From the Green Camp

2015: The Year of Green

Few see it now, but that is the way the media will cover the next federal election campaign — after it is over.

Dismiss it as wishful thinking, but no national media coverage anticipated that I would win a federal seat in Saanich-Gulf Islands, nor that Dr. Andrew Weaver would win a provincial one in Oak Bay-Gordon Head, nor that David Coon would win a seat making the New Brunswick Greens the third party in that province.

Recent green wins in municipal races on Vancouver Island have begun to get some attention, but, for the most part, stories that note that Greens are rising in the polls tend to be attached to questions about “blips” and “parked votes.” It will dawn on political pundits slowly that Green votes are actually being cast to elect Green representatives.

We still face a near hysteria against voting Green from NDP and Liberal supporters who strangely seem to think those parties are sufficiently aligned with Greens that we should just dry up and die. Of course, if the NDP and Liberals had ever put the climate crisis ahead of their narrowest short-term political advantage, Stephen Harper could never have formed a minority parliament in 2006, nor in 2008. (In fairness, a caveat. Stéphane Dion did try, but the NDP reaction to any cooperation with Greens was swift and vicious). The pre-occupation about “vote splitting” relies on tapping into voter fear and anxiety so effectively that the thinking process becomes paralyzed.

READ MORE: http://elizabethmaymp.ca/news/2015/01/06/2015-the-year-of-green/?wpmp_tp=0