THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA
www.cagreens.org
Byron De Lear for Congress
Byron@DeLearforCongress.org
http://www.DeLearforCongress.org
Congressional Campaign in California's 28th District
April 28, 2006
Greenpeace Co-Founder Endorses De Lear Campaign
A Message from Byron De Lear
This week my campaign manager Rebecca Gonzalez-Tobias and I met with
Rex Weyler, the co-founder of Greenpeace International in Vancouver BC. He is the director of the upcoming
World Peace Forum http://www.worldpeaceforum.ca/
which is an international gathering of individuals, groups and civic governments from
cities and communities who are working together to realize a living culture of peace and
sustainability in our lifetimes.
Rex spoke with us for much of the afternoon
sharing his firsthand experience as a longtime international activist and
conscientious objector. He is originally from the States, immigrating to Canada at the height of the
Vietnam War. He spoke of the difficulties of that decision and the life changes he experienced as a
resident of Canada. One of the benefits of living in Canada is Universal Health care. He told us a
remarkable story regarding Canada's Health Care System of a life threatening
illness that almost robbed him of his infant son, and how, even as a resident of a small remote outlying island his
child was saved by emergency medical professionals who traveled by helicopter to reach
him. Spirited to a hospital on the mainland and hospitalized for his condition, the only 'out of
pocket' medical expense the family incurred was $14.00.
Astounding isn't it.
This disparity is truly remarkable. With the US
being the only industrialized nation without Universal Health Care spending in
often cases multiples of what other nations spend, there's a 'denial of service' afoot in what Americans
aren't afforded.
The pharmaceutical and medical industries in the
US have a political stranglehold upon Republican and Democrat lawmakers
and this is why Americans are denied what Canadians and many others enjoy:
Universal Health Care.
I am honored that Rex Weyler has endorsed my
campaign and has encouraged my efforts at this congressional run.
