Green Party of Canada leadership candidate Mike Morrice.
Green Party of Canada leadership candidate Mike Morrice. Credit: Mike Morrice Credit: Mike Morrice

Please tell our readers three policies to promote sustainability and combat climate change you would champion as Green Part of Canada (GPC) leader.

The window is closing for us to preserve a safe future for our children and grandchildren, and successive Liberal and Conservative governments have failed to meet the moment we’re in. Canada can and should be a global leader, taking decisive action on the climate emergency while creating jobs and wealth at home.

As leader, three overarching policies I would champion are:

1. Climate solutions that meet the moment we’re in, including the rapid scale-up of renewables, building world-class public transit, and building a modern, resilient, coast to coast to coast national electricity grid.

2. Bringing back fairness for the 99%, recognizing that the climate crisis and wealth concentration by the billionaire class and Big Oil are the same issue. This includes ending all public subsidies to oil and gas companies (which are mostly foreign owned), introducing an inheritance and gift tax on fortunes over $10 million, and enacting an excess profit tax on oil and gas companies whose profits exceed $1 billion, as has already been done in other countries like the UK and as I proposed in my time as MP.

3. Ensuring our Parliament more accurately reflects the climate ambition of folks across the country, by committing to proportional representation as a non-negotiable demand when Greens next have the balance of power in Parliament, and by committing to good faith engagement with other progressive parties in the interest of electoral cooperation until we have proportional representation.

Which Carney government legislative initiatives would you change, if you could, and in what way?

As the Carney government has slid further and further to the right – taking not only policies from the Conservatives but MPs as well – this list is long.

One obvious example that I would tackle first is repealing Bill C-5, because it allows the government of the day to choose to ignore the law of the land on whichever project it would like, should the government decide a project is in the “national interest”. All this after just two days of study last June, in the rush to allow MPs to get home for an extended summer.

And of course, the first project the government deemed to merit this lawless approach is a pipeline whose construction has no private backing. A pipeline that transfers tens of billions from working class Canadians to mostly foreign owned oil and gas giants. A pipeline that commits us to increasing fossil fuel production while tens of thousands of Canadians are evacuated from their homes due to wildfires made worse by the climate crisis caused by fossil fuels.

The Carney government has moved forward with this same approach time and again, from gutting pesticide controls in Bill C-30 to curtailing freedom of expression and peaceful assembly in Bill C-9, all of which I would repeal.

This government moves quickly to bypass decades of existing legislation and regulation meant to protect our health, environmental, Indigenous, and charter rights all under the false pretense of standing up to Trump – while making concession after concession with nothing in return. 

How would you combat separatism in Quebec and Alberta?

As leader of the Green Party of Canada, I would combat separatist sentiment by uniting folks around our truly common struggles and shared opportunities in all parts of the country. Together, we can confront the billionaire class and the political parties who enable their hoarding of our wealth.

From coast to coast to coast, we are all feeling the squeeze as political leaders in this country continue to enable a wealth transfer from regular folks to the ultra-rich – to the point where 86 billionaires have more wealth than the bottom 6 million Canadians combined.

To combat alienation in every part of this country – including Quebec and Alberta – I would remind folks that our struggle is not against one another, but against the ultra-rich and the politicians who enable them.

By fighting for a government that prioritizes people, building an economy that works for the 99%, and taking decisive action on the climate emergency – we’ll unlock prosperity for working class folks in Quebec and Alberta that gets to the core of the alienation some feel.

Specifically when it comes to Quebec, as Green leader, I would also ensure we recognize how protecting the French language, investing in Quebecois culture, and respecting Quebec as a distinct society is critical to our success as a united country.

What would your conditions be for supporting a Liberal minority government?

As leader of the Green Party of Canada, I have committed that proportional representation would be the sole non-negotiable demand when Greens next have the balance of power in Parliament. 

If you were in charge of Canada-U.S. relations, what would your strategy be for dealing with the Trump administration?

If I were leading Canada-US relations, my overarching strategy would be to focus on unity as a country in the face of US aggression. This includes holding together the provinces and territories in the face of unpredictable actions from the Trump administration meant to divide us, it means ensuring workers most affected have the financial support they need to weather the storm, and it means ensuring small businesses have the tools they need to diversify to new markets.

Other priorities I have pushed for – like ending all subsidies to US-owned oil and gas giants like Imperial Oil – would further strengthen our position, and deviate from the Carney government’s current approach which hasn’t produced the stability Canadian families and individuals need.

What steps would you take to decrease growing economic inequality in Canada?

While Canada is a wealthy nation, our wealth is increasingly in the hands of a tiny fraction of billionaire families. While the rich get richer, most Canadians are struggling to pay their bills. My approach to bringing back fairness for the 99 percent in includes advocating for a system includes:

  • Reducing taxes on the lowest income workers, small businesses, and the middle class,
  • Incentivizing a living wage across public and private sectors,
  • Creating and protecting unionized jobs while standing up for all workers,
  • Taxing billionaires and the ultra-rich fairly on wealth over $10 million and introducing an inheritance and gift tax on fortunes over $10 million, and
  • Updating tax brackets with the addition of higher marginal income taxes on income over $1,000,000

What measures are necessary to empower Indigenous communities in Canada and assure their prosperity?

Empowering Indigenous communities begins by listening to Indigenous leaders, rather than simply paying lip service.

This begins by following through on what has been languishing for years: fulfilling all 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation commission, ensuring reliable access to safe, clean drinking water in all First Nations communities in Canada, and following through on all 231 Calls for Justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

There can be no prosperity without first truth and reconciliation.