The Leap Manifesto
We start from the premise that Canada is facing the deepest crisis in recent memory:[This is a bald and arrogant overstatement. The "crisis" is that almost nobody agrees with them. Not every problem is a crisis. In fact, not every "problem" is real at all.]
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has acknowledged shocking details about the violence of Canada’s near past. Deepening poverty and inequality are a scar on the country’s present. And Canada’s record on climate change is a crime against humanity’s future.
[For those unfamiliar with Canadian politics, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission looking into some shameful aspects of Canada's past. How this became "the deepest crisis in recent memory" is a mystery.]
These facts are all the more jarring because they depart so dramatically from our stated values: respect for Indigenous rights, internationalism, human rights, diversity, and environmental stewardship. Canada is not this place today— but it could be.
We could live in a country powered entirely by renewable energy, woven together by accessible public transit, in which the jobs and opportunities of this transition are designed to systematically eliminate racial and gender inequality. Caring for one another and caring for the planet could be the economy’s fastest growing sectors. Many more people could have higher wage jobs with fewer work hours, leaving us ample time to enjoy our loved ones and flourish in our communities.
[Bald Utopianism.]
We know that the time for this great transition is short. Climate scientists have told us that this is the decade to take decisive action to prevent catastrophic global warming. That means small steps will no longer get us where we need to go.
[Here, we see genuine social issues tried to climate issues explicitly to make "Manifesto" action urgent. No time to think. No need to vote. No need to consider facts, costs, or priorities. The manifesto is now 8 years old. Did the crisis come and go while I slept?]
SO WE NEED TO LEAP
This leap must begin by respecting the inherent rights and title of the original caretakers of this land. Indigenous communities have been at the forefront of protecting rivers, coasts, forests and lands from out-of-control industrial activity. We can bolster this role, and reset our relationship, by fully implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
“Small steps will no longer get us to where we need to go. So we need to leap”.
[As implied by the name "Manifesto," this is a call for revolution, which makes it "Utopian." One must say that the United Nations has come up with a lot of declarations. None has the force of law, as implied here. We can judge the effectiveness of such declarations by how the UN has managed its founding goal: World Peace. The UN deserves an article on its own, but I regard most of its "declarations," including those coming from the IPCC, as "Utopian." ]
Moved by the treaties that form the legal basis of this country and bind us to share the land “for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows and the rivers flow,” we want energy sources that will last for time immemorial and never run out or poison the land. Technological breakthroughs have brought this dream within reach. The latest research shows it is feasible for Canada to get 100% of its electricity from renewable resources within two decades[1]; by 2050 we could have a 100% clean economy[2].
[The claim that we can get 100% of our electricity from renewable resources is blatantly false and misleading. Does "getting ... electricity" means electrical generation? Even in that limited sense, does this mean we have the technology to create the baseline power generation and massive increase in infrastructure to support "renewables."]
We demand that this shift begin now.
There is no longer an excuse for building new infrastructure projects that lock us into increased extraction decades into the future. The new iron law of energy development must be: if you wouldn’t want it in your backyard, then it doesn’t belong in anyone’s backyard. That applies equally to oil and gas pipelines; fracking in New Brunswick, Quebec and British Columbia; increased tanker traffic off our coasts; and to Canadian-owned mining projects the world over.The time for energy democracy has come: we believe not just in changes to our energy sources, but that wherever possible communities should collectively control these new energy systems.
[Hidden in this demand is the requirement that Canada stops exporting oil and gas. Balancing this would be a huge demand for foreign technology solar panels and wind farms. Nuclear (ruled out by Kline) is the only technology that can promise a reliable baseline power supply. Neither the issue nor the solution is mentioned. Note also that the Manifesto calls for shutting down Canadian ventures in other countries. The Manifesto is against mining. Presumably the lithium and copper required for renewable energy projects will magically appear without mining it.]
As an alternative to the profit-gouging of private companies and the remote bureaucracy of some centralized state ones, we can create innovative ownership structures: democratically run, paying living wages and keeping much-needed revenue in communities. And Indigenous Peoples should be first to receive public support for their own clean energy projects. So should communities currently dealing with heavy health impacts of polluting industrial activity.[The above is an explicit attack on the "capitalist" economic system. No alternative is proposed so we must assume a top-down command economy such as the one that failed in the Soviet Union. Or worse. Typically, the fact that the shares of large corporations are held directly by ordinary people or indirectly through their pension funds. This is, in fact, an "innovative structure" that is at the heart of the capitalist economy.]
Power generated this way will not merely light our homes but redistribute wealth, deepen our democracy, strengthen our economy and start to heal the wounds that date back to this country’s founding.
[We have heard this promise before: the "classless" society. These proposals will not "redistribute" wealth; they will destroy it, starting with the fossil fuel industry.]
A leap to a non-polluting economy creates countless openings for similar multiple “wins.” We want a universal program to build energy efficient homes, and retrofit existing housing, ensuring that the lowest income communities and neighbourhoods will benefit first and receive job training and opportunities that reduce poverty over the long term. We want training and other resources for workers in carbon-intensive jobs, ensuring they are fully able to take part in the clean energy economy. This transition should involve the democratic participation of workers themselves. High-speed rail powered by renewables and affordable public transit can unite every community in this country – in place of more cars, pipelines and exploding trains that endanger and divide us.[ "Renewables" require heavy mining, so they are not really renewable at all. High-speed rail requires massive amounts of a steel-a major source of greenhouse gasses.]
