The Green Party of Canada is calling for the immediate release of the panel report "2010 And Beyond" on the future of high performance athletics in Canada. The panel, chaired by policy expert David Zussman, toured Canada and received advice from Canada's sports community on how to better support athletes.

"The panel report has been on Gary Lunn's desk since October 2009. Now that a very successful Olympics--showing the benefit of investments in high-performance athletes--has closed, it is time to look to the future," said Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada.

Read full article: 'Beyond the Olympic Games'

Black History Month is an important opportunity to celebrate the enormous contributions that Black Canadians have made to Canadian society. "This month, all Canadians can take some time to learn about the history of Black people in our country and how their presence and achievements have influenced our culture," said Green Leader Elizabeth May.

February has been officially designated Black History Month in Canada since 1995, growing out of a long history of unofficial celebrations of the contributions of Black Canadians.

Read full article: 'Greens Celebrate Black History Month'

Later this month, the Green Party of Canada will be releasing an alternative economic plan, which if followed would rescue Canada from a worsening structural deficit.

Originally intended to be released as part of an election platform, the Greens will present an economic plan to get out of the deficit on January 25, the day Parliament should have opened. “Obviously, Canada can not wait any longer for fiscally responsible ideas on how to repair our economy,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May.

Read full article: 'Greens Respond to Parliamentary Budget Officer’s Report'

Today the Federal Green Party's Elizabeth May asked the Federal Minister of Health to react to recently published international studies confirming a link between cellphone use and increased rates of cancer in children. Referring to these peer-reviewed studies which have been reported in several newspapers and are to be published in the medical journal, Pathophysiology, Ms. May asked, "What does it take for the Minister to issue a warning to Canadians about the dangers of cellphones and other wireless technology? Has she investigated the findings of these studies? Can she summarily discard the results and just tell Canadians to carry on with their current cellphone use, especially when children appear particularly vulnerable?"

Read full article: ' Cellphones are a Danger to Young Canadians'

The Green Party is calling on the Senate to allow Senator Mac Harb’s bill to end Canada’s commercial seal hunt to be debated in the upper chamber. Earlier this month Mr. Harb’s first attempt to introduce the bill failed when, in an unprecedented development, no other senator would second his motion.

“The overwhelming majority of Canadians oppose the commercial seal hunt and it is laudable that a Canadian parliamentarian has bravely introduced a bill to end the commercial hunt,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “The Senate is supposed to be the realm of sober second thought but the collective attempt to prevent the Harb Seal Bill from being debated is shameful, anti-democratic and flies in the face of public opinion.”

Read full article: 'Senate Should Debate Commercial Seal Hunt'

Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada stated today, “One of our core values, is respect for diversity and inclusion. We call upon all parties to endorse the National Action Plan to End Exclusion that is the culmination of much work and collaboration within the disabled community.”

“One of our principles for social justice is that Canadians with disabilities must have the opportunity to contribute and benefit from Canada's prosperity, as learners, workers, volunteers and family members,” said Ms. May.

Read full article: 'Green Party of Canada Promotes Inclusion for all Canadians'

The Green Party of Canada today released its complete election platform, a plan that looks forward to an equitable society with a thriving, clean economy.

The plan, fully costed by an independent economist, focuses on the Green Tax Shift, which will use money from taxes on greenhouse gas emissions and toxic pollutants – the things we don’t want – and use the money to support what we do want, such as good jobs, tax cuts for individuals and businesses, poverty reduction, and measures to help companies lead Canada into the post-carbon economy.

“We are the realists,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May as she unveiled the platform in Halifax’s Grand Parade Square. “While other parties look backward and resist change, we face the major threats of our time – the climate crisis, economic instability, increasing militarism and a growing gap between rich and poor – with clear-eyed realism.

Read full article: 'Forward Looking Green Party Policy Platform Released'

Due to the massive show of support by Canadians, the Conservative Party and the New Democratic party ended their opposition to having Green Party Leader Elizabeth May take part in the public leadership debates.

A large and hearty thank you to all the people who signed up to our petition or called, and emailed the other political parties and broadcast consortium. It was by your actions that this change in decision was made. Democracy and free speech are safe in this country as long as there are thousands of Canadians like you making sure wrongs are made right.

Read full article: 'Thank you to Canadians'

The Green Party of Canada is going to the courts to seek a fair hearing and opportunity to participate in the leaders’ debate in this election. This action is prompted by the announcement of the major television networks to exclude Green Party Leader Elizabeth May from the television debates. In the interim the Party is urging all Canadians who believe in democracy and fairness to contact the leaders of the Conservative Party, the NDP and the Bloc to demand they respect democracy.

“Harper says this election is about strong leadership. It’s about strong arm leadership. We are a national party with a point of view supported by Canadians. This decision is undemocratic and we have no choice by to challenge it,” said Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party of Canada.

