Blue Green Province

In Blue-Green Province, Mark Winfield takes a long overdue look at the crucial relationship between Ontario’s environmental policy and its politics and economy. Covering the period from the Progressive Conservative "dynasty" that dominated Ontario politics from the mid-1940s to the mid-1980s, through the subsequent Peterson, Rae, Harris, Eves, and McGuinty governments, Winfield offers a trenchant analysis of the effects on Ontario’s environment and politics of these administrations’ dramatically different ideologies. Timely and original, Blue-Green Province is the first comprehensive study of environmental policy in Ontario. It will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in Ontario’s environmental and economic future.

Blue-Green Province is a timely, original analysis of one of the most crucial issues in Ontario politics today. It will be welcomed by students, scholars, and practitioners of environmental policy, political science, economics, history, as well as anyone with an interest in Ontario's environmental and economic future. With the provinces playing increasingly dominant roles in Canadian environmental policy, it will be compelling reading for those following the interplay of environmental policy, politics, and economic development across Canada as well."--pub. desc.

Canada has abundant natural wealth, beautiful landscapes, vast forests, and thousands of rivers and lakes. The land defines Canadians as a people, yet the country has one of the industrialized world's worst environmental records. Building on his previous book, The Environmental Rights Revolution (2012), David R. Boyd describes how recognizing the constitutional right to a healthy environment could have a transformative impact by empowering citizens, holding governments and industry accountable, and improving Canada's green record. This important and provocative book provides a road map to protect human health, the well-being of the planet, and the interests of future generations.

The First Green Wave traces the rise of Ontario's environmental movement. At the heart of the story is Pollution Probe, an organization founded in 1969 by students and faculty at the University of Toronto. In its first year of operation, Pollution Probe confronted Toronto's City Hall over its use of pesticides, Ontario Hydro over air pollution, and the detergent industry over pollution of the Great Lakes. The success of these actions inspired the founding of other environmental organizations across Canada and led to the development of initiatives now taken for granted, such as waste reduction and energy policy.