Let's build a green legacy!

Manitoba has been blessed with an abundance of fresh water. We have been able to harness the power of many of these powerful rivers up north to make us a leader in renewable and clean energy.

Mega-dam projects were once the most efficient and profitable way to produce clean, renewable energy. Unfortunately, the NDP still believe that this is the way to build a profitable publicly owned Manitoba Hydro. Under the leadership of the NDP, Manitoba Hydro has been saddled with unsustainable levels of debt which has caused rate hikes for Manitobans.These large scale projects mega-projects reliant on spot priced export contracts are a very risky gamble for the future our crown corporation.

Manitoba's energy production must shift with the technology and the times. Mega-dams are yesterday's technology. We must move towards small to medium scale locally based energy production. This means we need to encourage citizens, businesses and city to become energy self reliant. To do this we must encourage the development of small and medium scale solar, biomass and wind energy projects.

Manitoba Hydro's is perfectly placed to act as a driver of this energy strategy shift.

The Green Legacy Program

Through a two pronged program it can encouraged the small to medium scale production of energy by Manitobans for Manitobans.

The Green Legacy Program would include:

- A Green Manitoba Hydro Bonds Campaign that would offer low-cost capitals to individuals and corporations who wish to purchase qualified renewable energy producing technology.

- A Standard offer sheet program similar to British Columbia's for buying back power produced by these small and medium scale energy projects.  

This program would create incentives for investments in clean technology while avoiding the rate hike pressures of a feed-in-tarrif, as is currently being seen in Ontario.

The Green Legacy Program would ensure a viable, sustainable, publicly owned crown corporation for generations of Manitobans to come.

 

Let's build a legacy!

The contest to become Manitoba's Leader of the Official Opposition and possibly the next Premier of the province should not go uncontested.

Given that Dan Lett's and my laments on the lack of candidates in the current PC leadership race haven`t inspired any challengers to step up, I have decided to take the drastic step of officially unofficially declaring my candidacy for the leadership of Manitoba's Progressive Conservative Party.

(Of course given that I am now a resident of Ontario, have in no way shape or form any financial or organisational resources, or have the permission of my chief of staff (i.e. my better-half) to do this, it shouldn't be too much of a problem right?)

So let's get this thing started! Let's start building a legacy for this great province!  Manitoba needs to do better and will only do so with a striving, healthy democracy!

As much as the NDP may now believe it is their natural right to govern this province, that it is okay to curry favour and cut the line for Jets tickets for their friends, together we can show them that one has to earn and respect the privilege to govern!

Together we can work confidently towards 2015 knowing that last fall 46% of Manitobans believed it was time for change and believed in our Party's vision.

We need to unleash and harness the power of Manitoba's diversified economy, bridge the divides between our rural, urban and northern communities, and transform our health care system to ensure that the growing needs of patients take precedence over those of bureaucrats.

Over the next few weeks, I will roll out policy issues that I hope, my esteemed opponent will engage in so that the Party can benefit from some grassroots debate on the future of this province. Together let's build a legacy for the party, a legacy for our province and a legacy for our children!

Manitoba needs to aim higher… higher than one…

Manitoba’s opposition parties need to aim higher. 

Pallister’s slogan to “Aim Higher” is particularly apt to today’s lackluster state of provincial politics.  Over the past few days I had been thinking that the PC leadership race really needed to have more than one candidate.  So today, I was really happy to please that Dan Lett at the Free Press had tackled this specific issue.

The Progressive Conservatives Party needs to aim for a greater number of candidates in its leadership race. As Dan pointed out, it is impossible to talk about a grassroots renewal with simply one candidate.

The 1000 membership rule could have been a great renewal tool and encourage a greater number of candidates, if it had been implemented differently.  A two-step process should have been instituted in its place.

Rather than make selling a thousand memberships across the province a requirement for becoming a certified candidate, and thus be allowed to spend and raise money. The rule should have been put in place as a final requirement to appear on the ballot for the convention. Candidates should have been able to become certified candidates with 50 party members supporting them.

This would have made it easier for a lesser known candidate to step up, start raising money and a media presence in order to reach that 1000 membership threshold; thus enabling a real grassroots renewal.  Less known candidates would have been able to publicly raise money and use the longer leadership period to their advantage.

The Liberal Party of Manitoba needs to aim for more than a couple dozen people to vote on the future of the party. The Party “grassroots” voted 25 to 17 to reject formal talks of merger with the greens.  While the party said it still has 1000 paid members, the fact that less people that come to my family Christmas party voted on the future of the party speaks volumes.  

The Liberals are in a dangerous position of being replaced by the Greens as the third place party.  Green Leader James Beddome proved himself a capable communicator during the last campaign and if the new Liberal leader fails to articulate a clear ‘raison d’être’ for the party, I wouldn’t be surprised if in the 2015 election there are no Liberals on the ballot.

If Manitoba’s opposition parties fail to get it right, the province risks becoming a one-party province like Alberta.  Let’s hope they don’t fail so that Manitobans can have the choice of aiming for something more than a higher deficit and higher taxes….