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The following is an email letter received from VTACC (Voters Taking Action on Climate Change).

Hello all voters!

After careful consideration, Voters Taking Action on Climate Change (VTACC) has decided to endorse strategic voting in this election in ridings where vote splitting between the Greens, NDP and Liberals may lead to unintentional narrow victories by Conservative candidates.

Although our review of the climate platforms for each of the main parties leads us to conclude that the Green Party has the most ambitious climate platform, we feel that the Conservative one is too weak and misleading to risk another Conservative government, particularly a majority one.

We have never suggested particular voting strategies before.  However, the Conservatives themselves have said that they are “running on their record.” So we can safely assume that new Harper government would continue their disastrous and short-sighted avoidance of action on greenhouse gas emissions.  To avoid this outcome, and to elect a coalition government which will meaningfully address escalating carbon emissions, we will need to work together and vote strategically in close ridings to support the candidate most likely to defeat the Conservative candidate.

In British Columbia, VTACC has a strong presence in the following ridings where we want to encourage voters to vote strategically. The following is a list of these ridings and the names of the candidates that we feel have the best chance of beating the Conservative candidate running in each of these ridings:

• Vancouver Quadra - Joyce Murray (Liberal)
• Vancouver Island North - Catherine Bell (NDP)
• Burnaby Douglas - Bill Siskay (NDP)
• Saanich Gulf Islands - Briony Penn (Liberal)

This list does not include all ridings where VTACC has strength.  The list above only includes those VTACC ridings in BC where vote-splitting may lead to a Conservative win.  In other VTACC ridings such as Vancouver-Centre, held by Hedy Fry (Liberal), constituents also have the opportunity to elect Adrienne Carr (Green).  Our only advice in those cases is to poll your neighbours and fellow constituents, and follow your heart.

There are a total of 80 ridings across Canada where vote splitting may lead to a narrow Conservative victory.  If your riding is not one of the above five, please visit the excellent website www.voteforenvironment.ca.  This site recommends which non-Conservative candidates strategic voters in these ridings should support.

Please note that although we endorse strategic voting in this election, it is not a long term solution. VTACC supports reforming our electoral system to include proportional representation so that progressive parties gain seats in government. For more information see Fair Vote Canada, a ‘multi-partisan’  citizens’ campaign for voting system reform. We hope you will help work toward electoral reform in Canada.

See below for a summary of each party’s climate change platform:

It is clear that the Conservative plan www.ecoaction.gc.ca is not a plan for action at all.  With its continued focus on oil sands growth, intensity targets and distant time horizons, it is a plan for non-action. It is an insult to the intelligence of Canadians to call it a plan for action.  We do not have the time to accept a further four years of political inaction and emissions growth.

The Green Party plan is the most ambitious. www.greenparty.ca  The Greens have clearly done a huge amount to advance the discussion of greenhouse gas emissions at the national level. It is a cruel irony, therefore, that under our skewed first-past-the-post voting system, votes for the Green in close ridings could result in sufficient vote-splitting to provide the Conservatives with a majority government.   Clearly, Canada needs electoral reform.

The Liberal Green Shift is a daring platform. www.thegreenshift.ca Concerned voters and organizations across Canada, including VTACC, lobbied Stephane Dion to show real leadership in the political battle to address carbon emissions.  The Liberals have responded with a plan to start shifting the Canadian economy toward a more sustainable future.  This takes political guts that is almost unknown in major parties in Canada.  They deserve to be congratulated for this welcome change from the “politics as usual” that Canadians are used to being force-fed.

The NDP Plan has some strengths but also some critical weaknesses.  www.ndp.ca/greenagenda They are advocating a cap and trade system for large polluters, but oppose putting a direct price on carbon emissions at the consumer level.  This is a false choice; clearly we need both.  We are aware of the struggle within the party to present a more cohesive policy, and hope that it will soon move in that direction.

Please forward this to friends and neighbours.  Acting together, we can elect a federal government which takes action on climate change.

Looking forward to waking up to a government of action on October 15th,
Donald, Quincy, David, Andrea, Lauren, Tom…and the rest of the VTACC team

Only an uprising in green technology will revive America and promote world democracy, the New York Times columnist now argues.

In his new book, “Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America,” Thomas Friedman, author of the best-selling “The World Is Flat” and “The Lexus and the Olive Tree,” argues that America can fire up its economy and restore its world standing by turning its considerable technological might on clean energy and conservation.

Advocating a green path to world democracy would seem to mark a new direction for Friedman, who initially supported the Bush administration “in trying to bring democracy to Iraq,” he writes in “Hot, Flat, and Crowded.” In a lively interview with Salon, he acknowledges his about-face on the Iraq war and outlines what he now sees as America’s — and his own — environmental responsibilities. He looks at the current presidential candidates and explains why only one appears capable of leading a green revolution.

Source: www.salon.com/…

LS » He seems to have done some thinking on this subject and hasmade some significant changes since his Bush-supporting days.

You must have a leader who can frame this problem in an exciting way — not just the answer to these big five problems, but this incredible opportunity. It’s why I say, “Change your leaders, not your light bulbs.” Not that changing your light bulbs isn’t important. We’ve done it. Everyone should do it. But leaders write the rules and rules shape the markets — tax incentives, carbon taxes, cap and trade — and markets are what give you scale.

To me, the engine of this whole change is the market. We’re not going to regulate our way out of this problem. We can only innovate our way out of it. But that requires rules. It requires legislators, Congress, to write different rules. There’s no substitute for leadership. You and I could have the greatest green ethic in the world. We could do everything and it wouldn’t make a dime’s worth of difference. Markets must be shaped to scale these things down to a price where people can afford them.