This month's Weaver is packed with wonderful information and messages from your Leader and SGP Executive. Stay up to date. Be informed.
SGP’s First Leadership Review
First and foremost, I would like to express to all of you that I appreciate every current and past member of this executive and member of this party. I’m so proud of how much we do with the few resources we have. Being part of a team of such resilience and having your trust as Leader has been the centre of my life since February 29, 2020.
I have considered this decision carefully because I take the leadership of this party and our Green Values very seriously. Although our bylaws (B3.1.2) state that the Leader has the option of a four-year term after winning 3/4 of the votes submitted (i.e., 75% in favour) through a Leadership Review, I would like to reassure everyone that this does not exclude my entering a leadership race within that four-year term should party members request it and likely candidates emerge.
SGP Members asked to vote in a Leadership Review
At the February 9th, 2025 provincial executive meeting; Naomi Hunter’ Leader of the Saskatchewan Green Party; asked for a leadership review as per bylaw B3.1.2.
The Executive agreed and set a Leadership Vote of Confidence for March 22, 2025. This will be the Saskatchewan Green Party's first leadership review under a new Bylaw Policy adopted on December 3, 2023.
There will be an in-person meeting happening in both Regina and Saskatoon. Members will also have the option to attend via Zoom link. Details about meeting locations and the Zoom link will be provided at a later date.
If you are unable to participate on March 22nd we will be accepting mail-in ballots.
Voting is restricted to SGP members As of the March 22 vote. Please be sure to renew your membership to be eligible to vote. You can renew your membership by visiting our website and making a donation of $5 or more on our donation page. Your membership will be valid until December 31, 2025. A 5-dollar membership fee can also be sent by e-transfer to [email protected]
https://www.saskgreen.ca/donate
Please direct any questions or concerns to Barry Dickie at 306-292-1332.
URGENT - URGENT Seeking Treasurer/COA
We cannot exist as a political party without a Chief Official Agent and Nancy Carswell is sadly stepping down. Please step forward and learn from her before she retires. The duties are:
- Tracking finances and memberships
- Retaining our status as a registered political party (annual audit and party election/by-election returns)
- Issuing tax receipts
Comfort with spreadsheets and databases is required. Do you think you could help with this? To discuss this, please contact Nancy Carswell (306-747-3769) or [email protected] or Naomi Hunter (306-561-8880) or [email protected].
If we cannot secure a volunteer, we will face the serious prospect of having to hire a paid accountant to fill this critical role. This would strain our resources significantly and is an option we must avoid at all costs.
Nancy is very helpful and eager to work with someone and show them how to fill this very needed role. Could it be you?
It is Time to Renew your Sask Green Party Memberships
Many of our one-year memberships to the Saskatchewan Green Party expired on Dec 31, 2024. Renewing is easy and affordable at $5 per year.
You can renew right on our website. Use this link and make a donation of $5 on our donation page. Your membership will be valid for one year from the date of your registration. If you prefer, mail us a cheque or money order, or send an e-transfer for $5 or more to [email protected]
https://www.saskgreen.ca/become_a_member
Federal Green Party of Canada candidates for Saskatchewan 2025
There is likely to be a snap federal election as early as mid-March. Here in Saskatchewan, we have a good group of GPC candidates (many of whom just ran for The Saskatchewan Green Party provincially). They can all use help in their federal campaigns. Here is contact information for the candidate in your area.
Confirmed so far in Saskatchewan:
Valerie Brooks for Yorkton-Melville
[email protected]
Naomi Hunter for Saskatoon West
[email protected]
Remi Rheault for Souris-Moose Mountain
[email protected]
Hamish Graham for Saskatoon South
[email protected]
Phoenix Neault for The Battlefords-Lloydminster
[email protected]
Sean Muirhead for Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek
[email protected]
Isaiah Hunter for Saskatoon University
[email protected]
North Hunter for Swift Current-Grasslands-Kindersley
[email protected]
Michael Gardiner for Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan
[email protected]
Jackie Hanson for Desnethe-Churchill-Missinippi
[email protected]
Cory Rennie for Prince Albert
[email protected]
Let’s all help if we can. Each of our candidates needs a massive number of signatures to get on the ballot – they have a very short time to get those signatures. It takes 100 signatures to get on, but Returning Officers reject some, so it’s recommended to get 150 to be sure. We have a little over a month to achieve that.
This is a good opportunity for voters to re-view our SGP candidates' names and photos. Plus federal elections are more likely to have debates and forums, in addition to media interviews, so they get to practice these skills.
-Naomi Hunter
Petitions - Take Action and Please Sign
You can make a difference.
Together we can create real change in this province. As people across the province mobilize and add their voices to petitions for change, we build strength and resilience together. Add your voice today.
End Homelessness in Saskatchewan
https://www.saskgreen.ca/end_homelessness_in_saskatchewan
Ending Poverty in Saskatchewan
https://www.saskgreen.ca/ending_poverty_in_saskatchewan
SK must act now to remove asbestos in our drinking water
https://www.saskgreen.ca/asbestos_in_our_drinking_water
SK needs a Wetlands Policy
https://www.saskgreen.ca/sk_needs_a_wetlands_policy
SK needs renewable energy - not nuclear waste.
https://www.saskgreen.ca/sk_needs_renewable_energy_not_nuclear_waste
SK demands a new approach to healthcare
https://www.saskgreen.ca/sk_demands_a_new_approach_to_healthcare
"The Psychopath"
- A submitted contribution from Greg Chatterson
Let’s start with a definition. “1. a person having an egocentric and antisocial personality marked by a lack of remorse for one’s action, an absence of empathy for others, and often criminal tendencies. 2. a person with antisocial personality disorder”. Quite broad, probably, to various degrees including some of the people you know. Dare I say maybe even yourself to a degree if you can admit it.
