Newest Munday

Thursday April 10th 2008, my second son, James Elliot Munday was born. Since people always ask this stuff, he arrived at 10:29am and weighed 7lbs 7oz (20 inches long). I am thrilled, so is his mom and so is (sort of) his slightly jealous older brother Isaac.

James was a little early, in fact he was due April 26th, so we weren't exactly 100% ready for his arrival. Mind you, you are never 100% ready are you? Which is where I was headed with this post. I was going to comment on the Campaign School the Green Party is holding on the 19th of April. I was on the phone joking with one of the organizers that I would be there, but that I would be on a short leash in case Hannah called to tell me we were on our way to deliver. It was the first Candidate / Real Life conflict I had over my second child, and it made things feel more real, and imminent than they had before. The reality hit me in the face: I am going to be the father of two people, really soon. Of course before I had any time to ponder this reality, I was at the IWK with Hannah saying hello to James for the first time, and dealing with it. For the record, it's great.

Hurray I passed!

Just a quick note to follow up on my previous post "Alphabet Soup". I have passed my professional exams and my Professional Quantity Surveyors designation is on its way. What a relief. Thanks to all of you who have sent your happy thoughts and encouragement.

Credit where credit is due

I am about to commit in writing a political faux-pas, being nice to my opponent. Geoff Regan is the Liberal Member of Parliament for Halifax West. He is the man I wish to replace and put out of a job, and today I am here to offer him some praise. Geoff Regan just tabled a private member's bill in the House. It proposes that a number of the recommendations of the Nunn commision be added to the Youth Criminal Justice act. The commission investigated the death of teaching assistant Theresa McEvoy, who was killed in a 2004 crash by a repeat young offender. The full story can be found here http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1043433.html
Mr. Regan is a responsible constituency oriented MP and this is a good thing he has done. I still feel he belongs to a party that doesn't take the environmental crisis we face seriously, and I disagree with the Liberal Party position on numerous other issues as well. Just because I think we could have better (Green) representation doesn't preclude working together across partisan lines, nor giving credit where it is due. Good work Geoff, see you at the polls.

Advertising the Green Brand

I have been listening to the "Age of Persuasion" on CBC. http://www.cbc.ca/ageofpersuasion/ It is a radio series that deals with the business of advertising. This led me to thinking about how the Green Party of Canada is marketing itself. What are the priorities of our advertising message, and how could we be getting that out better? I am now asking myself, if we were talking to a professional advertising firm what should we be asking them to do for us? The one priority I would have for our "Branding" is to make clear to people that "Green" doesn't mean a one-issue party.
We will all have keep on thinking about this one as it has proven one of the bigger challenges, how to remind people that we are talking about more than just the environement, especially how the environment is related everything else we do as well.

House of Commons on the Afghanistan Mission

I want to start a discussion about one of the biggest concerns I had with joining the Green Party – the Foreign and Military policy. I studied both in university, specifically Canadian Foreign and Canadian Defence policies, and I discovered along the way that I am not a 'dove'.

The Green Party embraces as the idea of Non-Violence as one of its six principles; specifically, the party policy says that "(we) declare our commitment to non-violence and strive for a culture of peace and cooperation between states."

I thought about it long and hard and I came to the conclusion that striving for a culture of peace and having a national defence posture with well-equipped Armed Forces are not necessarily mutually exclusive. A military is like a fire department. You pay to have a good one, so that if and when you need it, it is very competent at putting out fires, and preventing loss of life.

What I wanted to say is that I am glad we are not going to the polls on the Afghanistan issue. A nation divided on the mission and heading to the polls would perhaps have invited attacks like those in Spain or stepped up attacks on our troops in Afghanistan, in the hopes of affecting Canadian policy.

I personally have mixed feelings about the mission in Afghanistan. I think I understand why we are in there. We are there for some feel-good reasons like restoring infrastructure, building schools, and providing security. We are also there for some less feel-good reasons like fighting the Taliban, supporting our NATO partners and currying favour with the United States. I think there is room for debate on our methods and tactics; for example, whether to emphasize training or re-construction rather that security, or the eradication of the poppy crop. However, Parliament has now decided that we are committed to the mission until 2011. We should stop arguing about the reasons for the mission as though we hadn't made a decision and get on with doing the best possible job for the people of Afghanistan, for our soldiers and workers on the ground, and for our reputation internationally as peacemakers – and peacekeepers.