Elizabeth May and the Seniors Debate in the Georgia Straight

In the News | Georgia Straight

The following letter to the editor from Elizabeth May was written in response to an article in the Georgia Straight which printed a partial and misleading response from Elizabeth to the federal NDP’s proposal to phase-in a gradual increase in the Canada Pension Plan (CPP).

While the Georgia Straight printed her response, they cut out the important part about the Green’s commitment to create a Guaranteed Liveable Income for all Canadians including seniors in the long run, and to top up the Guaranteed Income Supplement in the short run. Incredibly, NDP MP Don Davies then wrote a poorly-researched letter to the editor this week chastising Elizabeth for calling the NDP’s proposal “radical” – clearly, he did not even bother to read her letter with much effort or care, as what she calls “radical” was the misrepresentation of the NDP’s proposal to immediately double the CPP, not their actual proposal to phase-in an increased CPP over time.

Letter to the Georgia Straight

To the Editor,

The Green Party’s commitment to end poverty was misrepresented through the use of a partial and out of context quote in your story, “Federal NDP leader Jack Layton takes on inequality.”

The reporter who phoned me from the Georgia Straight asked for my reaction to an idea I doubted the NDP was proposing — the immediate doubling of both employer and employee contributions to CPP. Hence, my scepticism in suggesting I didn’t think the NDP had actually proposed that. I was assured by the reporter that he (Jack Layton) had just been in Georgia Straight’s editorial board where this radical proposal was made.

In fact, the NDP is talking about a phased in approach (with the time table vague) and only for a period of time. Greens maintain that while our economy is fragile and job recovery slowing, it is not the time to add to the fixed costs in either EI or CPP of each employee. In fact, as I explained to the GS reporter, Greens propose to reduce the fixed costs of each employee by replacing one third of the EI and CPP payments made by each employer and deducted from each employee’s paycheck with revenues from pollution charges. I also set out our comprehensive approach to end poverty through a Guaranteed Liveable Income. In the near term, I explained to her we are committed to an immediate 25% increase in Guaranteed Income Supplement, review of the RRSP programme which is very expensive for very little saving achieved, protection of private pension schemes in bankruptcy and a supplemental pension programme to enhance benefits.

As some have lept to unwarranted conclusions based on the partial use of Green policies on your pages, I hope you will print my letter and encourage your readers to see the full social justice programme of the Green Party at www.greenparty.ca in Vision Green.

Elizabeth May,O.C.
LeaderGreen Party of Canada