The author, playwright, podcaster and filmmaker Mark Leiren-Young discusses his new book Greener Than Thou: Surviving the Toxic Sludge of Canadian Ecopolitics (Sutherland House, 2025), and more, with Joseph Planta.
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Greener Than Thou: Surviving the Toxic Sludge of Canadian Ecopolitics by Mark Leiren-Young (Sutherland House, 2025).
Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Greener Than Thou |
Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:
I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.
Mark Leiren-Young joins me again. He’s just published a new book, Greener Than Thou: Surviving the Toxic Sludge of Canadian Ecopolitics. It’s the latest in the Sutherland Quarterly series of essays on current affairs, which you can buy individually or as an annual subscription. Mark writes candidly and hilariously about the state of Green politics in Canada, with a fine precis of the NDP’s relationship with environmental policy over the last quarter century. We get a sense of what it was like within the Green Party of Canada as they worked to elect their first Member of Parliament, and subsequently a couple more, though there was a defeat and a defection. Through it all, the lead character in all the drama is Elizabeth May, the party’s leader, former leader, and current leader. It’s either like the party can’t quit her, or she can’t quit the party. You’ll have to read Mark’s book to decide. As well, you’ll have to read the book to figure out how the Green Party itself has become a sort of cult of personality, and whether that’s May herself personally, or it was always the Green Party to begin with. It’s easy to read the book and get cynical about politics, but it’s clear that Mark’s gone through the experience with his idealism intact. What has taken a hit though is environmental policy through the discourse of Canadian politics. It’s easy to dismiss the Green Party of Canada as a viable political party, but that shouldn’t mean environmental issues shouldn’t be discussed during election campaign periods as well as between. Mark Leiren-Young is an author, playwright, filmmaker, and host of the Skaana podcast. He received the Leacock Medal for humour for his memoir, Never Shoot a Stampede Queen, among many other accolades for his writing and filmmaking. His Substack is at www.leirenyoung.substack.com. He teaches writing at the University of Victoria, and makes his sixth appearance on the podcast. He is always a welcome guest, as you’ll see there’s nothing we can’t talk about, including having a hit play running in New York off-Broadway, and the Vancouver Canucks. We spoke last Friday, with Mark joining me in person. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Mark Leiren-Young; Mr. Leiren-Young, good morning.
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