George and Jamie Speak at Pro-democracy Rallies

This past weekend our Executive Director, George Heyman, and I spoke at the pro-democracy rallies. George spoke to almost 2,000 people in Vancouver and I spoke to 1,500 in Victoria. The crowds were incredible and diverse, with many people saying they had never been engaged before.

George got started by firing up the crowd by pointing out that the diversity of the crowd reflected the diversity of Canadians who want climate leadership from Ottawa.

Here's a great video of George's speech.

I spoke about the dual nature of responsible government that is inherent to our social contract. Our government is both responsible to us, which is to say that it must respect democratic processes, and it is responsible for us, which is to say that it is responsible for protecting its people and its land.

Our federal government is breaking our social contract by failing on both counts. It was inspiring to see so many citizens ready to hold them to account, and perhaps renegotiate the deal between Canadians and our government.