Elizabeth May Party Versus the NDP

From the Globe:

But while <Elizabeth May> is strongly critical of the Conservatives, it appears her candidacy will be aimed primarily at Jack Layton and the NDP.

At her press conference on Parliament Hill, Ms. May said she draws her inspiration from the social justice vision of Tommy Douglas, the founder of what is now the NDP.

"There's no party with which I'm more disillusioned than the NDP... Why bring down the government on the opening day of the climate conference last Nov. 28 when the world was coming to Montreal? The negotiations taking place were far more important than any domestic political issue in Canada," she said.

Ms. May said her campaign will reach out to young people, disillusioned voters, women, environmental and civil rights activists, progressive business and union people, native groups and members of multicultural communities

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So what's it all mean? One thing seems likely is that it will cost the NDP some votes. The question is how many, and where. And how will this new entry effect the Conservatives' drive to a majority?

Surely the new and sudden appearance of a seasoned political professional as the head of a new national party will have some impact. This is even more likely now, given the funds that are now made available to segmented political entrants (like the Green Party) under recent changes to the Elections Act.

- B

Didn't Harper even do it during the election?

No, the Green Party hasn't a hope in hell of getting elected to Parliament until there is proportional representation, and the only party really pushing for that is the NDP. So unless she truly enjoys shooting herself in the foot, Elizabeth May would be well advised to find as much common cause with the New Democrats as she can.

For now, anyway...

I expect, if she wins the leadership, she'll make the Greens greener than the Conservative stalking horse Jim Harris ever intended. And so long as the Greens don't misrepresent themselves, as they did under Harris, I won't begrudge them any success. (And Green support has not been drawn disproportionately from the NDP. A lot of it has been a protest "fuck 'em all" vote.)

Call me a sucker, but I like more choice. Even choices I won't make myself.

I note that the Conservatives are trying to sell their alleged childcare initiative as offering parents a new "choice". But what new choice is created by a program that pays out a small fraction of what is needed for quality childcare, and that builds few if any new spaces to meet the needs of any new effective demand for spaces created by the new baby binus scheme? Choice indeed.

In your case, on the mater of the Greens, you apparently a) are of the NDP persuasion, b) welcome the new "choice" for voters, even though it will result in c) electing no-one from that party, and d) your party getting fewer votes.

(Syntactical forgiveness sought for the above grammatical construct.)

So what's that all about? People who aren't in the 40 per cent who support the Conservatives will have yet another way of splitting their vote so as to give Harper a majority. Great. I'll bet this gives Harper the warm and fuzzies.

- B

I don't like May's pedigree; formerly employed by the Mulroney gov't. Which might explain why she had no problem making her former boss, Mr. Green Jeans.

But the NDP is a write-off and quite honestly dangerous to the anti-war left; it seems bizarre that a party who was committed in principle, for so long, of withdrawing from NATO, without debate and all of a sudden, just when the Liberals changing the combat role of the military from their longheld peacekeeping role.

In 1941 there was an ancedote, I think it might have been in a biography of Theordore Driesler, that one of those 'red' peace groups like Committee for Soviet Friendship constantly picketed the White House to keep America out of the imperialist fascist war.

But then overnight, when they got word that the Soviet Union was attacked, they literally took their same anti-war signs and turned them into pro-war signs right on the spot.

Why am I thinking there's a similar situation here...?