Our focus here at Ceasefire.ca is foreign and defence policy. But the climate crisis, environmental degradation, rising inequality and the collapsing political order are interlinked existential threats to global survival that must be addressed with new thinking, across the board.

A recent article by celebrated author and visionary, Jeremy Lent underscores the need for fundamental changes to avert civilizational collapse:

…as things begin to unravel, we see increasing numbers of people begin to question foundational elements of neoliberal capitalism: an economy based on perpetual growth, seeing nature as a resource to plunder, and the pursuit of material wealth as paramount.

This is the time when new ideas can have an outsize impact.

Lent highlights a series of actions being planned in a thousand cities around the world for September 20^th, three days before the UN Climate Summit in New York City. Dubbed the Global Climate Strike, it may well turn out to be “the single biggest coordinated grassroots global demonstration in history”.

Jeremy Lent also poses a question which each and every one of us should ask of the candidates and party leaders, running in the 2019 Federal election:

The stakes have never been higher: the threat of catastrophe never more dreadful; and the path to societal transformation never so apparent. Which future are you steering us to?

For the full article, see: As society unravels, the future is up for grabs. (Jeremy Lent, opendemocracy.net, 17 Sept 2019).

Where do each of the main federal parties stand?

This issue is too important, and too complex, to try and answer in a couple of bullet points.  We urge readers to check out this article on The Narwhal website: Canada’s major parties on all things environment explained (Jimmy Thomson, thenarwhal.ca, 12 Sept, 2019).

In this “explainer”, the stated policies of the Liberals, Conservatives, NDP and Green Party on the following issues are examined, bearing in mind some new commitments have been made since its writing.

• Climate Change
• Energy
• Land, water, wildlife and ocean conservation
• Miscellaneous issues including environmental law, corporate accountability and ocean plastics.

A review of where the parties currently stand can give us some idea of how seriously each of them takes the twin threats of climate breakdown and ecological collapse.

And one thing remains clear, as Jeremy Lent underscored:

There’s no opting out: anyone with an inkling of what’s happening around the world, but who does nothing about it, is implicitly adding their momentum toward the abyss of collapse.

Whither Canada?

We may not have the option of electing a government that is ready to make the sweeping changes so desperately needed. But we must do our utmost to make sure that we don’t end up with a leader who will stand in the way.

Photo credit: Pixabay/TheDigitalArtist