debating the various potential causes.
Or, we could think about positive messages that might inspire voters to take another look at the Greens. What might voters find compelling?
How about a 33% reduction in our collective energy bill? And no, not through sacrificing lifestyle, but by being smarter.
How about an 87% reduction in CO2 emissions in two important sectors (electricity and vehicle transport)? And no, not through shutting them down, but by being smarter.
Most Canadians would appreciate the extra cash in their pocket and feel good about not feeding the wildfires that are burning more and more of the country.
We don’t have the numbers for Canada, but a recent study shows these astonishing numbers for Japan.
Fig. 5. PV capacity factor by all the municipalities of Japan for 2019.
Along with reducing energy costs and CO2 emissions, Japan could reduce dependency on the geopolitical uncertainties of imported fossil fuels. (Sounds good for Japan; maybe not so good for the TMX pipeline!)
So, how could this be achieved? By combining solar panels on 70% of rooftops and switching to EVs. Well, there’s a bit more to it: The EVs would be used as batteries for homes and the electrical grid, with vehicle to home (bi-directional) charging and vehicle to grid charging.
You can imagine the responses from certain quarters:
But surely this would be very expensive and take far too long to install? Many people wouldn’t be able to afford an EV, much less solar panels on their roof, would they? Wouldn’t the government have to force this on people (sort of like the carbon tax)? And then the government would get voted out for being eco-dictators, right? Look at what happened to the German Greens when they shut down nuclear power plants! And besides, Canada is further north than Japan, so it wouldn’t work as well here!
The authors made reasonable assumptions about lower costs of solar panels and EV batteries in 2030, calculated returns over 25 years, and considered a feed-in-tariff (yes, a subsidy) to encourage uptake. They also considered differences in climate from south to north, and suggested some help may be needed for northern residents. They explored how it could work! And furthermore (for all you economists out there), the study suggests this energy transition would have an 11% internal rate of return and a 9-year payback period!
They did not even consider the health benefits (and huge healthcare savings!) of reducing fossil fuel use. Nor the benefits of slowing climate change, such as reduced wildfire disasters.
“Save money and live better!”
Would that get voters to consider Greens?
– Tom Niemann, SGI Greens Executive