Just let me go on the record, in case you are reading this George Georges Laraque, that I think you were a great hockey player and would be a great Prime Minister and would like you to not hurt me, please.
And if you ask, I will give you directions to James Bowie's house Mr. Georges Laraque, no problem.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
The end of the Green Party of Canada
They've had some momentum. They've raised some money, especially through the public per-vote subsidy.
They've also had their troubles. They seem to go through a deputy-leader about once a year, leaving behind some very talented, articulated, likable politicians like film-maker David Chernushenko. Georges Laraque, as popular a boxer in the NHL as he was, is as fit to be an understudy for Chernushenko as he is to stand in for Sir Patrick Stewart at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Serious troubles, then, I should have said. The Green Party has had some serious, serious troubles...
Nothing, however, will compare with the excommunication they will suffer if they go forward with this proposed Green Party policy of decriminalizing polygamy. Astute followers of the Civil Marriage Act will remember this was the subject of fear mongering attack ads - if you legalize gay marriage today, what is next? Polygamy? Marriage to farm animals?
What many fail to realize is that the Green party pull support (however thinly) from across the political spectrum. Right-wing, left-wing, centrist, Canadians may not be likely to vote Green, but they are almost as likely to vote green regardless of their position on the political spectrum. That trend, which the Greens enjoy almost as much as they enjoy talking about it, will die a sudden death if conservative Canada gets wind that they want the guys they saw on National Geographic with the 25 wives living next door.
I can just see it. "Vote Green! This message is brought to you by the Church of Latter Day Saints!"
Personally, I hope they will do it precisely because it will destroy them. The Green Party needs a cleansing of biblical proportions to get back to its origins of democratic renewal and environmental responsibility. Currently it can't even sort out the democracy of its own leadership, so how can it be expected to sort out the democracy in Parliament? The departure of so many deputy leaders is just a harbinger of the true renewal that needs to take place in the GPC.
The Greens, remember, used to be that highly ethical party full of really smart Canadians with ideas ten years ahead of their time. In 2004 they were already proposing a carbon tax. They have been the champion of the single transferable vote. They used to be smart. Now they're just a collection of leaders holding desperately onto power without review, and deputy leaders who would do better on an episode of Coaches Corner than on a national debate.
For serious folks, imagine the Greens win, and G. Laraque is a heartbeat away from the top job? Can you imagine it? Especially compared with the brain trust of the Green party now making films with Quiet Revolution Pictures....
I'm not particularly worried, because I know the Greens stand zero chance of forming a government. I do think, however, that Canadians deserve an ultra-idealistic and impossibly intellectual option to vote for when they choose to wipe their ballots on their bums and cast a vote for a candidate with no chance of winning. It helps us feel superior, righteous, indignant, and what could be more quintessentially counter-cultural and Canadian. To that end, I hope the Greens can get their collective heads out from backwards-between-their-legs and mount something like the 2004 campaign, which may go down in history as the Golden Age of the Green Party.
Also, in all seriousness, I think that Georges Laraque is a better choice for deputy leader than the sanctimonious David Chernushenko. Film maker, well, he may make him but no one outside of a small circle of friends. Don't forget that Mr. Chernushenko took the magic of being endorsed by the paper of record in Ottawa, The Citizen, in both '04 and '06 and manufactured fourth place finishes.
The party really is over for the party.
WFDS
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