The contestants are Bob Bell, and Russell Ott.

For voting eligibility see: Nomination Meeting

Bob Bell is a Guelph City Councillor, entrepreneur, business person, and founder of Pi Manufacturing, a local company that designs and produces environmentally progressive products and provides local jobs.

Bob has a long record in promoting environmental issues, sustainable businesses and local community development. For more on Bob see Who Is Bob?

Russell Ott is a Visual Artist and was born in Cambridge Ontario, but has lived in Guelph all of his life. He recently returned to Guelph permanently after a residency in the Niagara region for four years whilst attending school.
With such a keen interest in the arts, urban planning/development and politics, Russell has found himself working various groups of people including teaching elementary school students art and teaching adults with developmental disabilities the important life skills required to live and work a normal life. Russell has recently been working for Blind Ambition Solar Tech in Waterloo Ontario producing and installing vestibule signs for Loblaws Stores across Ontario. For more about Russell see Bio.

The nomination meeting will also be an opportunity to meet Mike Schreiner, Leadership Candidate for the Green Party of Ontario. Mike Schreiner is a recognized advocate for independent businesses and sustainable communities. He is well known for his leadership in founding Local Food Plus which won four awards, most recently the Gold Award for Sustainable Living in the Canadian Environmental Awards. For more information see Mike.

We are planning a nomination meeting in anticipation of a potential election call. The following are the requirements for voting at the nomination meeting. I encourage anyone interested in voting to get their membership now:
7.1. Every member of the Party has the right to attend a Nomination Meeting and has the right to vote at that
meeting if the member:
7.1.1. is present at the meeting;
7.1.2. has been a member of the Party for at least thirty days or has renewed a lapsed membership prior to, or at, the Nomination Meeting.
7.1.3. is ordinarily a resident of the Electoral District; and
7.1.4. has not voted at another candidate selection meeting held for the same election (except when the results of any such meeting are declared invalid).
7.2. Membership in the Party takes effect on the day the National Office of the GPC receives the fee and the membership application form.

For those of you who missed Elizabeth May’s visit on May 26th, here’s a video clip of her speech.
She touches on a variety of issues, including why she joined the Greens, the history of the Canadian Greens and her recent participation in the Global Greens Conference in Brazil.

In a previous post I pointed out that the key issue in a carbon tax is not to raise money, but rather to change behaviour. The key to this is to harness the universal human urge to avoid paying taxes. In that vein, one of our members suggested the following article by Lloyd Alter.

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Now that the Liberals have decided to steal the revenue neutral tax shift carbon tax proposal of the Green Party, the Conservatives and NDP have begun to unleash a FUD attack. “FUD” stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Deception, and grew out of the computer industry where companies with established market share play upon consumer’s fears of the unknown to stifle the growth of emerging competitors.
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Rick Mercer brings his usual wit and wisdom to the St. Patrick’s Day by-elections.

A lot of new YouTube videos have just been posted that involve peerless leader explaining Green Party of Canada policy. Just click on the links below and enjoy.

Elizabeth May on Foreign Policy

Elizabeth May and Canada’s Public Transportation System

Elizabeth May and Canada’s Railroads

Elizabeth May and Agriculture

Elizabeth May and Healthcare

Elizabeth May and Fishing

Elizabeth May and the May-Dion Deal

Elizabeth May Regarding Seniors and Poverty

Elizabeth May and the Proposed Carbon Tax

Elizabeth May Regarding Honesty and the Green Party

Elizabeth May regarding Escalating Education Costs

Elizabeth May and the Green Party

Elizabeth May and Affordable Housing

The Guelph Greens held their first of several strategic planning meetings for the next election campaign. As campaign manager Stan Kozak explained, the Green Party belongs to its volunteers, which is why he began planning by bringing them together for a brainstorming session to start the process of building the next campaign.

About 25 volunteers showed up for this first meeting, which Stan pointed out is about four times the number who showed up before the last election—and this is just the first meeting.

The process involved breaking up into different groups and holding small-group discussions about what we have done well in the past, what we could have done better, and how we want to improve things in the future.

A lot of good ideas were brought forward, which will then inform the Election Planning Group when it designs the next campaign.

So when the next call for participation in a planning session comes your way, think about getting involved. The Green Party is not some paid staff member in Ottawa—it is you.

For All Provincial results see Elections Ontario

The Guelph Greens have announced their campaign team for the January 23 federal election.

Supporting candidate Mike Nagy is a broad cross-section of Guelph residents and entrepreneurs led by Stan Kozak, an education consultant and principal of Curriculum Advisors, as campaign manager.

Moragh Lippert is the campaign’s official agent, with Andre Hueniken and Carl Griffin as fund-raising co-chairs. Bob Bell is signs coordinator. Tara Treanor is looking after voter contact with Gillian Maurice as volunteer coordinator and Arlene Slocombe as events coordinator.

Ben Bennett is communications coordinator.

“It’s a perfect mixture of youth and experience and we’re off and running” said Nagy.