Category: event

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Guaranteed Livable Income Green Learning Community (2nd Session)

Basic Income Waterloo meets with Richard Walsh and Bob Jonkman at the Waterloo Greens Office during the 2015 election
Basic Income Waterloo advocates meet with Richard Walsh & Bob Jonkman at the WRGreens Office [2015]
Guaranteed Liveable Income is part of Green Party of Canada policy.  During the 2015 it was a integral piece of the GPC’s integrated plan to eliminate poverty in conjunction with a renewed commitment to Universal Health Care, introduction of Pharmacare, a National Housing Strategy, and the elimination of Post Secondary tuition and debt relied for those struggling under enormous student debt loads.

Oddly enough, this is not at all a new thing.  The Canadian Government partnered with the Manitoba Government to run a guaranteed annual income pilot project they called Mincome in Dauphin ~ A Town Without Poverty? ~  back in the 1970s.  As often happens with long term projects in countries using winner-take-all voting systems, the government changed and the new lot boxed up all the data and stored it away.

This is becoming a hot topic worldwide, and here at home we’re hearing about this from all levels of government:

FEDERAL
The Trudeau Liberals just prioritized one of Richard Nixon’s favourite conservative policies: ‘mincome’
PROVINCIAL
A Basic Income For Ontario? Province Plans Pilot Project As Part Of Budget
MUNICIPAL
Waterloo Regional Council to Vote on Endorsing Basic Income Pilot

The Waterloo Green Party had is hosting the second Guaranteed Livable Income Green Learning Community event on Saturday to help get a handle on what this social policy is all about.

GLI slide
Announcing the GLI Learning Community @KPL

As a learning community, we’ve met once already to develop a set of questions we’d like to explore. When we meet on the 18th, we’ll dig deeper, sharing what we’ve learned and discussing more. All are welcome, no need to have attended our first session.

You can join the Green Learning Community Event

Guaranteed Livable Income
Learning Community ~ Session 2
Saturday
1:30 PM – 3 PM

The Journey ~ A Christian Church
16 Eby St. N.
Kitchener, ON

*note: although the venue this time is a church, it is a non-secular event

Further Reading:
The Manitoba Mincome Study; Even a small Guaranteed Income has dramatic positive effects on society
A Way to Get Healthy: Basic Income Experiments in Canada
Download the 39 page PDF file:
THE TOWN WITH NO POVERTY Using Health Administration Data to Revisit Outcomes of a Canadian Guaranteed Annual Income Field Experiment

You can get more information from our awesome local advocacy group, Basic Income Waterloo Region

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WRGreens at OpenStreets 2016

Join us in Uptown Waterloo Sunday Afternoon for the 2016 Open Streets launch!
WRGreens at Open Streets Uptown Waterloo 2016

The Waterloo Region Greens invite you to drop by and say “hi!” at our first ever Open Streets information booth! Grab a WRGreens sticker and sign Elizabeth’s electoral reform petition!’

Walkwalk

bikebike
scootscoot
skateboardskateboard
or fly down to check it out!fly

There’s always lots to doThings to do
seeU of W solar race car
and listen to!Badlt Sketched Poets (2013) at Open Streets
If you’ve never been to an Open Streets before you’re in for a treat!

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The Green Party of Ontario on Bill 201

Mike Schreiner speaking at Gord Miller's GPC Town Hall in GuelphOntario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner has been sharing GPO’s ideas for restoring trust in the integrity of our system by reforming political party funding rules.

Some of these Green ideas have been incorporated in Bill 201, currently being considered by the House.  Clearly our message is gaining traction, since the Liberal Government took the unprecedented step of inviting Mike to participate in the drafting new legislation by speaking to the Standing Committee on General Government today.

“The Liberal bill reflects many GPO priorities, including eliminating corporate and union donations, limiting third-party advertising, and introducing a per-vote allowance to finance political parties.

However, there are still some glaring omissions that need to be addressed, and Mike’s presentation is making sure these are still on the table before the bill gets past..

