Situation

Political Platform I (Visible), May 2007

As an eco-libertarian and bio-regionalist, I maintain the following:

• The May-Dion pact, separate from Green and Liberal philosophies, is a political act. As such, it can be contested at the electoral level. For those Liberal voters who are opposed to having their freedom of political expression denied and who will not vote Green, Conservative or NDP, I am offering the electoral option for a more constructive protest vote than merely staying home on election night. Needless to say, the Green principle of grass-roots democracy is out the window.

• The Green Party of Canada (GPC) has betrayed and abandoned the core Green political principles of bioregionalism and political decentralization. With climate change a given, it is imperative for a political entity to own these principles as it is the nation’s regions that will be affected in different ways. Where the ecological problems will be is where the solutions will need to be crafted with the aid of the Federal government.

• The Federal government should seriously consider endorsing the commercial designation of Atlantica, with the proviso that Nova Scotia’s rolling stock be upgraded. Rail transport would displace the high volume of truck traffic, with its high levels of pollution, to transport incoming goods at the province’s ports. It’s not rocket science. The upgrading of the province’s rolling stock translates into a vast opportunity for TrentonWorks, a business whose business is steel and the manufacture of rail cars. (Note: For a handy primer, should anyone not be familiar with Joel Garreau's seminal work published in 1981, The Nine Nations of North America, please click here to go to a Wikipedia overview.)

As a conscientious human being, I maintain the following:

• The voters of Central Nova have the democratic right to freedom of expression. Given a realistic political medium and opportunity, they have the right and the obligation to themselves to correct the blatant democratic wrong committed unto them by Elizabeth May and Stéphane Dion as leaders of their respective political parties.

Addendum:

I was a member of the first Green party founded in the Americas, the Green Party of British Columbia. At the time of my resignation from the GPBC in 1986, I sat on the Executive and was a candidate-elect for the upcoming 1986 BC provincial elections. I have never held a party membership with any federal party.

Political Platform II (Somewhat Visible)

• Politely, but firmly, send May-Dion packing from Central Nova.

Political Platform III (Cloaked, though not hidden)

• Kick-start a dialogue and philosophical exploration for the creation of a new Federal political party in the Maritimes, tentatively called The Atlantica Alliance Party, based on the following historical premises and context:

• The GPC has abandoned the political principles of bioregions and decentralization. A political vacuum on the transitory cusp separating the Industrial Age from the Information/Ecological Age seems evident. Nature abhors a vacuum.

• To the best of my knowledge, no one on the ecological political stage, e.g. Green parties, David Suzuki, Al Gore, etc., has yet to inform the Canadian public how the destiny of industrial civilization, i.e. global warming to name one factor, is locked into the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics, that the ecological "bullet" that is heading for our social institutions is one that cannot be dodged:

• First Law: All matter and energy in the universe are constant; it cannot be created nor destroyed. Only its form can be changed, but never its essence.

• Second Law (The Entropy Law): Matter and energy can only be changed in one direction, from usable to unusable, from available to unavailable, from ordered to disordered. Every time energy is transformed from one state to another, a penalty is exacted. That penalty is a loss in the amount of available energy to perform work of some kind in the future. The term for this "penalty" is entropy. The implication is that all social phenomena is moving in the direction of random chaos and waste, i.e. maximum entropy.

• The Entropy Law is not an opinion. It is a physical law, as true as the Law of Gravity. We are as blind to it and its consequences as were pre-Copernican monks to the rotation of the earth around the sun.

• As such, the signing of The Kyoto Protocol was very likely too late by about 25 years. Industrial civilization is a runaway train on a downhill slope that will have to run its course. Hope and work for the best; prepare for the worst.

• The 2007 Federal Budget has made evident how politically isolated and lacking in political leverage, i.e. divided and conquered, the Maritimes are. A regional electoral block of 32 ridings translates into a hard, political asset with which to negotiate future needs.

• The Federal Conservative Government has delivered the historical precedent of “nation-within-a-nation” status for the region/province of Québec. The constitutional premise and template for a new Federalism to meet the ecological challenges confronting the nation are at hand.

• Atlantica lies latent on the east coast, Cascadia on the west coast, Québec already established. What is the ROC to do?

• To take part in the dialogue towards this possibility, please stay tuned for the launch of a dedicated site and/or blog, likely a kind of Online Steering Committee, based on visitor interest. If you are interested in taking part in this dialogue, please send an email to sebastian.ronin@ns.sympatico.ca and place in the subject field "Atlantica Alliance."

• The political and jurisdictional initiative for Maritime Union will have to come from the Provincial level. Such an initiative is in its nascent stages with the creation of The Atlantica Party. The strategic analogy to the political stance taken by Quebec to advocate its interests should be obvious. Recognizing different motives and objectives, the creation of a federal Atlantica Alliance Party in league with the provincial Atlantica Party reflects the same political logistics and relationship between the federal Bloc Québecois and the provincial Parti Québecois: regional interests and positions are mutually advocated at both the Provincial and Federal levels.