Sheila Malcolmson running for nomination for the NDP Nanaimo-Ladysmith riding

May 2005 photo by David Borrowman

“After 12 years in local government where I’ve been really happy and honoured to serve Islanders, I’m seeing more and more where a lot of the barriers to implementing the kind of protections and society that we want to hang on to is being thwarted at the federal level – whether that’s pipeline approvals and gutting environmental protection regulations, killing public input opportunities, gutting affordable housing and co-op funding – so much flows from the federal side, and that’s where I’m called to serve right now.”

Sheila Malcolmson in The Flying Shingle, March 24, 2014, in answer to the question why she is running for the nomination of NDP in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith riding.

Mending the Broken Promise

From Thomas Mulcair: 

The Conservatives' Unfair Elections Act, C-23, prohibits Elections Canada from promoting youth outreach and education initiatives, like Student Vote—a non-partisan school program that encourages young people to participate in the electoral system‎. Thanks to the advocacy work of Elections Canada, over 500,000 Canadian students learned about the voting system and were encouraged to participate in school elections during the 2011 federal election.

(For more information go to Craig Scott's page. )

The inherent promise in so much of what we have learned over centuries of human struggle, is that power is to be used for the greater good of all its citizens ~ to create societies that allow people to live peacefully and with enough resources to care for their beloved community. Freedom of information, a clean environment, and an education system that supports our children's physical and intellectual growth to become responsible and healthy citizens.

But this promise is broken whenever leaders divert their responsibility for their personal ambition of wealth, or to centralize power for an elite. Every ruling system no matter what it is called breaks the promise and destroys hope for the future when the covenant is corrupted.

We are all stakeholders here and if we choose to believe there is nothing we can do to get closer to a fair and just society, we break the contract and enable the opportunists to rob our children of a livable future. 

For Loretta Saunders

image found on Google - author unknown

I dedicate this page after reading the article by Darryl Leroux in Halifax Media Co-op, to the family of a bright and courageous woman, and to all people who have been sacrificed to the institutionalized hegemony of power over life.

David Suzuki Foundation: Pete Seeger: "From way up here the Earth looks very small"

"Like me, he was inspired by Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring to become a strong defender of the environment as well as human rights. In both social justice and environmental causes, he believed in the strength of grassroots efforts. As he told the CBC Radio program Ideas, "The powers that be can break up any big thing they want. They can attack it from the outside. They can infiltrate it and corrupt it from the inside — or co-opt it. But what are they going to do about 10 million little things? They don't know where to start. Break up three of them and four more like it start up."  David Suzuki - Science Matters

Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world

The Oxfam report found that over the past few decades, the rich have successfully wielded political influence to skew policies in their favour on issues ranging from financial deregulation, tax havens, anti-competitive business practices to lower tax rates on high incomes and cuts in public services for the majority. Since the late 1970s, tax rates for the richest have fallen in 29 out of 30 countries for which data are available, said the report. (Graham Wearden, The Guardian)

If money is used to oppress the majority should we be investing everything in money? Can we wrestle nature away from this system? Can we grow our food and make our clothes or recycle whatever we can't make? Is there wealth in creativity and innovation regardless of whether it makes money? 

I guess these questions lead to the value we place on life and whether we are prepared to use our own personal resources to reinvest in it.

Poverty coming to a family near you!

"Economic insecurity is endemic. Working-class whites who used to be cushioned against the vagaries of the market are now fully exposed to them. Trade unions that once bargained on behalf of employees and protected their contractual rights have withered. Informal expectations of lifelong employment with a single company are gone. Company loyalty has become a bad joke."  Bill Moyers


"One of the promises of NAFTA was that it would reduce the wage gap between American and Mexican workers. In fact, Mexicans earn less than they did in 1994 when NAFTA was first enacted." Truthdig


"In March 2013, 833,098 people turned to a food bank in Canada, down from 872,379 the previous March. Underlying this small drop is a concern of enormous proportions: food bank use remains higher than it was before the recession began five years ago. During a time of apparent economic recovery, far too many Canadians still struggle to put food on the table. HungerCount 2013 bears witness to the need for food banks across Canada and moves beyond this, to seek solutions that address the root causes. Our five recommendations are simple but significant action items that would move our country towards real progress."
Food Banks Canada.

From Ceasefire.ca - Canada seeks more arms customers

The end of Canadian combat operations in Afghanistan and cuts to defence budgets in the US and allied nations are driving the federal government to look to other potential buyers. Ceasefire. 

“Rather than helping companies chase arms deals from questionable customers, the government should be helping these companies refocus their business away from declining defence markets toward more promising commercial markets,” Steve Staples.