Our poor, poor planet is much too close to her tipping point for us to be enacting policies that will only serve to push her over the edge. Her finite resources can provide for everyone's needs, but not everyone's greed and must be shared with the other species who have the same right to be here as ourselves. We must preserve whatever precious little pristine wilderness remaining and re-wild much of that stolen from the animal nations. We have to stop using our beautiful home as our personal garbage dump and sewer.

Since we put a man on the moon the human population has more than doubled while that of the wild animal nations has more than halved. We are in the midst of the Sixth Mass Extinction and losing species at an unprecedented rate. Much of this is driven by animal agriculture, one of the most destructive industries on the planet. We need to operationalize the Canada Food Guide, end the billions of dollars in subsidies to animal ag and help farmers transition to a compassionate, efficient, sustainable and healthy plant-based food system. Our emissions targets will never be reached unless we do so and we can no longer afford to continue ignoring "the cow in the room."

It was Gandhi who said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." We ain't doin' so good. Canada has the shameful reputation of having some of the weakest animal protection and transport laws in the developed world. Recent incidents of horrific cruelty that have made the news in Manitoba have brought this into bold relief. Under Canadian law, animals are considered mere property and not even recognized as sentient. Sadly, any attempt at meaningful change, no matter how incremental, is met with vehement opposition by slippery slope politicians and industry with vested interests. I have no doubt advancements would be made if we had proportional representation where all votes count and every voice is heard. In countries where PR exists, members of animal rights parties have been voted into parliament.

Animal issues are of increasing importance to Canadians and I am running to put them onto the other parties' radars. The voices of our animal cousins must be part of the discussion if we are to reach a place of true reconciliation. Otherwise we are merely regurgitating the same anthropocentric and colonial narrative that got us into the mess we find ourselves today.