Dear Editor,
Another election has come and gone, and we’re still talking in circles about issues without getting down to the root problems that are the cause of those issues. Our current adversarial electoral system is not helping, we need electoral reform.
The big root problems will only be solved by people working together, overcoming our differences, listening to each other and putting all ideas on the table. Political division in this province is hindering our democracy and our ability to meet the immediate and future needs of people and the planet. Electoral reform with Proportional Representation will help solve this.
More than 100 people died in Spain this week due to a year's worth of rain falling in a span of eight hours. Is that not something we should be concerned about here in Saskatchewan? Our global environment is demanding our attention, why aren’t we listening to it, and responding appropriately to its demands? This is a big root problem.
Let me be clear, the future of our current “quality of life” is being existentially challenged and we’re not talking about it. Instead we talk about the catchphrase “continual economic growth” as being the salvation to all our problems.
There is no such thing as “continual economic growth”. It is an unsustainable concept. Just think about it logically for even one minute. Everything dies, everything has a lifespan. Nothing will last or grow forever, including money!
We’re so wrapped up in thinking about our own immediate needs and wants that we are forgetting the big picture and the future generations to come.
We are also depleting the world’s renewable and nonrenewable natural resources at an alarming rate to try and keep up with our current industrialized nation’s insatiable demands for unsustainable goods and services. This is driven by the current model of continual economic growth, as well as the marketing and consumer brainwashing that goes along with that. This model is not sustainable.
One of the most important issues we face today is “affordability” and the fact that many people are barely making ends meet, living from paycheck to paycheck. This is directly related to the above mentioned “continual economic growth” mindset, yet we don’t see it, because the machine of industry doesn’t want us to.
We’re like hamsters on a wheel. We need to get off that wheel and make a plan.
As a Green Party candidate in the recent election, I had hoped to plant the seed of a different way forward, an alternative to the current accepted way of life. Uptake is slow in this area, but I will continue to give voters a choice to move away from our unsustainable economic model, to one that will have potential to support us all, forever.
I’m advocating for the development of a circular economy as opposed to the "continual growth" economic model. Circular economies are sustainable and rely on products and production models built with sustainability as the #1 goal. Sustainability is defined as the ability to be able to do something forever.
What would this look like you ask?
A few of my favourites would be: Laws that limit the manufacturing of items that are not 100% recyclable; Policies and legislation that empower locally determined food production and sales, that build sustainable affordable communities and lessens the grip large corporate food chains have over us; Financial and tax incentives for small and medium businesses that produce and sell goods and services that fit into the circular economic model. I could go on and on, there are so many good ideas out there.
In closing, we don’t need unlimited growth, we need innovative, sustainable growth ideas that support us all without killing our planet. Everything else (like healthcare and education) will fall into place, as long as we work together and quit fighting over who is more capable to lead us into the future.
Electoral reform with Proportional Representation is needed more than ever to help us solve these big root problems.
Valerie Brooks, Saltcoats
