I'm Voting for…Harris's Greens

[Editor's note: Send your own view, 400 to 800 words, on who you are voting for and why to [email protected]]

I'm voting Green, because if we don't save the Earth, nothing else is going to matter anyhow.

And because I'm so sick of the same old rhetoric from all parties as they toss around the billions, tax cuts this and tax cuts that, as though each was king and could make these decisions on their own.

A pox on all their houses, lousy liars all.

Watching Paul Martin sitting in circle of little kids in a daycare centre was the most ludicrous thing I've ever seen. It could have been labeled: How to confuse a room full of four year olds in one easy lesson. The only things it made me think were: that Paul had finally found a group he could look and be comfortable with, as I've always thought he looked like a five-year-old little boy, flapping his hands in the air, with a semi-frightened panicked smile on his face. And that the need for childcare and the plight of poor children are being used in yet another election.

Kids as photo-ops

The only time the feds remember they're there is when they get desperate and need to use them for publicity. As far back as the Trudeau era they were doing that, and there are more children living in poverty in Canada than there ever were. They'll give them and their families anything except enough money to live on, or the right to a head-start education with free lunches for their hungry little bodies. I think the problem is they can't figure out a way to help the kids without helping the moms, too, and they don't want to do that!

They don't care about these kids. It's just a photo-op. Same for Layton. Opportunism at work at its best. Politics is a slimy business. When it's all said and done, it's the bureaucrats in Ottawa who will keep on doing what they've always done with the money: find ways to clear the way for programs that are in their or their friends' best interests; or put up enough stall tactics to stop an ocean, gumming up the systems behind them, both in and out of government.

So Green it is. Even if it's just to register that there are more of us each election who are turning away from the old to the new politic, and that it's high time for more representative inclusion into the decision-making centres of power. At least the Greens have a focus that makes sense to me. Get the poisons out of our food, air, water, and once again put the people instead of the almighty dollar at the top of the list of priorities. I liked what Jim Harris the national leader said about taxing corporations based on their adherence to rules regarding pollution and care for the environment.

Earth the first priority

One thing's for sure: they couldn't do any worse than the Liberals or the Conservatives (old brand or new). It's time to give some other groups with new ideas who don't worship at the feet of the almighty dollar a chance.

Although even Layton's ideas sound much healthier than those others' to me, I'm an old woman, and I've decided to vote from the heart instead of the head for the duration of my time on this earth. My priorities are to take care of what will take care of us, and that's the Earth.

The only other thing I'm interested in talking about is what is causing the cancer epidemic and I think these two things are tied together. No more rallies, runs, dragon-boat races ad infinitum to raise money for cancer research for new drugs to treat it -- only for searching out what's causing it. Go after the polluters of air, water, food; after products with petroleum, in everything from plastic wrap to toys, to fibres in furniture, bedding, drapes; computer and TV casings. These materials run from our basements to our rooftops, in our offices and workplaces, and a zillion other things.

'Cradle to grave'

Invariably the ones producing this stuff are the same companies that produce the chemotherapy and other drugs for treatment, so they've got a nice deal going on. Create the problem, then create the treatment to treat the problem. Talk about "cradle to the grave." Could it be more literal?

Vote Green. At least it's a start to try to reverse this madness.

Mary Billy is retired in Squamish. She makes dishcloths for The Stephen Lewis Foundation on HIV/AIDS in Africa; creates Happy International Women's Day Greeting Cards; and helps operate The Defiant Women's Support Fund.