National: Canada and the Leap Manifesto

robin-williams-canada_0.jpgCanada's progressive party, The New Democrat Party, is working to adopt the Leap Manifesto, written in 2015. It is subtitled: A Call for a Canada Based On Caring For The Earth And For One Another. Martha Pierce-Smith and Joe discussed it here on c99 today.
The Leap Manifesto is a great policy platform: it is well worth reading the piece in full (it's only 5 pages long). More below.

Might as well listen to some Canadians and friends, eh: The Last Waltz album by The Band


https://leapmanifesto.org/en/the-leap-manifesto/#manifesto-content

It might be instructive for American progressives to have a look at what their Canadian counterparts are up to. Imagine an American progressive party adopting something similar. And don't give me all the usual "but they're beastly and won't do it" stuff. Don't you think it's time for an American progressive party? Well then, start one. A good place to begin would be the parking lot of the Democratic Convention. A vast army of youth will have to gather outside to ensure the corporatists inside behave themselves. Might as well organize a progressive party while they're there.

The writing of The Leap Manifesto was initiated in the spring of 2015 at a two-day meeting in Toronto attended by 60 representatives from Canada’s Indigenous rights, social and food justice, environmental, faith-based and labour movements. The This Changes Everything team convened the meeting but did not determine any outcomes. The idea was to create a space to not just say “no” to the worst attacks on human rights and environmental standards, but to dream together about the world we actually want and how we could get there. The Manifesto went through several drafts and was shaped by the contributions of dozens of people.

Here's the text:

We start from the premise that Canada is facing the deepest crisis in recent memory.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has acknowledged shocking details about the violence of Canada’s near past. Deepening poverty and inequality are a scar on the country’s present. And our record on climate change is a crime against humanity’s future.

These facts are all the more jarring because they depart so dramatically from our stated values: respect for Indigenous rights, internationalism, human rights, diversity, and environmental stewardship.
Canada is not this place today -- but it could be.

We could live in a country powered entirely by truly just renewable energy, woven together by accessible public transit, in which the jobs and opportunities of this transition are designed to systematically eliminate racial and gender inequality. Caring for one another and caring for the planet could be the economy’s fastest growing sectors. Many more people could have higher wage jobs with fewer work hours, leaving us ample time to enjoy our loved ones and flourish in our communities. We know that the time for this great transition is short. Climate scientists have told us that this is the decade to take decisive action to prevent catastrophic global warming. That means small steps will no longer get us where we need to go.
So we need to leap.

This leap must begin by respecting the inherent rights and title of the original caretakers of this land. Indigenous communities have been at the forefront of protecting rivers, coasts, forests and lands from out-of-control industrial activity. We can bolster this role, and reset our relationship, by fully implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Moved by the treaties that form the legal basis of this country and bind us to share the land “for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows and the rivers flow,” we want energy sources that will last for time immemorial and never run out or poison the land.
Technological breakthroughs have brought this dream within reach. The latest research shows it is feasible for Canada to get 100% of its electricity from renewable resources within two decades

1. by 2050 we could have a 100% clean economy
2. We demand that this shift begin now.

There is no longer an excuse for building new infrastructure projects that lock us into increased extraction decades into the future. The new iron law of energy development must be: if you wouldn’t want it in your backyard, then it doesn’t belong in anyone’s backyard.

That applies equally to oil and gas pipelines; fracking in New Brunswick, Quebec and British Columbia; increased tanker traffic off our coasts; and to Canadian-owned mining projects the world over.
The time for energy democracy has come: we believe not just in changes to our energy sources, but that wherever possible communities should collectively control these new energy systems.
As an alternative to the profit-gouging of private companies and the remote bureaucracy of some centralized state ones, we can create innovative ownership structures: democratically run, paying living wages and keeping much-needed revenue in communities. And Indigenous Peoples should be first to receive public support for their own clean energy projects. So should communities currently dealing with heavy
health impacts of polluting industrial activity. Power generated this way will not merely light our homes but redistribute wealth, deepen our democracy, strengthen our economy and start to heal the wounds that date back to this country’s founding. A leap to a non-polluting economy creates countless openings for similar multiple “wins.”

We want a universal program to build energy efficient homes, and retrofit existing housing, ensuring that the lowest income communities and neighbourhoods will benefit first and receive job training and opportunities that reduce poverty over the long term.

We want training and other resources for workers in carbon-intensive jobs, ensuring they are fully able to take part in the clean energy economy.

This transition should involve the democratic participation of workers themselves.

High-speed rail powered by just renewables and affordable public transit can unite every community
in this country – in place of more cars, pipelines and exploding trains that endanger and divide us.