And since we know this leap is beginning late, we need to invest in our decaying public infrastructure so that it can withstand increasingly frequent extreme weather events.
Moving to a far more localized and ecologically-based agricultural system would reduce reliance on fossil fuels, capture carbon in the soil, and absorb sudden shocks in the global supply – as well as produce healthier and more affordable food for everyone.
We call for an end to all trade deals that interfere with our attempts to rebuild local economies, regulate corporations and stop damaging extractive projects. Rebalancing the scales of justice, we should ensure immigration status and full protection for all workers. Recognizing Canada’s contributions to military conflicts and climate change — primary drivers of the global refugee crisis — we must welcome refugees and migrants seeking safety and a better life.
["Reform" of the food supply system is implied here, which will imply a further hit to the economy since "capitalism" - return on investment - needs to be outlawed.]
Shifting to an economy in balance with the earth’s limits also means expanding the sectors of our economy that are already low carbon: caregiving, teaching, social work, the arts and public-interest media. Following on Quebec’s lead, a national childcare program is long past due. All this work, much of it performed by women, is the glue that builds humane, resilient communities – and we will need our communities to be as strong as possible in the face of the rocky future we have already locked in.
Since so much of the labour of caretaking – whether of people or the planet – is currently unpaid, we call for a vigorous debate about the introduction of a universal basic annual income. Pioneered in Manitoba in the 1970’s, this sturdy safety net could help ensure that no one is forced to take work that threatens their children’s tomorrow, just to feed those children today.
We declare that “austerity” – which has systematically attacked low-carbon sectors like education and healthcare, while starving public transit and forcing reckless energy privatizations – is a fossilized form of thinking that has become a threat to life on earth.How we can pay for all of this? Read “We Can Afford The Leap” by Bruce Campbell, Seth Klein, and Marc Lee
The money we need to pay for this great transformation is available — we just need the right policies to release it. Like an end to fossil fuel subsidies. Financial transaction taxes. Increased resource royalties. Higher income taxes on corporations and wealthy people. A progressive carbon tax. Cuts to military spending. All of these are based on a simple “polluter pays” principle and hold enormous promise.
[I'd love to see the math here. They demand not just the elimination of the fossil fuel subsidies industry but the elimination of that industry. There is an implied attack on all forms of "capitalist" contribution to the economy. How does that magically fund the socialist agenda?]
One thing is clear: public scarcity in times of unprecedented private wealth is a manufactured crisis, designed to extinguish our dreams before they have a chance to be born.
Those dreams go well beyond this document. “We call on all those seeking political office to seize this opportunity and embrace the urgent need for transformation”. We call for town hall meetings across the country where residents can gather to democratically define what a genuine leap to the next economy means in their communities.
Inevitably, this bottom-up revival will lead to a renewal of democracy at every level of government, working swiftly towards a system in which every vote counts and corporate money is removed from political campaigns.
[Experience shows (see below) that these ideas utterly fail as a "bottom-up" renewal of democracy. They are non-starters in the real world of democracy. Therefore, I see them as anti-democratic, as revolutions tend to be.]
This is a great deal to take on all at once, but such are the times in which we live.
[NO KIDDING!]
The drop in oil prices has temporarily relieved the pressure to dig up fossil fuels as rapidly as high-risk technologies will allow. This pause in frenetic expansion should not be viewed as a crisis, but as a gift.It has given us a rare moment to look at what we have become – and decide to change.
And so we call on all those seeking political office to seize this opportunity and embrace the urgent need for transformation. This is our sacred duty to those this country harmed in the past, to those suffering needlessly in the present, and to all who have a right to a bright and safe future.
[Gotta say "sacred duty" explicitly makes this a pseudo-religious campaign. Don't expect logic to interfere.]
Now is the time for boldness.
now is the time to leap
Here is the Wikipedia entry on "LEAP," which delves into Canadian politics' impact.
In reality, NDP leader Tom Mulcair distanced the party from the manifesto and instead ran a moderate, "pragmatic" campaign that included promises to balance the budget and effectively perpetuate austerity.[15][16]
As it turned out, that campaign was a disaster for the NDP.
Then [NDP] premier Rachel Notley and president of the Alberta Federation of Labour Gill McGowan were vocal opponents, citing the centrality of the oil industry to Alberta's economy—and the industry's desire for new pipelines—as reasons to reject the manifesto.[5]
Gutting the Alberta economy would not be popular with Alberta voters. This raises the key problem with the "Manifesto." Like manifestos before it, policies would be rammed down the throats of ordinary people. Whatever its merits, The Manifesto could not be implemented in a democratic country. Notley's attempt to moderate the anti-capitalist tone failed. She lost the next provincial election to the far right. The dispute continues, with Alberta challenging the right of the Federal Government to cripple the economy of a province to meet climate change goals.
Bernie Sanders in the United States and Jeremy Corbyn in the United Kingdom, but the NDP, under new leader Jagmeet Singh, again distanced itself from the manifesto.[29]
No further detail is needed. The Manifesto is dead in the water as a serious proposal. It is chiefly of interest as a fossil remnant of a Utopian dream.
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PS --- Here is a presentation that depicts the explosive need for mining to meet the "energy transition."
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