Being Green

The Green Party is part of the international network of Green Parties of which there are over 100 members.  30 countires have elected Greens to the government with several of those holding portfolios.  They have made a huge difference in the world and are looking to do the same here in Canada.

While each Party is fully independend and sets their own policy, they all adhere to 6 key values.

• Ecological Wisdom
• Social Justice
• Participatory Democracy
• Nonviolence
• Sustainability
• Respect for Diversity

We, as citizens of the planet and members of the Global Greens,

United in our awareness that we depend on the Earth's vitality, diversity and beauty, and that it is our responsibility to pass them on, undiminished or even improved, to the next generation

Recognising that the dominant patterns of human production and consumption, based on the dogma of economic growth at any cost and the excessive and wasteful use of natural resources without considering Earth's carrying capacity, are causing extreme deterioration in the environment and a massive extinction of species

Acknowledging that injustice, racism, poverty, ignorance, corruption, crime and violence, armed conflict and the search for maximum short term profit are causing widespread human suffering

Accepting that developed countries through their pursuit of economic and political goals have contributed to the degradation of the environment and of human dignity

Understanding that many of the world's peoples and nations have been impoverished by the long centuries of colonisation and exploitation, creating an ecological debt owed by the rich nations to those that have been impoverished

Committed to closing the gap between rich and poor and building a citizenship based on equal rights for all individuals in all spheres of social, economic, political and cultural life

Recognising that without equality between men and women, no real democracy can be achieved

Concerned for the dignity of humanity and the value of cultural heritage

Recognising the rights of indigenous people and their contribution to the common heritage, as well as the right of all minorities and oppressed peoples to their culture, religion, economic and cultural life

Convinced that cooperation rather than competition is a pre-requisite for ensuring the guarantee of such human rights as nutritious food, comfortable shelter, health, education, fair labour, free speech, clean air, potable water and an unspoilt natural environment

Recognising that the environment ignores borders between countries

and

Building on the Declaration of the Global Gathering of Greens at Rio in 1992

Assert the need for fundamental changes in people's attitudes, values, and ways of producing and living

Declare that the new millennium provides a defining point to begin that transformation

Resolve to promote a comprehensive concept of sustainability which

• protects and restores the integrity of the Earth's ecosystems, with special concern for biodiversity and the natural processes that sustain life
• acknowledges the interrelatedness of all ecological, social and economic processes
• balances individual interests with the common good
• harmonises freedom with responsibility
• welcomes diversity within unity
• reconciles short term objectives with long term goals
• ensures that future generations have the same right as the present generation to natural and cultural benefits

Affirm our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations

Commit ourselves as Green parties and political movements from around the world to implement these interrelated principles and to create a global partnership in support of their fulfilment