And since we know this leap is beginning late, we need to invest in our decaying public infrastructure so that it can withstand increasingly frequent extreme weather events.

Moving to a far more localized and ecologically-based agricultural system would reduce reliance on fossil fuels, capture carbon in the soil, and absorb sudden shocks in the global supply – as well as produce healthier and more affordable food for everyone.

We call for an end to all trade deals that interfere with our attempts to rebuild local economies, regulate corporations and stop damaging extractive projects.

Rebalancing the scales of justice, we should ensure immigration status and full protection for all workers.

Recognizing Canada’s contributions to military conflicts and climate change -- primary drivers of the global refugee crisis -- we must welcome refugees and migrants seeking safety and a better life.

Shifting to an economy in balance with the earth’s limits also means expanding the sectors of our economy that are already low carbon: caregiving, teaching, social work, the arts and public-interest media. Following on Quebec’s lead, a national childcare program is long past due. All this work, much of it performed by women, is the glue that builds humane, resilient communities – and we will need our communities to be as
strong as possible in the face of the rocky future we have already locked in.

Since so much of the labour of caretaking – whether of people or the planet – is currently unpaid, we call for a vigorous debate about the introduction of a universal basic annual income. Pioneered in Manitoba in the 1970’s, this sturdy safety net could help ensure that no one is forced to take work that threatens their children’s tomorrow, just to feed those children today.

We declare that “austerity” is a fossilized form of thinking that has become a threat to life on earth.
We declare that “austerity” – which has systematically attacked low-carbon sectors like education and healthcare, while starving public transit and forcing reckless energy privatizations – is a fossilized form of thinking that has become a threat to life on earth.

The money we need to pay for this great transformation is available — we just need the right policies to release it.

Like an end to fossil fuel subsidies.
Financial transaction taxes.
Increased resource royalties.
Higher income taxes on corporations and wealthy people.
A progressive carbon tax.
Cuts to military spending.

All of these are based on a simple “polluter pays” principle and hold enormous promise.

One thing is clear: public scarcity in times of unprecedented private wealth is a manufactured crisis, designed to extinguish our dreams before they have a chance to be born.

Those dreams go well beyond this document. We call for town hall meetings across the country where residents can gather to democratically define what a genuine leap to the next economy means in their communities. Inevitably, this bottom-up revival will lead to a renewal of democracy at every level of government, working swiftly towards a system in which every vote counts and corporate money is removed from political campaigns.

This is a great deal to take on all at once, but such are the times in which we live.

The drop in oil prices has temporarily relieved the pressure to dig up fossil fuels as rapidly as high-risk technologies will allow. This pause in frenetic expansion should not be viewed as a crisis, but as a gift.
It has given us a rare moment to look at what we have become – and decide to change.

And so we call on all those seeking political office to seize this opportunity and embrace the urgent need for transformation. This is our sacred duty to those this country harmed in the past, to those suffering needlessly in the present, and to all who have a right to a bright and safe future.
Now is the time for boldness.
Now is the time to leap.

-----------------------------------------------

I look forward to your insights and ideas.
Peace be with us, if we work for progressive parties,
gerrit

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Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

and apparently traction... Smile

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Gerrit's picture

comments this morning, I realized it's value. it's basically the Green Party's platform, but with more force and breadth. And it puts First Nations first. Righteous, that. I hope folks on c99 will read it. The manifesto has much to offer American progressives. But there's not much enthusiasm on c99 for working for change. So we'll see. Thanks for bringing it in.

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riverlover's picture

and maybe something like that could strengthen NDP to the point of power sharing with the Liberals, or something. These damn political parties, always in the way.

I am not sure how to incorporate those ideas into something workable right now in the US, maybe the Green Party?

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Gerrit's picture

at the Leap Manifesto is the Green Party, I suppose.

I think that a new American progressive party could use the manifesto as a platform- and party builder. Trying to wrest the Democratic (supposedly) Party from the corporatists is a lost cause. Just start anew from an actually progressive basis. Something to think about here on c99. Enjoy your evening my friend,

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Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

I think a new Progressive People's Party is just the thing we need... something that could pull from all of the smaller parties as well as the Independents...etc...

And why not plant the seeds right here, eh? Wink

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Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

The Guardian has picked up the story....

