Posts filed in Canadian Politics

Canadian Politics

A Message Of Thanks To Our Supporters / Un message de remerciement à nos supporteurs

On my own behalf and on behalf of the passionate, inspiring and dedicated members of our campaign team, I am writing to thank you for your support in the Green Party of Canada leadership race.  

Throughout our campaign, we put forward a boldly progressive platform – a platform unlike any that mainstream Canadian politics has seen. Despite the obstacles put in our way, we came within a hair’s breadth of winning, and did so by doing politics honourably.

We drew thousands of new members to the party. We raised the hard questions and answered them with thoughtfulness and integrity. We spoke from the heart. We spoke truth to power.

With your amazing support, we have begun to build a movement. 

In the days and weeks ahead, we will engage with Greens and other progressives to transform that movement into an unstoppable force of principled, progressive politics. 

We know with every fibre of our being that the time is now.

We warmly welcome your thoughts as to how to build upon the foundation we have laid in this campaign. Please feel free to share those thoughts with us by sending an email to info@teamdimitri.ca.

Finally, we again congratulate Annamie Paul on her victory and wish her every success as the new leader of the Green Party of Canada. And we thank all of the other leadership candidates (Judy Green, Meryam Haddad, Courtney Howard, Amita Kuttner, David Merner, Glen Murray and Andrew West) for the countless ways in which their voices enriched the conversation in this campaign.

We look forward to remaining in touch with you.

Peace and solidarity, Dimitri 

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Cher militant, chère militante :

En mon nom personnel et au nom des membres passionnés, inspirants et dévoués de notre équipe de campagne, je vous écris pour vous remercier de votre soutien dans la course à la direction du Parti vert du Canada.

Tout au long de notre campagne, nous avons présenté un programme audacieux et progressiste – un programme qui ne ressemble à aucun autre programme que la politique canadienne dominante a connu. Malgré les obstacles qui se sont dressés sur notre chemin, nous avons été à un cheveu de gagner, et nous l’avons fait en faisant de la politique de façon honorable.

Nous avons attiré des milliers de nouveaux membres au sein du Parti. Nous avons soulevé des questions difficiles et y avons répondu avec considération et intégrité. Nous avons parlé avec notre cœur. Nous avons dit la vérité aux autorités.

Grâce à votre soutien extraordinaire, nous avons commencé à construire un mouvement.

Dans les jours et les semaines à venir, nous nous engagerons avec les Verts et d’autres progressistes pour transformer ce mouvement en une force imparable de politique progressiste fondée sur des principes.

Nous savons de toutes nos forces que le moment est venu.

Nous accueillons chaleureusement vos réflexions sur la manière de construire sur les bases que nous avons posées au cours de cette campagne. N’hésitez pas à nous faire part de ces réflexions en envoyant un courriel à info@teamdimitri.ca.

Enfin, nous félicitons à nouveau Annamie Paul pour sa victoire et lui souhaitons beaucoup de succès en tant que nouvelle chef du Parti vert du Canada. Et nous remercions tous les autres candidats à la direction du Parti (Judy Green, Meryam Haddad, Courtney Howard, Amita Kuttner, David Merner, Glen Murray et Andrew West) pour les innombrables façons dont leurs voix ont enrichi la conversation dans cette campagne.

Nous nous réjouissons de rester en contact avec vous.

Paix et solidarité, Dimitri

Canadian Politics

I Join With Amnesty International in Calling For An End to Weapons Sales to Saudi Arabia

Yesterday, at the General Dynamics plant in London, Ontario, I joined with Amnesty International and dozens of human rights activists to condemn the Trudeau government’s sale of weaponized personnel carriers to the brutal Saudi autocracy. As I explained in my speech, the Green Party of Canada has long opposed the sale of these weapons to Saudi Arabia. In the 1970s, with the help of Pierre Trudeau’s government, this plant was converted from peaceful purposes to the construction of armoured vehicles. If Canada’s government can expend taxpayer funds to convert these manufacturing facilities into producers of weapons, it can now invest taxpayer funds to ensure that these same facilities contribute to an indispensable transition to a renewable energy economy.

Canadian Politics

The Time Has Come To Build A More Caring Society In Canada

In this week’s episode of Dimitri Live, I and my co-hosts Lia Tarachansky, Wendy Goldsmith and Atul Bahl discussed how we can build a more caring society as we emerge from the pandemic.

We talked in particular about the need for a national mental healthcare strategy and the strengthening of our healthcare system.

For example, Canada ranks 51st in the world in the number of doctors per capita (behind Ukraine, Mongolia and Kuwait). Cuba, by contrast, has the highest number of doctors per capita in the world.

Our healthcare system needs more doctors, and there is no reason why a country as wealthy as Canada cannot do much better. I hope you will listen to our discussion:

Canadian Politics

Fossil Fuels Are A Threat To National Security: A Debate With Former CSIS Analyst Phil Gurski

Last month, in a letter to the Hill Times, I responded to an op-ed by Phil Gurski, a former senior strategic analyst with Canada’s spy agency (CSIS), in which Mr. Gurski raised the spectre of potential violence by environmental activists. After the Hill Times published my letter, Mr. Gurski kindly invited me onto his weekly program to debate national security, the threat posed by the fossil fuels industry and terrorism.

In our debate, which Mr. Gurski published today, I argued (starting at 8:58 of the podcast) that one of the greatest threats to Canada’s national security is in fact the fossil fuels industry and that, far from being a threat to national security, those who resist the fossil fuels industry are acting in the national interest.

I also argued that the legislation governing CSIS is broad enough to authorize CSIS to treat the fossil fuels industry as a national security threat, but that the government appointees who manage CSIS have a pro-fossil fuels bias – just like the Liberal and Conservative politicians who appointed them.

Finally, I argued (starting at 25:50 of the podcast) that Western governments and intelligence agencies are ignoring the true causes of terrorism, that there is no military solution to terrorism and that the true solution to terrorism is political in nature.

You can listen to our debate here: