BCSEA E-News: Bring it Home - Think Globally, Vote Locally

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Published on Tuesday, 07 October 2014 10:40

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BCSEA E-News | Wednesday, October 1, 2014
BRING IT HOME - Think Globally, Vote Locally
By Guy Dauncey, BCSEA Founder and Communication Director

In BC, 1,660 people have the power locally to lead us to a green sustainable future — if they choose to

On Saturday November 15th everyone in BC over the age of 18 will have the opportunity to choose 1,600 new civic leaders (including School Board Trustees) from Sooke to Salmon Arm, from Chilliwack to Fort St John.

Once elected, these people will have the power to make critical local decisions for the next four years.

For the most part, they will be dedicated hard-working people who want to serve the public good—they just need you to tell them that the public good includes seriously addressing climate change. And the next four years are absolutely critical if we are to turn off the road to climate disaster and onto the road to a green, sustainable, resilient future.

This is why Saturday November 15th is so important. Municipal politicians can’t set federal or provincial policy, but they do have significant powers, and they can send a clear signal about the kind of actions people want, as Burnaby’s Mayor Derek Corrigan has recently done with his opposition to Kinder Morgan’s planned Trans Mountain Pipeline plowing its way though a Burnaby park.

On November 15th we can choose to elect mayors, councilors and regional directors who will set us on the road to a more green, sustainable future. But how can you tell what a candidate stands for?

To help you decide, BCSEA has gathered together the best local climate solutions. We have crafted them into five commitments to Sustainable Transportation, Sustainable Development, Greenest Buildings, A Sustainable Local Economy, and Healthy Food, Healthy Nature, and we have summarized them on two sheets, which can be downloaded here:

The Five Most Important

LOCAL CLIMATE SOLUTIONS for CITIES

www.bcsea.org/CityClimateSolutions

The Five Most Important

CLIMATE SOLUTIONS for SMALL TOWNS

www.bcsea.org/SmallTownClimateSolutions

On transportation, for instance, the commitment calls for councilors and regional directors to aim for zero-carbon local transportation by creating ‘complete streets’ designed for all users, walkable neighbourhoods, and world-class cycling environments; and by adopting world-class policies for transportation demand management, transit, ride-sharing, car-sharing, electric vehicles and freight.

To back this up, there are great examples of pedestrian streets in Europe. In Copenhagen, thanks to local leadership, 36% of commute and school trips are now made by bike. Bogota in Colombia and Curitiba in Brazil have shown what’s possible for bus rapid transport; San Diego has shown what’s possible for electric vehicles, with ten thousand EVs on the road in the metro region.

Which Candidates are Committed to Local Climate Solutions?

But how do you know who to vote for? That’s the big question. One solution is to create a Candidates’ Questionnaire designed to show where they stand on various issues. In each link to Climate Solutions above, we have laid out the steps to create one.

And how do you get the candidates to answer your questions? The key is multiple endorsements by social, community and environmental groups, so that candidates see the weight of concern behind the questions.

During the 1990 civic elections I was part of a grassroots group called Voters for a Responsible Community in Greater Victoria which created a Candidates’ Questionnaire with over 120 questions, which we sent to every candidate for every municipal council in the Capital Regional District. We persuaded 29 local groups to endorse the questionnaire, and as evidence that people took it seriously we received more than 8,000 policy commitments from the candidates. Our problem was overload: people did not use the Internet in those days, and we had no way to communicate the results. Today, the problem is easily solved.

The people we elect on November 15th will be our local political leaders for the critical next four years. They will have decision-making powers over transportation budgets; they will control zoning powers and permitting conditions for new developments; they will be able to block or advance a critical development.

It is really important that we elect people who understand the damage and the danger that climate change is already causing, and who will work hard to implement local climate solutions. We have no idea who those candidates might be, but once you have identified them you can get out and campaign for them, to help them win. The chances are good that candidates who care about climate change will also care about poverty, homelessness and social justice. Think globally, campaign locally.

Bring The People’s Climate March Home

On September 21st, more than a million people around the world rallied to express their alarm and concern about climate change, and the world’s failure to tackle it. The big UN meeting is over, so now we must take that energy and use it in the municipal elections. Next year, we will need to do the same in Canada’s federal election.

The Dogwood Initiative is seizing the same opportunity to poll candidates for their views on the tar sands pipelines, increased oil tanker traffic and increased coal exports, mobilizing their organizational resources and their 200,000 supporters to inform voters about candidates’ stand on these issues, so that people can make their own voting decisions. Local climate solutions may not be as dramatic as pipelines and tankers, but they are equally important.

So if you want to make a difference, now would be a great time to do so.

http://www.bcsea.org/blog/guy-dauncey/2014/09/26/bring-it-home%E2%80%94think-globally-vote-locally