Read full article: 'Elizabeth May responds to debate decision'

Green Party leader Elizabeth May today highlighted both the need to eliminate poverty in Canada and promote local food on her first election campaign stop in Ottawa. Joined by Green candidates from Ottawa—Gatineau ridings and local organic farmer Jim McKenzie, Ms. May and the Green Party made a donation of local organic produce to the Ottawa Mission in downtown Ottawa.

“Poverty and hunger are priorities for Greens, but the Green Party will not simply strive to reduce the poverty rates in Canada,” said Ms. May. “We want to wipe poverty out for good. Most Canadians find it unacceptable that in a wealthy country like Canada, 15 percent of Canadian children still endure the hardships associated with inadequate income. No child should be faced with inadequate nutrition or go to bed hungry.

Read full article: 'Green Party will eliminate poverty and promote local food'

The Green Party is changing the dates of its policy convention to allow Greens to focus on winning the September 8th by-elections. The convention was originally scheduled to be held from September 5th – 7th, but has been moved back two weeks to September 19th – 21st.

“When we learned that the by-elections would be the day after our national convention, we feared Greens would be forced to choose between the policy convention and campaigning on the last weekend before the by-elections,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “With Deputy Leader Claude William Genest running in Westmount—Ville-Marie and Environment Critic Mike Nagy running in Guelph, moving the convention after the by-elections made sense. We can now ensure that Mr. Genest and Mr. Nagy will be there, along with their campaign teams.

Read full article: 'Convention Moved To Allow Focus On By-election Campaigns'

Mike Nagy, Green Party candidate in the Guelph by-election, has announced he will not be overtly campaigning this weekend and will instead fulfill commitments to volunteer at the annual Guelph Hillside festival. The Prime Minister today announced that by-elections in Guelph, Westmount—Ville-Marie and Saint-Lambert would be held on September 8th.

“For the Green Party, community always comes first,” said Mr. Nagy, who is also the party’s Environment Critic. “This will be my 17th year at the Hillside festival and I’m looking forward to coordinating the Water Tanker and ensuring that Hillside patrons have good, clean Guelph water to drink with no packaging.

Read full article: 'Mike Nagy to focus on community during first weekend of Guelph by-election campaign'

The Green Party of Canada is fielding a strong team of candidates in the upcoming by-elections in Guelph, Saint-Lambert and Westmount—Ville-Marie. The Prime Minister is expected to announce the dates of the by-elections this week.

“We are very excited to have Green Party Deputy Leader and Emmy-nominated TV personality Claude William Genest running in Westmount—Ville-Marie, along with national Environment Critic Mike Nagy as our candidate in Guelph,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “Mr. Genest and Mr. Nagy are both high-profile candidates and have been campaigning tirelessly in their communities for months. The Green candidate in Saint-Lambert will be announced shortly.”

Ms. May noted that in the last round of by-elections in March, the Green Party made headlines and surprised many pundits by finishing ahead of the Conservatives in a virtual tie for second place in Toronto Centre, besting the NDP in Willowdale and garnering an impressive 13.5 percent in Vancouver Quadra. As Rick Mercer put it, “the only party that has any bragging rights at all after these by-elections is Elizabeth May’s Green Party because they're the only party whose numbers went up.”

Read full article: 'Green Party fielding strong candidates in all by-elections'

The Green Party of Canada biannual general meeting, taking place September 5 – 7, 2008, was originally scheduled for the Museum of Industry combined with all the facilities of the Heather Hotel in Stellarton. “We were counting on the Heather for all our break-out rooms for workshops, for closed sessions, for most of our accommodations, as well as catering,” said Marlene Wells, Stellarton resident who was asked by the national party to coordinate all logistics. “We had a great relationship with the Heather and Museum staff. Everyone was working to help us put together a very green convention with locally sourced foods and zero disposables. It was a real blow to the whole community, especially the staff, when the Heather closed, but it was a particular problem as Green Party members across the country began phoning and emailing to ask where the convention could be held.”

The Central Nova Green Party team looked at all available options to keep the convention at the Museum of Industry. They came up against two serious problems – other New Glasgow hotels had only partial availability, none provided catering or dining room services and even the brand new Holiday Inn Express does not have a kitchen facility. “We remained very committed to holding the event in Pictou County, but we were finding it difficult to imagine how,” admitted Green Party leader Elizabeth May.

Read full article: 'Heather Hotel Closure Not Going To Stop Green Party Convention'

The coalition of concerned citizens who have opposed the industrial composting facility in Tracadie met on Monday with Elizabeth May, federal leader of the Green Party of Canada and candidate in Central Nova. Dr. May has been following the issue closely for over six months and has spoken with both provincial and federal levels of government who have been investigating pollution problems emanating from the facility.

“It is clear that this community has been stalwart in raising concerns before the industrial zoning of the area was approved and have continued to be engaged in monitoring and raising the alarm about the noxious fungal problem created by the composting,” said Dr. May. “As engaged citizens, they are to be commended. As well, officials at the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and at the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans have been doing a very good job in reacting appropriately to the contamination and gathering evidence.”

Read full article: 'Green Party Supports Tracadie Area District Eight Concerned Citizens'