Night Music: Janis Live

The Greening of East Vancouver

Yesterday, the Green Party of Canada officially opened their Vancouver East office on Commercial Drive.  Their candidate, Wes Regan, was joined by national leader Elizabeth May, Vancouver leader Adriane Carr, and provincial candidate Pete Fry.

(1) Wes Regan (2) Elizabeth May (3) part of the crowd (4) growlers for Regan

Those who have read me regularly will know that, as an anarchist, I think a federal election is, at best, an exercise in faux democracy designed to keep elites in power; and I refuse to participate.  However, most of you will take part and, if you do, I hope that those of you in East Van decide to vote Green.  Not only is Wes Regan an excellent candidate and — as his growlers say — a person I wouldn’t mind having a beer with, but in both policy and institutional structure, the Greens are far ahead of the pack.

Overall, their policies are considerably more progressive than any other party, stressing local communities, climate and environmental awareness, working with First Nations.  Moreover, they came out against C-51 (the Police State bill) immediately it was announced. For some reason, it took Mulcair about three weeks to come out against it (did he have to wait for polling results to tell him what to do?)

Institutionally, they are as close to a non-party as we can get in this system.  In her short speech at the opening yesterday, Ms. May stressed that, in Ottawa, Wes Regan would not be representing the Green Party but would be there as a delegate from his constituents.  Importantly, the Green Party has no whipped votes. Unlike ALL the other parties, Green MPs are allowed to vote as they and their voters think best, not how the party brass tells them to.

As the polls show the race becoming a tight three-way race, there is a chance that the Greens could hold the balance of power.  We know that neither the Conservatives nor the Liberals have any chance of winning East Vancouver. And lets face it, Jenny Kwan is no Libby Davies — even though she and her party assume their entitlement to win here. So, if you are going to vote, I urge you to make it for Wes Regan and the Green Party of Canada.

 

Janis Joplin

45 years ago today, Janis Joplin was found dead in her motel room.  The cause of death was a heroin overdose, possibly accidental.  She was just 27 years old.

Many of us boomers think highly of the 1960s, and Janis Joplin was one of the true standout artists of that talent-saturated period.  Her looks, her swagger, her drug abuse, her odd affairs with people like Leonard Cohen, and most of all her voice — she sure had a lot of difficult things to pull herself through; and in the end she didn’t make it.  But we are all the richer for her life and all the poorer for her untimely death.