In a recent interview on CTV Question
Period Elizabeth May, the Green Party federal leader
said that they had been getting an increased interest,
and donations, in the party. Hardly a surprise as the choices
otherwise are becoming increasingly hard to endorse, the Cons are
IMHO so far off the wall both federally and provincially (when Doug
Frord is reinforcing their unsuitability to rule anything) that its
no contest. The NDP seem to be stumbling around in the dark both
leadership wise and policy wise but the big hit for me in these days
of folks struggling to make a living is there insistence of
supporting (mostly government) unionized employees in their ever cry
for more, more, more. We know that such position is based upon the
need for money, money, money from said unions but that does not make
it right!
That leads us to the Liberals whom I
had great respect for and have refrained from criticizing because I
thought that they were in fact trying to do the right thing, I can
even forgive their inability to bring electoral reform to it final
conclusion for as we have seen time and time again the various
players will NEVER find a middle ground that satisfies even close to
a majority of the electorate. What really turned me off was (as
seems to be an increasing point of view) the support and eventual
purchase of the old 'oil' pipeline from Alberta to the west coast and
the ongoing support of the expansion of shipment of mixed tar and
toxic thinners to be shipped via tanker from the waters of BC.
In short I see little alternatives
despite my feeling that a vote for other than the Libs may spin the
roulette wheel called electoral democracy towards the very scary and
previously power hungry Conservative authoritarian regime. My
reluctance to go all out and endorse all Green candidates is colored
by my involvement with the local Green movement here in Grey Bruce,
not that this was in any way a bad experience, they were in fact all
good and caring people and their cause well worth supporting. I,
along with a number of caring and concerned local folks spent
considerable volunteer time updating the web presence of the
GBOS Greens EDA web site in order that both
members and the public could see where things stood locally as
regards to to said organization. Unfortunately local supporters
failed to make use of said resource and both it and the local
organization seem to have faded into obscurity.
As the federal election approaches
perhaps the (now largely defunct) local executive will make use of
said resource (still available online) to promote and resurrect the
local green movement which has seen no new content in many, many
months (years in fact) but to expect a viable candidate who can do
anything other than split the vote after being dormant for so long in
this district is dreaming in technicolor. That all said I do hope
that Greens across our nation vote in a sufficient number of MPs to
shake up the status quo and perhaps even have the balance of power in
what may well be a minority government. Wouldn't that be much needed
a shake up!
4 comments:
Having read The Mound's recent post about voting Green in the next election, Rural, I am giving very consideration to his suggestion. Like you, I am completely disaffected from the Liberals; their descent into their old ways took place faster than I could have anticipated.
Traditionally, the argument against voting for the Greens is that it is a throwing away of one's vote. But if now is not the time to stand on principle and send a message, when is?
We are going to be faced with some very difficult choices this fall Lorne, it will not be helped by the BS issuing from many of the participants and amplified by the unregulated 'social media'!
I, too, am considering voting Green, Rural. But because we live in a very Blue Area, my vote would not accomplish anything. However, you never know. My riding went Liberal in the last federal election.
With the current long standing 'blue' MP in this riding 'retiring' it hard to know what is going to happen here Owen, as you say 'you never know'!
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