Canadians Against Pesticides - CANADA'S POLITICAL PARTIES: ELECTION PLATFORM ON PESTICIDE REFORM
Home About Us Message Health The Ban Solutions The News Mission Email Us






PESTICIDE REFORM MUST BE ELECTION PRIORITY

With the election looming, candidates are crisscrossing the nation seeking you vote. We want to ensure that pesticide reform becomes a key issue. To that end, we offer a brief look at each federal party's official position on the topic. We include links to their respective websites so you can scrutinize these platforms yourself.

NEW ENVIRONICS POLL:
50% of Canadians say environment is a key election issue.
Click for the details.

 RESPONSES TO OUR QUESTIONNAIRE

CAPS has contacted each party with specific questions on how they will remedy the pesticide issue. Here are the responses we have received so far.

 ALLIANCE'S RESPONSE

NDP'S RESPONSE
CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST "GALLON LETTER" CRITIQUE OF EACH PARTY'S POSITION ON ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE


OFFICIAL PARTY PLATFORMS

Prior To CAPS Sending our PESTICIDE QUESTIONNAIRE, we assessed each of the major parties on the basis of their available position statements. It may be interesting to note how these platforms alter as they respond to our questionnaire and deal with hotbutton issues during debates.

The ALLIANCE PARTY offers no specific plans to reform pesticide legislation in its current election platform. In fact, Alliance's platform on Environment Issues is minimal, at best. ALLIANCE is, firstly, pro-business, so it is no surprise that the party has not issued concrete and profound plans to eliminate toxic pesticide chemicals from sale and application. The best we get from official Alliance policy is as follows:

"We will encourage business and industry to develop conservation solutions and will recognize those who deliver improvements in environmentally efficient production."


The NDP and LIBERAL parties have expressed pro-reform stances on health/environmental issues including pesticides. It should, however, be noted that the Liberals are high on pesticide reform rhetoric but low on action. Today, 5 months after the U.S. ban on Dursban (a highly toxic insecticide), it remains on the shelves of canadian hardware stores and Health Minister Allan Rock has announced NO actual plans for its removal and ban.
The NDP has been very vocal in its criticism of LIBERAL inaction on the Dursban issue. Here is Alexa McDonough's formal statement:

"The Liberals choose to let Toronto garbage pollute the water table in Northern Ontario and Quebec with no federal environmental assessment. They choose to fly plutonium over Canada. And they choose not to ban pesticides they promised to ban months ago. Their choices are plain wrong."

 Note, however, that they do not offer their own party policy on pesticide reform.

PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE Election 2001 platform makes NO MENTION of pesticide reform, nor is there discussion of any plans for environmental protection. The PC's have a long history of being pro-industry, so it's no surprise that such issues are avoided in campaign rhetoric.

The GREEN PARTY is the clear winner when it comes to environment issues. The Green platform on pesticide reform and pro-organic solutions is extensive. Some policies include:

"...to phase out Agriculture Canada and other federal research support for large-scale agribusiness chemical, pesticide and genetic and other bioengineering practices and refocus support on the development of family and community scale ecological agriculture models, principles and practices such as biological soil and pest management approaches like soil rebuilding crop rotations, companion planting, intercropping, and perennial polycultures."

"...to support the efforts of organic and ecological agriculture associations in establishing organic/ecological farm practice codes, standards and certification processes. Included in the principles and standards would be: the use of naturally bred, nongenetically manipulated plant or animal seedstock; soils, plants and pests managed and grown without synthetic pesticides or significant soil loss or deterioration; farmstead and fields planned and worked as part of an integral preserved or restored ecommunity of native woodlands, grasslands, wetlands and watershed protecting native plant and animal habitat; livestock provided with species-appropriate shelter, space and freedom of movement, clean water, natural foods free of antibiotics, no growth or lactation stimulants and humane treatment and transport."

The platform is not perfect. Yet, it is certainly leaps and bounds ahead of the others. You may want to check out the GREEN PARTY site for a more comprehensive understanding of its platform. The Green's have come a long way in developing policies that deal with all major issues, from the economy to health.

Watch this site for more official party statements and other commentary as Canada's CAMPAIGN 2000 heads toward a November Federal Election.