I have set up a new website at www.thevictoryfund.ca – not to be confused with the Liberal Party’s main fundraising site at www.victoryfund.ca.
This new website is in support of a company called Green Shift inc.
Here’s why:
On June 19th, the Liberal Party of Canada released its main environmental initiative – the Green Shift. This plan has the same name as a Toronto-based environmental consulting firm, Green Shift Inc.
Since the Liberal launch, Green Shift Inc. has been inundated with calls and emails from customers asking if they ’sold out’ to a political party. Green Shift has asked the Liberal Party to stop using their name. The Liberal Party and its supporters have refused and have resorted to insults and crude accusations.
Liberal MPs, Liberal operatives, and even the Liberal leader have told Green Shift Inc. that they should be happy for the extra attention they’re getting, and that their complaints about having their name used are politically motivated.
Green Shift Inc. has no choice left but to take the Liberal Party to court.
There are two important phrases you must know if you are to fully understand this controversy. The first is ‘trademark’ and the second is ‘green wash’.
Trademark – Green Shift Inc. has the trademark for ‘GreenShift’. This trademark covers the use of the name for different products and services including:
- Using purchasing dollars as a vote for environmental conservation
If you’ve read the Liberal ‘Green Shift’ plan, that may sound familiar. The ‘Green Shift’ plan proposes to:
- cut taxes on those things we all want more of such as income, investment and innovation, and we will shift those taxes to what we all want less of: pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and waste.
Is it possible for a reasonable person to read the Liberal ‘Green Shift’ plan, look at the services offered by Green Shift Inc. and see a connection between the two?
The second word we need to know is green wash. A green wash is the use of environmentally friendly rhetoric, or superficial environmental initiatives in order to make an organization look environmentally friendly when it is not. Think for example of a Party that wants to tax diesel but not gasoline – even though diesel has lower carbon emissions than gas. Or think for example of a party that wants to subsidize SUV production, but calls itself green.
Part of Green Shift Inc’s brand image is fighting green washing.
Green Washing is what Green Shift is out to prevent – that is companies who are trying to make themselves look green when they in fact are not. Unfortunately this is extremely common; companies who think of environmental improvements as just another type of marketing game. Some common concerns include the lack of regulations and the blatant misuse of words like “biodegradable” and “environmental”, which are labelled on a slew of products that are anything but.
If a reasonable person concludes that Green Shift Inc. is connected to the Liberal Party, then is it also possible for that same person to conclude that Green Shift Inc. are sell-outs and hypocrites, for on the one hand decrying green washing, while on the other taking money from the subsidizers of SUVs?
Green Shift Inc. is in trouble. Because of the actions of the Liberal Party, Green Shift Inc. is being made to look hypocritical, its political neutrality is being destroyed, and its brand image being harmed. Every day that the Liberal Party refuses to back down, is another day that Green Shift Inc. is losing the good faith of its customers.
Please visit www.thevictoryfund.ca and show your support.
Filed under: Politics , Canada, environment, Politics
