Sustainable Steps

Get Political

A great way to get our leaders to change what they do is to make eco-smart policy an election issue. Every time.

This can feel daunting. Or pointless. Or both. It often feels like all the major decisions are being made by a few people on the world stage, and the rest of us are just spectators down here in our daily lives, watching them get it all wrong.

But those decisions they make? They’re powered by public opinion. Both by the thoughts of the day when and where they were raised, and (if you’re lucky enough to live in a democracy) by what their voters want. They want us to be pleased with them, because they want to keep their jobs past the next election. So all we have to change is what they hear us asking for.

The movement toward this is growing. More and more eco-friendly products are hitting shelves and gaining popularity. More and more community efforts to clean up shorelines or plant pollinator gardens are emerging all the time as family weekend activities. Sometimes, in my friendly and safe little corner of the world, I start to think the environmental movement might already be winning. But then I look at the wars that are still raging. The global thermometer that continues to rise. The smoke outside my window that is now synonymous with summer. The social injustice that still prevails in far too many places. And I know that we still have work to do.

The large scale changes won’t happen overnight. But I named this blog Sustainable Steps (not Sustainable Leaps) for a reason. Here are some practical ways for those of us not making those world stage decisions to help shift the public balance toward asking for — and getting — good policy that can lead us into a future we can all sustain:

Vote Wisely

Your vote means more than you think it does. Never don’t vote.

Throw out any urge to vote “strategically” — the fear-based policy that tends to reward the second worst option for not being quite as bad as the very worst option, and continues the cycle of the same old government we’ve always had, just wearing different colored clothing.

Instead, find the strongest candidate you can, and vote for them. That will never be a waste of a vote, even if the polls say they can’t win this time around. A vote is only a waste when you cast it without conviction.

Why isn’t it a waste to vote for a long shot? Because the movement has to grow from somewhere.

I live in a riding that traditionally flip flops between the Conservative (right wing) and Liberal (allegedly middle but in practice all over the place) parties of Canada. But there’s an environmental groundswell in our area that’s huge. This site isn’t here to represent any particular party — they’re all flawed, they all add valuable voices, and we should take some wisdom from each one if we really want a world that works. But I will make candidate recommendations in each election, and one of my favorite recent success stories began as a long shot who did not win the first time he ran for the BC Green Party, but he did win the second time, partly because of the people who voted for him when he was a long shot, giving him a voter share that made new voters take him seriously the next time around. The other reason he won is because he’s an economically sensible, hard-working guy with an engineering background and a solutions-based approach to clean tech infrastructure. In office, he’s working across party lines (with his party of 2 members) to get real work done. Fringe parties can’t run fringe candidates and expect to win — like the bigger parties sure can, in their so-called safe seats. But when they back up their idealism with pragmatism, an independent or small party success story can be pretty groundbreaking. And it’s a message to the bigger parties — the ones forming government — that they need to take this voice for change more seriously.

Having your vote send this kind of message is never a waste — even if it doesn’t lead to victory the first time you vote that way.

To figure out who you like best, it’s imperative to research candidates — and their parties — to learn their positions on the issues that matter to you. In my case, I’m not looking for loudspeaker environmentalism, but a full set of values that covers fiscal sustainability (costing out how to make the infrastructure changes they’re calling for, like pulling funding from oil subsidies and redirecting it to clean tech development, while supporting an economy that can come out stronger for the transition), social responsibility that’s both inclusive and costed out, and practical environmental policy that will put a real dent in our carbon emissions. So far, I’ve seen candidates from the Green Party and Liberal Party who convince me they’re the real deal on these fronts, but every election is a new opportunity for other parties to get the picture, too. So every election is a new research project, which involves both reading what I can on each candidate, and going to all candidate debates to get a feel for the people in real life. Who your local candidate is matters — whether they’re in it for their own gain, and will likely just toe the federal party line to score perks within the party, like ministry positions, or whether they’re on fire with passion to energize their caucus to effect real change.

I especially like to ask a question at those meetings, to see how each candidate addresses (or evades) a specific issue.

And to clarify — you don’t have to vote for a long shot if the front runner happens to be awesome. But the only strategic vote is the vote for a world that works.

Help A Good Candidate Win

Wouldn’t it be a dream if you didn’t have to petition local government because they already cared about doing the right thing?

Once you’ve figured out which candidate you’re going to vote for, consider throwing your support behind them to give them a better shot at victory — or even just a bigger percentage of the voter share, so they get taken more seriously next time.

Knock on doors with them, throw a coffee party in your house to introduce them to your neighbors, or sign up with their campaign to volunteer in a way that works for you. You can also donate to their campaign to help with expenses, like promotion and travel. It’s a great feeling to work with others who share your political vision, and an even greater feeling to help get their message heard. Whether they win or lose, you’re helping those ideas get heard and gain momentum.

Whichever way you choose to help, it’s always a sustainable step to support a great political candidate.

Write A Letter To An Elected Representative

This can be a personal message or an open letter where you copy the press and invite them to publish it. Either way, their office will receive it, and your position will be noted — even if they don’t act upon it directly.

This is a great way to both communicate an idea for local change (like adding pink bins for soft plastic collection in your municipality), or register your concern about a major project being proposed (like an LNG plant that will rely heavily on fracked gas).

Write your letter with a strong, respectful tone. If you can, highlight things you like about what this person or their party has done, and then ask for a change or let them know what’s bothering you.

Your idea may not be implemented, but then again, it might. And if enough people write letters to the same effect, the impact increases. Most representatives legitimately want to represent the interests of the people in their riding.

Talk Politics on Social Media

This can get dicey. It can break up friendships. It can start vitriolic word battles that are much more prone to happen when people sit behind their screens than when they engage in real life. But the danger of not talking politics is worse.

If there’s an idea you want to share or a candidate you want to support, using your social media channels can help spread the word…and grow the movement. But political conversation doesn’t even have to be directly related to any candidate or political party. Just sharing this page or website, or one like it, counts as activating the conversation about changes you believe in.

Join A Local Activist Group

This won’t be for everyone in all places, but if you run across a group you click with, it can be a fun social experience while you work on saving the planet. In my part of the world, My Sea to Sky is a smart, inclusive group whose voice resonates with me.

Engage With Local Government

Attend city council meetings, and ask a question when there’s room for audience participation. Local governments are often both more accessible, and have more immediate influence on community policies.

Run For Office

Maybe there’s no political candidate in your area you feel you can throw your support behind. If you have the time, energy, public speaking skills, and a thick enough skin to weather (sometimes unjust) criticism, why not run yourself, and change the system from within it?

Want to keep this conversation going? Check out the blog posts below for more politically charged ideas: