‘People Have the Power to Bring About Change’
Published on Friday, May 15, 2015
by EcoWatch
by David Suzuki
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The Continental Divide at the border of Alberta and British Columbia in Canada. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Recent events in Canada have shown not only that change is possible, but that people wont stand for having corporate interests put before their own.
When plummeting oil prices late last year threw Alberta into financial crisis, people rightly asked, Wheres the money? They could see that an oil producer like Norway was able to weather the price drop thanks to forward planning, higher costs to industry to exploit resources and an oil fund worth close to $1 trillion! Leading up to the election, the government that ran Alberta for 44 years refused to consider raising industry taxes or reviewing royalty rates, instead offering a budget with new taxes, fees and levies for citizens, along with service cuts.
The people of Alberta then did what was once thought impossible: they gave the NDP a strong majority. Almost half the NDP members elected were women, giving Alberta the highest percentage of women ever in a Canadian provincial or federal government.
On the other side of the country, voters in Prince Edward Island followed B.C. provincially and Canada federally and elected their first Green Party member, as well as Canadas second openly gay premier. Remember, homosexuality was illegal in Canada until 1969!
In my home province, after a long struggle by elders and families of the Tahltan Klabona Keepers, the B.C. government bought 61 coal licenses from Fortune Minerals and Posco Canada in the Klappan and Sacred Headwaters, putting a halt to controversial development in an ecologically and culturally significant area that is home to the Tahltan people and forms the headwaters of the Skeena, Stikine and Nass rivers. The Tahltan and the province have agreed to work on a long-term management plan for the area.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/05/15/people-have-power-bring-about-change
It's beginning (I hope) .....