A letter from Green Party candidate Clive Doucet to the people of Cape Breton—Canso | Unpublished
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Grand Etang, Nova Scotia
About the author

Clive Doucet is a distinguished Canadian writer and city politician. He was elected for four consecutive terms to city council in Ottawa from 1997 to 2010 when he retired to run for Mayor.

As a city politician he was awarded the Gallon Prize as the 2005 Canadian eco-councillor of the year. He was defeated twice by Jim Watson in 2010 and 2018 when he ran for the Mayor’s chair. He presently lives in Grand Etang, Inverness Co., Nova Scotia.

Mr. Doucet has agreed to write a series of nine essays about his Ottawa municipal career which
Unpublished Media will begin publishing in January 2023.

The story and opinions are his own.

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A letter from Green Party candidate Clive Doucet to the people of Cape Breton—Canso

October 13, 2019

Dear residents of Cape Breton—Canso,

Climate change is the problem but old party politics are digging us deeper.   We’ve got disaster after disaster right across the continent.  Wildfires from Alberta to California are torching the west.   Snow when there should be sun and sun when there should be snow.   Hurricane force winds storming up the east coast regular as clock work from the over-heated Caribbean, while the old party leaders are spending their time blaming each other.  It’s fiddling while Rome burns.

The next four years are not going to be easy for anyone.  Climate heating is going to get worse.  The ocean is warming and the cold water fish stocks are not coming back.  But, if we transition to a sustainable economy by making better use of resources and using new technology like solar, it will help ensure there are jobs in Cape Breton—Canso for decades to come.  So we can live and work here and keep our families together. 

The Guaranteed Basic Annual Income will help ensure everyone has enough to cover their basic costs.  Before a pilot project in Ontario was cancelled by the Doug Ford Conservatives, recipients of the Guaranteed Basic Annual Income reported the stress they felt just to get by each day had gone.  Their self-esteem improved.  They could finally take a breath and begin to plan for their future.  Canada is a rich country.   We should all have the chance to participate without fear of paying for the basics. 

It must be done, but we need to start with a new vision and a new commitment to creating a Cape Breton and a Canada that will work in this century, not spend all our time fighting about how to hang on to an old world that no longer exists. 

I’m asking you straight up. Let’s give Elizabeth May a real caucus so she can get to work in Ottawa for Canada, and I can work with her for Cape Breton. Send me to Ottawa to be part of the team.  You won’t be disappointed.   We will defend Cape Breton like it hasn’t been for many, many years. 

Clive Doucet, Green Party candidate

Cape Breton—Canso