What I got back, whether or not directly related to my letter, was sent to me because I must now be known within his office as a “concerned constituent” or “politically active.” Or whatever. Prentice’s letter was dated July 24 (precisely five months and four days after mine to him) and was a form letter.

Here’s the text from the letter:

“On June 19th, Parliament rose for the summer after a very eventful winter and spring. During this time, our Government made clear that our top priority was taking responsible, effective measures to strengthen and safeguard our economy. I would like to share with you the progress we have made in this area.

First, our Government has laid the groundwork for strong fundamentals by:

- Paying down our debt in good times so we now have more room to maneuver in tougher times.

- Lowering taxes across the board to help make Canadian companies more competitive and to relieve some of the financial pressure felt by families.

- Maintaining prudent regulations for banks to ensure they are strong enough to weather external pressures.

In January, after consultations with the provinces, business leaders, the opposition parties and Canadians, our Government introduced Canada’s Economic Action Plan. It is the largest infrastructure renewal program in half a century. The Plan is stimulating Canada’s economy in order to preserve and create jobs by speeding up investment in infrastructure. Projects receiving support include roads, bridges, transit systems, broadband internet infrastructure, scientific and technological research and development and clean energy projects.

Our Action Plan has received significant support both at home and abroad, exemplified by a recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which stated: ‘The IMF supports the strong fiscal package announced in January, which was large, timely, and well targeted, and it will buoy demand during the downturn.’

I was happy to see many of you at my Annual Calgary Centre-North Stampede Breakfast. While I have been working and travelling to prepare for the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen this December, I look forward to spending time in the constituency this summer and participating in some of the great events held in our communities. For more information on our Government or to contact me, please visit www.jimprentice.ca.”

The letter wasn’t even hand-signed. It was a jpeg signature, indicated by the pixelation in the letter “m.”

I can’t help but feel that I am a lowly peasant living in a village in medieval England. I feel like we all are. I feel that any Canadian who isn’t running a bank or a big business is merely a pee-on; who goes about their day while our rulers conduct their important matters with corporations and other nations. Every time we speak up we are appeased but not satisfied. We are given our bread which keeps us quiet, and the King continues to wallow amongst aristocrats and converse with his bankrollers. Whenever we speak up we are told that every initiative is by us and for us, though fundamentally, we are brushed aside and ignored.

But nowadays, appeasement does not suffice. Interest groups, activists and lobbyists leverage much more influence and power via the internet and dramatically improved communications amongst opposition parties. In fact, this simple blog post might be picked up by hundreds, if not thousands, of similarly distressed Canadians. Before you know it, you’ll have a communications crisis on your hands that could have been mitigated by actually replying to someone whom you directly represent in government. But don’t go calling now; no sir, it is too late for knee-jerk, reactionary response. Besides, that’s not the character that I want in my representative.

Mr. Prentice, in response to your form letter, four red flags prominently rise:

- why are we seeking economic action approval from the IMF rather than that of Canadians? I recall your parliament proroguing rather than facing the music the first time you tried passing a budget this past winter.

- if you’re interested in paying off the debt, why did you slash the GST from 7% to 5%, ultimately reducing the government tax intake by approximately $7 billion per year? Oh, wait, that was so I could save $2.40 off the next pair of shoes I buy. Right.

- show us some proof that ACTION is actually being taken. In all the fields you mention, especially “clean energy,” I’d love to see what you’re doing there. It is your department afterall. Your ‘Plan’ would be more aptly titled, “Economic Ambiguity,” as it seems that you have no interest in connecting the dots for us, and your government has divested all accountability in proving that it has actually resulted in anything. You’ve allocated money, sure. But to what? Let’s see some proof that there are shovels in the ground, as your government has so plainly advocated. Shouldn’t be that hard, and with proof I’m sure you’d see reciprocal votes. Tit for tat.

- I was not at your Stampede Breakfast, which, by the way, apparently featured styrofoam plates and cups. Not great imagery for the Minister of the Environment.

Sir, I am done writing you. If I write you a letter and all I get in return is a photocopy of something one of your staffers wrote and had cleared by the PMO, I won’t bother wasting my time. It is clear that you are representing your government and not your constituents, which is entirely the opposite of your job description. Sensible people see right through your camouflage. Mailing blanket statement form letters do more damage to your communications efforts than doing nothing at all. Moving forward, I will take my protest public and you can deal with the ramifications on your own time.

I didn’t win the $40 million lottery this weekend. Thankfully, no one won it, which means tomorrow’s jackpot is $49 million. I’m not normally a lottery player, but it’s fun when the jackpots are big and hey, if you don’t play, you can’t win.

If we ever won the lottery, we already know how we’d spend our winnings. There’d be the obligatory and celebratory sharing with family, but after that, we’d dedicate ourselves to causes that are particularly important to us. My cause of choice is nurturing the movement to repair the environment and encourage humanity to be more sustainable. Even without winning the lottery my wife and I are conscious of our impact and are evaluating everything we do through a green lens. I think we can all do more to take less from the environment, just by being more considerate of our actions.

