Elizabeth May’s By-Election Choice?

Now that Green Party leader Elizabeth May has chosen to run in Saanich-Gulf Islands and achieve what the Liberals couldn’t do with no NDP candidate in the next general election, wouldn’t it stand to reason that her next by-election choice would be (relatively) nearby New Westminster—Coquitlam, for the purpose of boosting her profile in BC?

Force Of History Make “Unite The Left” Impossible

It seems that uniting the “left” has become popular in the press lately. However, I think my thoughts on the matter from January still hold today:

The centre-left first split from the centre in 1920, then solidified that split in 1932, then reformed itself in 1961.

After 88 years, somehow I don’t think the centre-left is going to come back to the centre.

You see, the reason why the right could unite was the fact that it was split for only 10 years, which isn’t enough time for a generation to pass, isn’t enough time for people to forget a united party.

But, even with only ten years, uniting the right was a hard task that took mulitple, failed efforts.

The “left” has been split for 88 years, a few generations. Now logic dictates that if it was darned hard to unite the right with a 10 year split, it’s going to be impossible with a 88 year split.

But anyway, its high time that anti-conservative forces quit wishing for a miracle solution like “unite the left” to get rid of the Conservatives, and start working hard to convince people to vote for a different party (like the NDP) to take away votes from them.

Quick Thought: Popular Vote And Money

As many people might know, political parties get $1.75 per vote (plus inflation).

Therefore, it might be interesting to look at the numbers:

	2006	.          2008*
Conservative	5,374,071	5,194,780
Liberals	4,479,415	3,620,201
NDP	2,589,597	2,509,439

*2008 Numbers are as of 10/14/08 11:40pm PST

So it looks like the NDP and Conservatives are going to receive roughly the same amount of public money as the last cycle. The Liberals, however, have lost roughly 900,000 votes (or about $1,575,000).

That doesn’t bode well for the Liberals’ financial future.

As for the financial future of the NDP, a meme that seems to be going around is the NDP will not be able to repay their debt recurred on this campaign. I would contend that any money borrowed for the campaign probably has a repayment schedule that corresponds with a similar amount of support as 2006. Just because the NDP campaign rhetoric reached sky-high doesn’t mean that any financial consideration would be based on the rhetoric.

Nothing really changes for the Conservatives and Bloc, but the 300,000 votes the Greens gained this election will definitely increase the financial resources that are available to them.

The Spirit Of Quisling Resides In May?

It can’t be good to be a Green right now, with this type of stuff coming from their leader’s mouth:

On Sunday, two days before the election, Ms. May gave an interview to the Canadian Press. The journalist then filed a story reporting that Ms. May said “there’s no question” that in 20 per cent of Canadian ridings, Green voters may wish to vote strategically.

Tell me then, Ms. May, why did the Greens run candidates in those ridings?

Anyway, correct me if I’m wrong, but Green voters support the Green party because they do not support the Liberals, NDP, Conservatives, or Bloc. They are not in it to:

…turf Stephen Harper as Prime Minister and replace him with Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion.

That’s what the Liberal party is for. If Green supporters wanted to do that in the first place, they would have joined the Liberal party, not the Green party.

I feel sorry for the Greens in regards to their sell-out leader. Things are hard enough for them already, without having their leader trying to reduce their vote-share, and thus their public funding.

I’m Spartacus

I’m Buckdog!

Uhh… I’m mean, I’m Spartacus. Buckdog* bites those to pretend to be him. 😉

*Or more accurately, Leftdog.