—Becky Smit, Executive Director, GPO

This afternoon Mike told the Standing Committee on General Government what the Ontario Green Party likes about Bill 201:

  • It eliminates corporate and union donations
  • A more democratic way to fund political parties: per-vote funding
  • It restricts third-party advertising during writ and pre-writ periods
  • Establishes donation limits for nomination contestants and leadership races
  • Eliminates general and by-election contribution periods to a party

Then he outlined the significant revisions the GPO would like to see in Bill 201:

  • Lower contribution limits and eliminate loopholes
  • Lower spending limits for political parties
  • Eliminate the partial reimbursement of campaign expenses
  • Improve disclosure and oversight rules

You can read the full text of Mike’s presentation to the committee:
at gpo.ca/how-fix-elections-finances-bill

We can help by:

  • Spreading the word on Twitter:
    @OntarioGreens live tweeted during Mike’s presentation #onpoli #QPnot4sale
  • Like our post on Facebook
  • Send a message to Premier Wynne

 

 

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Live on Twitter: Mike Schreiner Speaks at Ontario Finance Reform Hearings

Mike Schreiner, Leader of the Green Party of OntarioGreen Party of Ontario leader MikeSchreiner will address the Ontario Finance Reform Committee

at 2pm
Today
June 7th, 2016

Follow live tweets:
#ONnotforsale
#RestoreDemocracy
#onpoli

follow @OntarioGreens

or keep track on Facebook 

An easy way to follow live twitter chats
go to Tweetchat
and type #ONnotforsale in the search bar

I haven’t used this for a long time so I don’t know how well it works now… it aggregates live tweet stream and automatically adds the hashtag…
update: unlike Twitter now, retweets don’t fit, so you need to manually edit them (and if yoy do change RT to MT for “modified tweet”

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Visit us at Tri-Pride 2016

TRIPRIDE

Awesome Happens Here!

Visit the Waterloo Greens Info Booth!

Sunday, June 5,
1pm – 5pm
Kitchener City Hall

The Waterloo Region Greens kick off the summer festival season with an Infon Booth at the awesome Kitchener Tri-Pride Celebration.  Hope to see you there!

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Referendum isn’t the answer

Referendum talk is beginning to overshadow the real need of getting our everyday democracy into the hands of voters. Referendums work only with an engaged citizenry that is informed by a fair and unbiased media.

Truth is, every referendum on electoral reform has been sabotaged by misinformation from elite power brokers who like our flawed voting system, which promotes their will over the citizens at large. They are the ones that oppose real democracy.

To claim reform needs a referendum is to believe all major decisions should have a true majority of citizens’ consent. That’s what we’d routinely have for every decision, if we had a government with proportional representation (PR). Globally, most democracies have changed to PR voting systems.

David WeberA dozen committees and commissions already conducted in Canada all conclude that PR is needed for a government that really represents voters’ intentions. I don’t want smoke-and-mirrors propaganda derailing the public from what is in their best interest. I don’t need a referendum hijacked, again, by big money and the elite to keep our biased system that mostly works for them.

I just want a real democratic institution with proportional representation that reflects the will of the people it is supposed to serve.

David Weber
Kitchener

David Weber was the Kitchener South—Hespeler Green Party candidate during the 2015 federal election.  This letter appeared in The May 25th, 2016 Record 

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This Changes Everything ~ Free Screening!

Mike Schreiner marching for Jobs, Justice & Climate 2015
Green Party of Ontario leader
Mike Schreiner marching for
Jobs, Justice & Climate 2015

The Waterloo Region Greens are pleased
to invite you to the
Kitchener Public Library
85 Queen Street North
Kitchener, ON
N2H 2H1

Wednesday
May 11th, 2016
6:30pm – 8:30pm

for our FREE Showing of the documentary

“This Changes Everything“

We are also delighted to bring you commentary by our very Special Guest

Mike Schreiner,
leader of the Green Party of Ontario

hosted by the Kitchener Centre Green Party
DECARBONIZE_9296

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Green Learning Community Presentation

FVC-WRC AVATARVoting Reform Presentation and Discussion

Understand our options for voting reform with a presentation by FairVote Canada WRC followed by a discussion. This was highly requested by people from our past events, and is a perfect event to invite others who would like to join and learn. The presentation format will make this very accessible. (Hosted by the Green Party of Waterloo.)

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It’s Time To Leap

I am so tired of excuses. Money isn’t real: it is merely a symbol that only has meaning because we believe in it. Our environment, on the other hand, is real.