No platform? No problem, says Green leader — just use Google

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This article was published 24/08/2021 (1475 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA—With less than a month left in the federal election campaign, the Greens haven’t released their platform. But party Leader Annamie Paul says one is coming, and that many of the Greens’ policies on climate change — a flagship issue for the environment-focused party — will be “virtually identical” to what it has pitched before.

While the Greens released a detailed climate plan five months before the 2019 election, and published their entire 82-page platform more than a month before voting day, Paul said Tuesday that circumstances are different now and invited curious voters to search the internet for her party’s existing climate policies.

Asked why the Greens haven’t released a platform more than one week into the campaign, Paul pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that she was elected leader of the party 10 months ago.

She also said the party will continue talking about its policy promises every day, which will “culminate in a full platform.” And that includes policies on climate change, where the party has previously pledged to ban all new fossil fuel development, ensure Canada’s electricity grid runs on renewable power, and impose a trade tariff on imports from countries with weaker climate policies, among other proposals.

The Greens have also said Canada must slash greenhouse gas emissions to 60 per cent below 2005 levels by the end of the decade — significantly more than the Liberals’ target of at least 40 per cent, and the NDP’s of at least 50 per cent — and effectively eliminate annual emissions as soon as possible.

“You can always expect in addition to what we will continue to say are the fundamentals of a Green plan, that we will be proposing the most innovative, exciting ideas to get us to net-zero and net-negative (emissions) as quickly as possible,” Paul said Tuesday.

The Greens have also pledged to create a guaranteed basic income and on Tuesday Paul pledged to work with other parties to address homelessness and expensive housing costs by declaring a national emergency, creating a retroactive benefit payment for tenants, and working with provinces and cities to build at least 300,000 affordable units over the next 10 years.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

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Anna Keenan, a Green candidate who is running for the party in Prince Edward Island, told the Star last week that she knows the party is “very actively” finalizing the Green platform and that she expected it would be released in the coming days. Michelle Bowman, another candidate running in Guelph, Ont., said last week that the platform would be released “shortly.”

Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party has also not yet released a platform for the current federal election. The Star reported last week that the party was still reviewing their platform.

The NDP, meanwhile, published a list of promises without total costing details days before the election began. And the Conservatives released their platform — also without costing details — last week.

Both parties say they’ve submitted their pledges to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, which will analyze costs and potential revenues and release these estimates to the public.

Alex Ballingall is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @aballinga