“Absence of empathy, lack of remorse” can be encouraged by conditioning in this day and age of a steady smorgasbord of violence and division served up and flooding our receptive senses in invasive media persuasion. Our minds, feelings, sight, hearing, our reflection on our fellowship with life and social commitment to each other can become foggy as they are sidelined in the controversial justification for power, greed and winning.
The degradation of human value in losing is the only other presented option. So, we can drift into a semi-conscious state in a foggy denial of our natural tendencies for passive, cooperative, collective survival. Our very emotions of sympathy, empathy and remorse suffer in the media onslaught of psychopathic, controlling activities.
Sask Assured Income for Disability SAID
By Victor Lau, from End Poverty Regina (Feb 2025 minutes)
The big issue, however, is the inadequacy of the benefit: $1,129 is the most a person can get for the general living allowance. This is supposed to cover rent, food, and clothing. In rural Sask, it is only $991.
SAID recipients should receive the same as a full-time minimum wage worker. $2,400 a month.
Re: SIS and SAID - There is a false perception that lots of our tax dollars are going to SIS and SAID recipients. In fact, less than 3 cents of the provincial dollar goes to SIS and SAID recipients.
I am stunned that the provincial government spends so little on Benefits considering Social Services is the 3rd largest budget item each year (Healthcare #1, Education #2).
Whiplash: How Big Swings in Wet and Dry Weather Fuel Infernos
The Tyee - 3 Feb 2025 Elizabeth Kolbert, Yale Environment 360 - In 2023 and 2024, the city experienced unusually wet winters, which spurred the growth of grasses and shrubs. Then the rain stopped. Since July, the city has received a mere three-hundredths of an inch of precipitation. The result has been acre after acre of desiccated brush — the perfect kindling for wildfires. “This whiplash sequence in California has increased fire risk twofold: first, by greatly increasing the growth of flammable grass and brush in the months leading up to fire season, and then by drying it out to exceptionally high levels,” Swain has said.
Saskatchewan needs compassionate, public drug treatment policies
Regina LeaderPost Letters, Published Feb 01, 2025 - Writers raise concerns about the Saskatchewan Party government's approach to drug addiction treatment and homelessness.
Saskatchewan's deep income poverty related to education outcomes
Regina LeaderPost - Published Feb 18, 2025 - Saskatchewan has the second-highest representation of deep income poverty among Canadian provinces (6.7 percent), only ahead of Manitoba (6.9 percent). It’s not surprising; it’s been something we’ve seen coming in my line of work for 25 years,” said Gary Beaudin, the director of community impact and strategic partnerships for United Way Saskatoon. He said the problem is growing progressively worse, year after year.
Yes! Net Zero Without Nuclear Energy
Stop SMRS Task Force - Bulletin 14 Feb 2025 - The nuclear industry claims that we cannot reach net zero emissions without nuclear because “base load” energy is required to provide reliable electricity “when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.” This is false. A recent study by the David Suzuki Foundation shows that Canada can reach net zero without any new nuclear energy. Many countries have taken advantage of the advances in technology and the plummeting price of wind and solar energy and are on their way to a largely renewable energy grid. In 2022, almost 100% of the total electricity produced in 10 countries, and between 50 and 100% in 64 countries, was from renewable energy: wind, water and solar.
Opinion: Coal-fired electricity is bad for people's health in Saskatchewan
Star Phoenix, Feb. 14, 2025 By Murray Opdahl - If Saskatchewan continues coal-fired electricity generation beyond 2030, we will likely become the largest CO2 emitter in Canada. Through the health lens, the impacts of burning coal are severe and well-documented. Burning coal releases harmful pollutants, including carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, particulate matter, mercury, lead and other toxic heavy metals. These pollutants increase rates of heart disease, lung cancer, asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Children and older people are particularly vulnerable.
Murray Opdahl, a practising physician in Saskatchewan and a lifelong resident of the province, is co-chair of the Saskatchewan chapter of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
Rising Billionaires and Receding Democracy
By Nancy Carswell, SGP Member
Billionaires only need to spend 12 days' worth of dollars to flood election campaigns with donations, channel lobbyists into key positions, and submerge politicians in a tide of influence. With just a 0.00094 of their fortune, they shape policies, cut themselves tax breaks, and rig the system in their favour. Electoral reform with proportional representation can help raise democracy.
We hope you feel inspired to share your thoughts and knowledge with our readers. We are ready to dig deep with you and share your contributions with our Green members and supporters. We will work with you as much as you’d like through discussion or with editing help on any submission. We treasure the efforts of any and all who share our respect for the Green Values and offer us their thoughts on relevant topics. We will let you know when your submission has been accepted.
The Weaver Team
The Weaver articles express the viewpoints of the authors. They may not always align with the official policies of the Saskatchewan Green Party.
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