The following letter was sent to the Prime Minister's office and copied to Coast Reporter.
Canadians are increasingly dismayed at your government's policies, which put our environment at heightened risk, ignore scientific facts and run roughshod over our democratic processes and traditions.
While you criticized those who suggested you had a secret agenda that would show itself once you had achieved a majority government, those critics are today looking increasingly prescient.
More than any other prime minister in Canadian history, your government is showing itself to be the textbook case proving the downsides of majority government and the best evidence in support of proportional representation.
Rather than ship out unprocessed bitumen to foreign markets, at great environmental risk, we believe provincial and federal policies should be put in place to ensure the refining of our resources in Canada to create Canadian jobs.
We should redirect federal subsides and tax credits currently going to the petroleum sector towards sustainable energy technologies to create yet more jobs and tackle global warming.
Finally, we should invest in energy conservation and energy retrofits to Canada's stock of residential, commercial and industrial buildings to create still more jobs in the cities and communities where Canadians already live.
In short, we should be investing in and building the green economy of the future, not promoting the increased consumption of fossil fuels and exacerbating global warming.
We ask that your government return the integrity of long-standing Canadian environmental protections and democratic processes and respect the wishes of the great majority of Canadians to defend our northern lands and our coastal waters.
Jef Keighley, Alliance 4 Democracy - Sunshine Coast
Editor's note: A petition with more than 350 signatures collected at the Oct. 24 rally and protest in Davis Bay accompanied this letter.
