Many people ask Green Party candidate David Orton
"Should we vote for Alexis MacDonald,
a good NDP candidate who polled almost 10,500 votes
in the last election, or should we vote
for you and the Green Party?" Orton
acknowledges that people who are interested in social justice
issues and
also in environmental issues in Central Nova, find themselves facing a
difficult choice in this
election. The
Green Party also has a strong social justice thrust in its election
Platform.
Orton said
"Members of the progressive community in Central Nova must look beyond
the two
individuals at issue and look more at the
environmental policies of the NDP, past and present,
and those of
the Green Party, in making a judgment call about who to vote for."
Orton agreed that
"Sometimes
the GP policies are not deep enough, for example supporting
carbon
emissions trading, and that perhaps a particular environmental policy
of the NDP may be
more
progressive than that of the GP. However, it is only within the Green
Party that a certain
kind of
agonizing debate is taking place, about the fundamental shift in
consciousness needed in
how we humans
have to relate to the Earth." Also, "The Green Party says it supports
deep
ecology, which
provides the philosophical basis to oppose 'resourcism', the dominant
human-
centered
worldview of industrial capitalist society, that the Natural world
exists primarily as
raw material
for the human purpose."
Orton continued,
"The
existing industrial capitalist societies, in Canada and worldwide, are
destroying the
very conditions of life, not only for humans, but for other species and
the Earth itself.
The Green
Party, theoretically - although the struggle is ongoing - sees itself
as a voice for those
species who
have no representation, hence our welcomed stand finally, after long
internal struggle,
on opposing
the annual seal slaughter. The annual so-called hunt of harp and hooded
seals, is a
barbaric,
totally unnecessary wildlife slaughter, which has been supported
consistently by the NDP,
Tories and
Liberals in the House of Commons."
"The NDP," said Orton
"due to its overall orientation, is not an
ecological party, because of their
belief that
the major ecological problems can be resolved within industrial
capitalist society. Yet
it is this
very society which has caused the Earth-threatening ecological crisis."
Orton explained,
"We need to
think much more deeply. Ecocentric justice is more inclusive than human
or social justice.
'Community'
has to include not just humans, but other animals, plants and the Earth
itself."
Orton said that people who in the past have
supported the NDP should understand that:
"1. The NDP is totally human-centered in its overall
orientation and will always put human interests
first,
particularly unionized
workers' interests, which still play a major role in the party's social
base."
"2. The NDP is committed to economic growth and
consumerism within a capitalist economic
framework. It
does not understand or accept that ecology imposes 'limits' upon all of
us. The NDP
has no
alternative economic model to that of the global market economy."
"3. Everywhere the NDP has been in political power
provincially, it has worked within the industrial
capitalist
exploitive paradigm, be it in
forestry, agriculture and the fisheries. Thus, in industrial
forestry, the
NDP has supported clearcutting, spraying, handing over forested crown
lands to
industry,
unconditional support to the pulpmills, etc." Orton
pointed out that while NDP interventions
have a bias
towards workers' interests, both worker and capitalist interests
disregard the interests of the
forests and
their non-human inhabitants and degrade the forest base over the long
term. And, he said,
"It's a
similar story for the industrial fishery and industrial agriculture."
"Other examples of NDP's
ecological ineptitude," said Orton,
"are their support for the uranium
industry in
Saskatchewan; and for the
auto industry, where the NDP, by upholding the job interest of
the auto
workers, seriously undermine their commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and to
reductions in
global
warming."
Orton pointed out
"The ecology movement draws from all the 'isms' in society. People come
to the
Green Party
from social democratic, liberal, conservative, and other political
backgrounds." In urging
NDP supporters
to vote for the Green Party in Central Nova, David Orton said that
strategic voting to
try and defeat
the neo-conservative candidate Peter MacKay, will not bring about the
fundamental shift
in ecological
consciousness that is needed. Orton also pointed out that
"Real conservatives are not
slaves to the
endless economic growth and consumerism market ideology. Real
conservatives
conserve, not
destroy, Canada's environmental and social heritage."
He concluded by saying,
"I believe that only the Green Party has
the potential, as a political party,
to contribute
to the needed shift in consciousness for humans in relating to the
Natural world.
Unless we vote
for what we believe in, we will never get it."
-30-
Authorized by the Official Agent for David
Orton
Contacts:
Mark A. Brennan
Campaign
Manager for The Green Party Candidate for Central Nova, David
Orton
GREEN PARTY OF
CANADA
www.greenparty.ca
Phone Central
Nova Campaign Manager (902) 396 4397
Green Party
Candidate, David Orton (925) 925 2514
Email David
Orton: dorton@greenparty.ca
"Make Peace With Nature, Vote Green"
Back to
Election
Campaign Press Releases
http://home.ca.inter.net/~greenweb/Green_Party_or_NDP.html
Last updated: January 29, 2006