QUALITY OF LIFE: WE CAN AFFORD TO CARE
SECURITY IS GLOBAL AND LOCAL
Recent international terrorist events in the United States have brought home the realization that North America is not immune to the problems of the world. Poverty and environmental degradation in other countries create the despair and instability that provide opportunities for self-justification of violent actions. International issues such as debt cancellation for least-wealthy nations, fair-trade arrangements, environmentally sustainable development, and global social justice should now be central to the issue of security here at home. The Federal Green Party has been advancing progressive policies on these concerns for a long time. It is time Ontario used its power within the Confederation to advocate for these issues.
Personal security, on the other hand, is also about
having safe water, air, food, community, and workplace. Thousands of Ontarians
die every year from poor natural resource use practices and the continuing
fossil-fuel oriented urban-development model. This annual death toll now seems
accepted as normal and therefore we see very little action from government.
Only events that concentrate the tragedy in one place appear on the government
and media radar screens. Unfortunately, most of these avoidable deaths are
dispersed across the whole population and therefore disappear in the statistics.
This deeper personal security needs to be addressed with as much vigour as
that of national security. To do otherwise is to show reckless disregard for
the security of the people of Ontario. The Green Party not only considers
the issue of environmental and community security as critical, it addresses
many of these problems directly with policy solutions. We will not play a
public-relations game with the lives of fellow Ontarians.