Dear Mr. Suzuki
I and many, many others have always admired and supported your message of ecological consciousness. Thank-you for the many years of commitment towards our children's future. Please forgive my tone in this letter. I respect and admire you as one of my personal heroes, but even a hero can make mistakes.
It brings me great displeasure to be writing this note to you. In an interview with Ellen Page, you mentioned that you told your friend Elizabeth May that you "don't believe the Green Party should exist..." I agree that all political parties should always consider the environment in all their decision making, however we currently have no such party in this country...except of course, the party you think should not exist - the Green Party. In fact, the GP has married the environment, economics and social issues together, always considering each area in all policy and decision making. THAT is who we are - not that "environmental party". We are striving to grow this party you say our country needs. In making those comments, you have discouraged thousands and thousands of ordinary Canadians who already changed their light bulbs, compost, take public transit and so on, and now have committed to going further by joining a political movement with ideologies beyond the comprehension of "old line" thinkers of any of the parties here now. We in the GP are your closest allies in the Canadian political arena and you tell Canadians we should not exist. By doing so you are confusing Canadians and fueling the carbon lobby with more crap to divert Canadians attention. Do you really think that any other party in this country has the courage to do what has to be done? If you do, keep endorsing them and making the same mistake over and over and over again. I read my first book on climate change in the late 80s - that was 25 years ago! Where are we now? GP enthusiasts will not be discouraged by you or anyone else because we know and understand just how dire humanity's situation is right now, but we need help not discouragement - especially from David Suzuki. Please consider addressing the costly mistake in judgment you have made and publicly endorse the Green Party like you should have 25 years ago.
Sincerely,
Nick from Downtown
Green Party Member
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Wow, he was really that dismissive ? How'd Ellen Page react ? She's awesome. Was on Real Time with Bill Maher discussing the bee loss issue.
ReplyDeleteWhat motivated that comment/helped form that opinion ? I can imagine that he might think the Greens are too fringe-y, or not representing the environmental issues the way HE would like them to, and therefor he feels they're an embarrassment to the cause or something along those lines ? (don't agree with any of that, just trying to get inside his head a bit) Does he feel that it's detrimental to have a party specifically representing environmental concerns (blended with concerns over every other issue), when ALL parties should be paying attention and making policy based on how it effects us, animals, and the quality of our food, water, and air, health-wise ? But they're not going to just suddenly jump on board in the big way that's required of them, so...given that reality, aren't the Greens COMPLETELY necessary and beneficial to the country ? Even if it takes another 10 years to get Green MP (this is not defeatist talk--just for the sake of argument), at least the presence of the Greens helps keep these issues on more people's minds, gives folks hope, and gives environmental issues in Canada a sliver of a fighting chance.
What Mr. Suzuki was saying is that there should not be one party that is environmentally conscience; all parties should be “green”. He is absolutely right. The only problem is we live in Canada in 2011. The statement “Green Party shouldn’t even exist because all parties should be green” translates into “the Green Party is about the environment only”. He obvious is misinformed about who we really are – as are most Canadians. If you keep repeating something long enough in the media, people will believe it no matter if it is true or not. Unfortunately that is what we are battling now. I feel for the Green heath critic, aboriginal issues critic, women’s rights critic, education critic, foreign affairs critic and so on. David Suzuki and Canada don’t know they exist. Our challenge is to communicate that we respect and consider economic and social issues as much as the environment, because to us they are all the same.
ReplyDeleteOh and Ellen Page was incredibly conscience. She’s a great role model and would be an amazing Green Party candidate. From the little I’ve heard or seen, she is totally in line with Green Party thinking.