Sustainability is a word that an organic farmer once told me was irrelevant because of its open-ended-ness, but I disagree. I think it’s the most important word in the world, because it blends what is thought to be hard-core environmentalism with maintaining a traditional lifestyle that the masses find hard to part with. It recognizes the varying degree of compromise that people make when they do something (but not everything) to save the environment. I disagree with the idea that some people think David Suzuki and Al Gore are hypocrites for taking airplanes to their speaking engagements, because they’re doing something and doing something is better than doing nothing at all. If everyone changed their light bulbs to CFLs, or replaced their toilets with low-flow models, or used public transit a bit more, I think we’d be a lot farther down the road to recovery than we are now. The divisiveness that exists between the do-nothing majority and the environmental movement is due in part to people feeling forced to decide between changing their lifestyles entirely or doing nothing whatsoever. Championing sustainability means that no effort is hypocritical; every effort is valid.

My wife and I have taken many steps to become more environmentally conscious and less impactful. It’s really just a matter of adjusting your thinking – you needn’t necessarily sacrifice your quality of life one bit. In fact, many environmental decisions improve quality of life by saving money and providing healthier options. As discussed in previous posts, we are currently enrolled in the federal and provincial government eco-energy audit programs as well as the CBC/Cisco One Million Acts of Green.

Here are some of the contributions/decisions that we think make a difference. I hope I haven’t missed any! This isn’t a pat-on-the-back exercise, but it ought to provide some perspective and relevant ideas. What are you doing to lessen your impact on the world, and how are you otherwise making a difference? If you do something that I could be, please let me know! I’ve added a ‘green’ category to my blog, and relevant posts will be categorized under it from this point forward.

House improvements:

- installed a 94.5% efficient high-efficiency furnace

- toilets are all 6 litres per flush low-flow toilets

- shower heads are low-flow

- all light bulbs not on dimmers are CFLs

- improved our attic insulation to R-50 (12 cm. settled depth)

- installed a programmable thermostat

- installed a direct-venting 80% efficient hot water tank

- walls repainted with low-VOC paints

- front yard is xeriscaped

- installed a rain barrel

- use a composter for organic materials

- do not use garbage bags in trash cans; reuse shopping bags for individual garbages inside the house

Lifestyle:

- only have one car, and live centrally to minimize driving

- ensure lights are off in rooms that are not occupied

- use a human-powered lawn mower for back yard

- keep blinds drawn on cold days and during night time so when furnace is active, hot air circulates through house and not against windows

- use reusable shopping bags for groceries; decline bags for small purchases (and especially bags for produce!)

- use reusable lunch bags and water bottles for work

- buy tissue and bathroom tissue made from recycled paper products

- never accept or purchase bottled water

- switch off and unplug most small appliances when not in use; larger appliances when we go away

- keep hot water switched to a lower temperature at all times; ‘vacation’ setting when away

- use environmentally friendly cleaning products such as Biovert and Seventh Generation

- look for groceries and goods that use less packaging

- recycle all paper products, even liners of plastic packaging

- recycle all tin, glass, milk jugs, beverage containers

- seek glass or paper packaging wherever possible

- buy only organic produce; free range meats, fish (never farmed) and eggs and everything as locally-grown as possible

- support companies with a positive environmental conscience and track record, including SPUD, Patagonia, Husky, Planet Organic, local farmers’ markets, and small businesses supporting renewable energy efforts such as Bullfrog Power

Did you know that being environmentally conscious invariably means you’re supporting local business? The more local you shop for goods and food, the more you’re supporting your local economy, which is win-win. The more local your food is, the fresher it is, and that’s better too, isn’t it? And buying organic produce means your food hasn’t been sprayed over and over with chemicals – I’m not sure where the disconnect is with that common sense thinking.

I’d like to see what changes we can make in more peoples’ lives and greater efforts within our own lives to make a difference. Cheers everyone!

The impending (or current, depending on who you listen to) economic recession could be the best thing that ever happened to us.

I came into the last two months – months ripe with talk of economic gloom, devastation, closures, job losses, bankruptcies and recession – fairly unaware of what the heck a recession was. The last purported recession took place in the early nineties, when I was barely into junior high school and obviously not earning nor spending my own money yet. Back then, I didn’t have  much in the way of personal savings, a job or a mortgage.

But today the barrage of economic talk, the headlines, panel discussions and interviews, coupled with a deliciously addictive American election and an equally entertaining Canadian parliamentary quarrel, makes it impossible to ignore. Thankfully, it’s not really that complicated.