The Leap Manifesto isn't radical. It's a way out of Canada's head-in-the-sand politics

A powerful movement in Canada, animated by a compelling and positive vision for the climate and economy, can force the hand of whichever government comes to power

LEAP.png
Environmental activist David Suzuki, Naomi Klein and several others speak during a news conference to launching “Leap Manifesto: A Call for a Canada Based on Caring for the Earth and One Another” in Toronto on September 15, 2015. Photograph: MARK BLINCH/REUTERS

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Gerrit's picture

Klein. She really gets to the heart of things. Sigh, could you imagine how transformed Canada would have been had the NDP taken on the Leap Manifesto as its campaign manifesto. Imagine the NDP winning with this as the platform.

Instead of PM Wonder Bread out there doing his Tony Blair-like photo ops, all the while scheming with the corporations to pass TPP and pipe all the tar sands oil all over Canada. We could have had PM Jack with a full head of steam from this Leap platform making real green change happen. Sigh, but Mulcair. Sigh.

Well, spillt milk and all that. If this becomes the NDP platform, I'm back on board and ready to go to work in our riding.

I hope the American c99ers get around to something productive some time. "Organize," as Joe Hill would have said. Dog knows, they like to talk about talking about talking. I've spent my adult life among conservatives in the military. One thing about conservatives is that they're ready for action at the drop of a hat - or less. Sadly, they tend not to think first and so charge off into all kinds of stupidities. But at least they want to charge the bull :=)

Hanging out with progressives is new to me. I'm used to being the lone progressive, vegetarian, counter-cultural fellow amidst all the conformist conservatives. Not giving a shit means they just get used to me eventually. Are progressives generally like this? I'm like, yes, capitalism is the problem, here's a primer on democratic socialism and more to follow soon on how to make it practical locally. Then crickets. Ah, maybe someone else will post an essay about another better way than capitalism. Then crickets. Meanwhile the comm-page fills with copiously-commented diatribes about how everything sucks. Do you understand this? Sorry, off-topic. But I need help understanding this culture. I mean, it doesn't work. It just talks.

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Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

I sometimes get frustrated too... too much talk and not enough action... and then on the other side, too much action and not enough talk, or thought.... Sometimes it is just easier to do things yourself. And on a small scale that can work, but not on big things like this...

We need leaders... fearless leaders. Because good or bad, they will be responsible for what happens...and that is scary to think about.

And we need people to understand that if we start down that road to change...it is not going to be easy. It is going to be inconvenient and uncomfortable. It is going to be messy, and it is going to be costly. It can even be dangerous. And they need to be okay with that, or they won't follow. They will cling to the status quo.

I see some real chaos coming soon... I just hope that there are people out there ready to step up and lead...

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Gerrit's picture

the impossible. C99 is a coffee-shop for progressives. And they need to talk among themselves about what's important to them. TY for helping me see this. I had hoped that progressives would want more action, given that they understand the gravity of the situation. I will adapt.

Yes, I so agree; we should spend much more energy on personal and local resilience. I'll keep posting stuff on that. Have a great day my friend,

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tapu dali's picture

However, there appears to be an upcoming potential split in the NDP between the supporters of the LEAP Manifesto and the more conservative (Alberta-led) contingent. This split was accentuated when Mulcair lost his bid to retain the party leadership.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Alberta-led conservatives eventually joined the Liberals.

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There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.

Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

if they want to be dinosaurs, then they can be my guest and be left in the dust of the prairies as they dry out. Sorry, I have little patience for stupid these days...and they are beyond stupid if they cannot see the writing on the wall.

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Gerrit's picture

left behind. If AB wants to become Louisiana, let them try. But not a single new pipeline and we squeeze the existing ones until they cease flowing. Solar energy companies are projecting 70k new solar jobs in AB. The NDP there is nuts to lose focus so quickly. If I was a journalist in AB, I'd follow the money, as Watergate made so famous.

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Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

Delivering Community Power - How Canada Post can be the hub of our Next Economy

Our postal service can deliver the sustainable infrastructure of the next economy: postal banking that finances green energy, services for seniors, farm-to-table food delivery, coast-to-coast charging stations for electric cars, and much more...

An equitable, climate-friendly economy is in sight. Our post office can deliver it.

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Gerrit's picture

for local cooperative green economic development. And keep local money local!

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Resilience: practical action to improve things we can control.
3D+: developing language for postmodern spirituality.

Martha Pearce-Smith's picture

Bernie is ON IT...


Bernie Sanders's Highly Sensible Plan to Turn Post Offices Into Banks

*snip*

Sanders:
If you are a low-income person, it is, depending upon where you live, very difficult to find normal banking. Banks don’t want you. And what people are forced to do is go to payday lenders who charge outrageously high interest rates. You go to check-cashing places, which rip you off. And, yes, I think that the postal service, in fact, can play an important role in providing modest types of banking service to folks who need it.

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