I am providing you an opportunity to vote Green in our upcoming Federal election. The Green Party is the electoral wing of the green movement. Ecological politics is making important gains every year. There are over 100 Green Parties around the world, and Greens are elected to dozens of parliaments and legislatures, participating in governments in countries like Mexico, Germany, Italy, Norway, France, Austria, Australia and New Zealand. A vote for the Green Party sends a clear environmental message from the communities of the Skeena Riding. A vote for any other political party does not do this and if anything does the reverse. The other political parties adjust their platforms (if not their actions) according to the strength of the Green Party vote.

I once was a professional engineer (P.Eng.) designing huge buildings including hospitals but I have been a farmer and homesteader living in the Bulkley valley for the last 10 years after doing the same in the Robson Valley near McBride, B.C.

I support the Green Party of Canada’s platform, and promote the integration of deep ecological principles, local community involvement, raising awareness of environmental toxins and promoting thoughtful economic planning. I support advancing human rights and rights to a healthy environment as put forth by the United Nations. I believe in environmental protection and reducing the impact on nature by each person and corporation. I believe in a fair and just transition to socially equitable and environmentally sound politics, economics and employment. I believe in sharing and caring, doing the best for people and valuing land today and for tomorrow. I wish to engage in full consultation, and a process of negotiation, listening, and resolution.

I support the following values:

1. Clean air: local initiatives that back the Kyoto agreement in reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming; alternatives to beehive burners; energy conservation and less-polluting renewable energy sources (solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, fuel cells and biological waste); alternative transportation initiatives for goods and people (trains, mass transit, bicycle power, fuel cells) that are cleaner and consider lower fuel availability in the future.

2. Clean water: healthy forests maintain stable watersheds for our community water supplies; phase out the input of existing toxic chemicals (such as tri-butyl tin) to our waters; clean up toxic waste sites; improve sewage treatment facilities; promote forest and water conservation; discouragement of the use of poisons by all people.

3. Sustainable fisheries and forests: restore wild fish stocks and enforce the Fisheries Act; ecosystem based landuse planning initiatives; ecologically responsible alternatives to large clearcuts, such as selective cutting; community based forestry initiatives that preserve holistic forest values throughout the life of the forest.

4. Provincial Parks: Provincial Parks have achieved 12% of land base in B.C. but not in each ecosystem as agreed with the UN; improve integrity of existing provincial parks.

5. Health care: increase spending on and improve universal health care and provide more nurses and beds in hospitals; encourage preventative medicine; give nurses a greater mandate for what they can provide &. take responsibility away from the doctors & give it to the nurses thereby easing the doctors' burden. Encourage walk-in nursing clinics staffed by nurses and health care workers. Concern and Care for the aged and less fortunate. A healthy environment leads to healthy people. For every dollar spent in environmental protection, many dollars are saved in health care down the road. Encouraging the public towards healthy living styles and life choices; universally accessible health care & reduction of environment-induced diseases.

6. Judicial Reform: the Ecological Bill of Rights will ensure people's rights to healthy air, water and food & directly impact on their health; citizens can take polluters to court; UN Public Trust Laws—an alternative to vested economic interest by corporations; support of human rights including labour rights, women's rights, indigenous rights, rights to safe food, clean water, education.

7. Free Education: subsidized corporate-free school, university and college education; free tuition to end of first degrees if all examinations are passed.

8. Healthy food: labeling genetically modified foods; tax incentives and support to local organic agriculture; organic certification system; facilitate research on safety of organic versus genetically modified food. Requiring genetically-modified food to be proven to be safe before approval to be marketed.

9. Healthy animals: legislate an Endangered Species Act to protect threatened species along with their habitat as dictated by careful research, not by politics; oppose abuse of animals and testing; care and respect at all levels.

10. Healthy economy: community based economies; promote Local Exchange Trading Systems (LETS); job creation—community based economies will replace corporate control and create more jobs; reduce work week to 32 hours thereby also creating more employment.

11. Community control of resources: withdraw from the World Trade Organization and NAFTA and negotiate international fair trade with UN public trust laws; research and subsidize alternatives to subsidized primary resource extraction and subsidies to oil and gas energy.

12. End poverty: equitable distribution of resources; guaranteed income supplement to unemployed, underemployed, low-paid workers and parents staying at home; low-income housing; child tax benefits.

13. Full consultation of communities: maintain a presence in all communities, including First Nations' Communities; full First Nations Consultation; give voice to all concerned interest groups.

14. Forum for alternatives based in deep environmental principles that conserve the integrity of ecosystems; encourage existing environmental initiatives coming from our communities; more efficient use of resources, and therefore a smaller environmental footprint per person.

15. Phasing out harmful, destructive use of resources: fair and just transition of workers and communities; phase out subsidies to resource industries including forestry, mining, nuclear energy, oil and gas industries& polluting activities; support moratorium on gas and oil exploration on the British Columbia coast, as it could severely impact the environment.

16. Implement Precautionary Principle: think before you act; encourage full-cost accounting—from birth to grave of all products—in all resource and business activities; enforce waste reduction in existing activities and in new business ventures.

17. Enforcing the polluter pay principle. Increase and enforce fines and taxes on polluters. Introduce tax incentives for green energy producers - $0.05/kWh tax credit; rebates for green consumers 18. Reformed tax system: capital transfer tax initially of 0.025% shifts the tax burden off individual incomes to large financial organizations and reduces provincial debt; use revenue generated from taxation of fossil fuels to fund public transportation infrastructure and transfer funds to other social and environmental programs.

19. Proportional representation. Most democracies today use some form of proportional representation, in which the share of seats that parties receive after elections is equal to their share of the popular vote. For example, a party with 15% of the overall vote receives 15% of the overall seats. Every vote counts, so there's no need for "strategic voting." End to corporate sponsorship of political parties and campaigns and taxpayer payment of political party propaganda and spending.

20. Thoughtful planning: plan for the interests, employment and resources of future generations. A vote for the green party is a vote for an alternative that advocates the interests of your grandchildren.

Caring : We must all leam to care about everything, everyone, every action, every species, about the health of our planet and what we leave to the descendents of our descendents.

Woodmere Lodge, 16621 Deception Lake FSR, Telkwa, B.C., VOJ 2X2 Phone: (250) 847-9041 Fax:(250)847-9007 e-mail: skeenagreenparty@hotmail.com