A recession fundamentally occurs when a major economic force halts the economy – say, like your car stalling on the side of the road. As I understand it, in real life, this recession occurred after mortgages failed and credit evaporated for both businesses and citizens down in the States. Millions of mortgages collapsed after people and banks ran out of money (because of sub-prime interest rates, lengthy and unrealistic maturation terms and accumulations of debt), which destroyed numerous banks who watched their liquidity literally disappear. When these banks crashed, so too did their remaining clientele who had honest mortgages, loans and other day to day debts, not to mention investments and savings. Those banks left standing became both tight on their remaining credit and careful with their spending, and as a result homes were foreclosed, developments ceased and contracts torn up. As a result, businesses started to lose revenue: small ones went bankrupt, followed by bigger ones. People started to lose their jobs which prevented them from paying their bills, and the dominos kept falling – they began losing their homes and assets, and eventually, the whole economy began to receed. Like your car happened to stall on a hill and your e-brake wasn’t working. Well, good ol’ America, king of the capitalist hill, has an economy that affects several other countries, whose imports, exports and thousands of real jobs are directly tied to it. So wasn’t soon after that our economy began to feel the strain.

In a recession, to get the car started again, government is compelled to spend money. Lots of money. They need to spend outside of their normal budgets and spending habits in order to get things rolling again. People who’ve lost their jobs need new ones. People who are scared to spend money (probably includes everyone to an extent) need to be reassured that it’s okay to spend.

So the government steps in with what we taxpayers hope is the mother of all rainy day funds, inputting boatloads of cash – tens of billions of dollars – into the economy in hopes of getting it running again. This comes by way of lowering interest rates for borrowing, tax cuts for business owners, grants to start new businesses, income tax breaks and lots of spending on projects which will employ people and put money into the very basis of the system.

The key, as I’ve learned, is to make sure the economy gets restarted quickly. The trick, I assume, is to balance the speed of the recovery with as little an expenditure as possible, because miring our government into debt becomes a short term fix and a detriment the next time we need to do this again. Recessions seem to happen about every ten years.

The Conservative government in Canada has said that tomorrow’s budget will result in a $64 billion deficit over the next two years – that is to say, we’re about to spend $32 billion more than we’ll make in 2009, and another $32 billion more than we’ll make in 2010. Our borrowing will be added to the federal debt of approximately $550 billion. The last few years we’ve been paying down the debt to the tune of about $5-$10 billion, so say good-bye to the last 8 years of debt repayment.

Whether $64 billion is a number that is adequate or outlandish, I am not able to tell you. But what I can say, and the purpose of this post, is that if it must be spent, then we are perhaps fortunate to be living in times when we are otherwise in need of a dramatic and purposeful transformation.

We need to ensure that what is spent works fast. Like fast-acting Tylenol Cold medication. Make that chest cough and congestion go away now! This is why infrastructure spending is often the route governments take – because the plans are already drafted, the reports and analyses are in, and the people have been polled. There are innumerable bridges, buildings and roads just waiting for a shovel – and money. And the workers who are both capable and hurt the most right now happen to be in construction and manufacturing.

Well, in fact, the research has been done. The reports are in. Our economy is the priority, but on a larger scale, the environment is up there too. If we’re going to invest in infrastructure, make it mass transit. Make it parks. Make it schools and increased urban utility. Not roads. If we’re going to subsidize industry, make it solar, wind, hydro and other renewable fuels. Not oil or the auto sector. If we’re going to give corporate tax breaks, give them to upstart businesses with a green philosophy, or to those implementing energy efficiency. Not to fossil fuel conglomerates. If we’re going to force people to act, make them act responsibly and with an eye on the future, not the past.

These are exciting times to be determining new directions. Too often it is impossible to provoke the government into spending money, especially of this sum, on new, innovative or big-picture items. However, these days, now that we know money must be spent, perhaps this is our great opportunity to focus on the future and spend big on the environment. All of the government’s quick-fix schemes: of municipal and provincial infrastructure, of job training, of grants for businesses big and small, and of tax breaks should have a green tinge to them. Lest we further subsidize archaic and backwards-thinking industries like mining and automobile manufacturing, if we can get it together and invest in the future we’ll not only get our economy going again, but we might actually come out the other side leading the pack – further defining ourselves and selling our technologies for a premium.

As Canadians we pride ourselves on innovation, ideas, education and resourcefulness (or is that resources?). However, these are increasingly old-fashioned monickers that only apply to our country’s accomplishments decades ago. Today we struggle to find an identity, but perhaps this is our big opportunity. The path has been laid by our neighbors to the south: Obama has expressed that one of his mandates is to advance the American workforce and create green-collar jobs. There’s no reason why this can’t be something that we hone in on as well.

Who knows – perhaps this global recession is what our environment, and advocates of it, have been waiting for all along. Forced spending. The fact is, public opinion regarding the environment is at its greatest. Never more has data been so compelling in realizing the true state of the world. Technology, solutions and practical individual household applications exist. The right American President is in office. What else are we waiting for?