2829...Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

An editorial from the left coast for you to check out.

Greens' legacy is one of split votes, failed dreams
Vancouver Sun
Wed Sep 1 2010
Page: A14
Section: Editorial

Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May announced after its recent convention that the party's focus in the next federal election will be on electing its first member of Parliament.

So after 27 years, eight federal elections and more than 1,300 candidates fielded, the Green Party has finally decided that getting an MP elected is the key to its success and relevance.

Brilliant strategy, but the real issue for party supporters is whether they want to continue to vote for a movement that shows little room for growth in the political spectrum.

What May failed to explain is how the Green Party's pattern of support -- a kilometre wide and a centimetre deep -- will change enough to help it elect members. More specifically, why should voters who oppose the Conservative party government continue to split their votes among parties who oppose the Tories?

May indicated she saw changes under the Tories as "deeply dangerous" and altering "the fabric of our democracy." If that's true, why should anyone vote for a party that has proved itself to be so ineffectual in today's tight electoral landscape?

New parties such as the Greens can influence decision-making in two ways. They can get members elected who can directly influence policy -- an utter failure for the Greens -- or the threat of their election can indirectly influence the policies of other parties.

The Greens appear to have failed on the second count as well. Their appearance on Canada's political landscape has coincided with a plunge in the country's environmental reputation. Although they never won enough votes to garner a single seat, the Greens' best showing in an election came in 2008 just as the Liberals fielded their most environmentally minded leader in the party's history.

But since deposed Liberal leader Stephane Dion's colossal failure, even the words carbon tax cannot even be spoken at the federal level. Meanwhile, in the past three federal elections, the Greens have fielded candidates in just about every riding -- all losses.

The Greens tend to poll around 10 per cent, but much of that support evaporates like a melting ice flow at election time. In the 2008 election, the party garnered less than seven per cent of the vote, despite the high profile afforded May by her inclusion in the leaders' debates.

In the next election, May plans to run in the B.C. riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands, where Conservative minister Gary Lunn won in 2008 with about 43 per cent of the vote. The Green candidate polled about 10 per cent.

May, now in her fourth year as leader, presumably thinks she has a better chance there than she did in the last election, when she was criticized for her futile attempt to topple senior Tory minister Peter MacKay.

Meanwhile, Canada's Green Party supporters can only dream of a situation like that in Australia, where a single elected Green Party representative could help determine who forms the next government.

I know, I know, they, the Green Party, are going to break through next time except that never happens.

A waste of space they are, a waste of space.

WFDS