Canadians Elections to be held on October 14th

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Congrats on getting in to the debate Greens. As a party fielding a candidate in every riding, I think they've got more of a right to be there than the Bloc does.

And to celebrate your victory, here are some congratulatory words by one of Canada's greatest environmental champions, David Suzuki.

Suzuki dreams of Greens' demise

Activist worries party makes environment seem like 'ghetto' issue

Just days into the election campaign, the climate change debate is veering onto the wrong track with suggestions that taking care of the environment could hurt the economy, says David Suzuki.

"Let's hope that the economy versus the environment (debate) will not continue, it's not either/or – without the environment there is no economy," Canada's most prominent environmentalist said.

But Suzuki also said he'd like to see the end of the one party that does put the environment at the centre of all its policies.

"I can't wait until there is no Green party," Suzuki said he told its leader Elizabeth May.

"As long as there's a Green party, the implication is that the Greens somehow have a stranglehold on this issue; they're the ones that worry about the environment so the other parties can worry about other things. I don't think it's a ghetto subject."

With Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion's Green Shift carbon tax plan to raise taxes on pollution and lower taxes on income – which Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper says will hurt the economy – and May's fight to be included in the televised leaders' debate, the environment has received early attention in this election.

But as the campaign progresses it's up to voters to keep environmental issues from being pushed aside by fiscal fears, Suzuki said.

Part of the battle is educating voters and politicians alike that protecting nature isn't just a nice thing to do, but it produces real economic benefit, Suzuki said at Queen's Park, where his foundation released a report doing just that.

The province's greenbelt, a 728,000-hectare area of protected land in southern Ontario, provides $2.6 billion annually worth of ecological services including water filtration, flood control, waste treatment and wildlife habitat, according to the David Suzuki Foundation report.

"We have to put the 'eco' back into economics, and recognize that nature has all of these services that we've failed to value," he said.

While Suzuki urged voters to get involved in the election, he stopped short of telling them which party to vote for, saying his foundation relies on its charitable status and so can't endorse political candidates.

http://www.thestar.com/FederalElection/article/496458