In a story completely unrelated to the turmoils of American legislative races, the Green Party of Canada announced today that it has its first ever Member of Parliament.
To give you an idea of how historic this moment is, try to imagine John McCain, upon losing the presidential election, announces he will sit as a Democrat in the new Congress. The reaction to that hypothetical scenario is somewhat similar to having Canada’s first Green MP.
While not as historic as Thursday night for the Democrats in Denver, Blair Wilson has now become the first lawmaker to represent the Green Party in North America, even though many other countries such as Germany, Brazil, and many other have had strong Green presence for decades.
I doubt the Greens could win seats in the next election beyond this one (and they may even lose this particular seat), but it’s pretty interesting. And it just gives another different perspective in my country’s multi-party system that could help enhance our understanding of issues affecting our society.
Now only if the Greens could elect its first member of Congress, that would really knock your socks off.
… and actually I see the need much more here than in Canada. In Canada, they have successful progressive opposition/alternatives to the Liberals, which is something you can’t say about the Democrats, largely due to the deeply grounded and inescapable two-party mindset here in The States. But when it does happen here, I hope it doesn’t happen like this.
In this (Canadian) case, I don’t see this as anything other than opportunism on both sides. The switcher was perceived, rightly or wrongly, to have been in a fundraising/ethics scandal and was forced to become an independent, and wanted at least some kind of party apparatus behind him after the Liberals refused to take him back even after he was mostly cleared. Not sure why he didn’t join the NDP. Maybe they refused to take him, too. So he joined the Greens, and the fact that they’re trying to spin this with a statement like “We have established ourselves as a party that cannot be described as fringe. We are a party whose ideas and policies are now in the mainstream of the public debate.” doesn’t make them look good at all.
I think we might have had a similar situation here in NJ, where an ex-Democratic assemblyman switched to Green a few years ago. He ran for reelection against a different Democrat and a Republican and the Democrat won; the incumbent Green didn’t even manage to spoil the race to help the Republican win. Ironically, after the guy stood outside of Republican meetings gathering signatures for NJ’s openly declaring that he was shamelessly opportunizing with their desire to see Democrats lose in NJ and that he didn’t bother standing outside of Democratic meetings, he reregistered as a Democrat a couple years later. I don’t expect this guy to get reelected after this parliament is dissolved (which it’s going to be in a matter of weeks, if even one); all he’s managed to do is basically pull a Bev Djsarlais.
Move along, folks. Nothing to see here. This guy in BC is no Peter Tatchell, Jean Lambert, or Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente, or a John Eder, Chuck Turner, Ross Mirkarimi, Joschka Fischer, or Rich Whitney, or even a Matt Gonzales, Grace Ross, Medea Benjamin, Jason West or Ted Glick.
That great to begin with, having much more corporate angles than most other worldwide green parties. Plus, its constituency and candidates also include much of the former Progressive Conservative party. Basically, I see the Green party as a complete spoiler to the NDP’s chances (especially in places like British Columbia) and as a whole, a good thing for Conservatives.
Rather than actually trying to build a base of support, they continue to run people for federal office who inevitably get 1-2% of the vote. The only time they win elections is when it’s a nonpartisan local election where the candidate doesn’t have to identify their party. Aside from former Maine State Rep. John Eder, they’ve never gotten anyone elected to a partisan office of any consequence.
If you want a liberal party, fight to move the Democrats to the left. Anything else is pretty much a lost cause.
Are kind of fluid. They seem to have developed a pseudo partnership with the Liberal Party of Canada (the equivalent of the Democrats in Canada) since the Liberals’ leader, Stephane Dion, is a former environment minister and is proposing a carbon tax that would shift taxes onto pollution and fuels and cut taxes on income and investment. I believe that’s called tax shifting in economic terms.
In addition, many Green members are indeed former Liberals, NDP, and even Conservative politicians. But it works both ways, since the Liberals have had former Green politicians join the Liberals and run under that banner during election campaigns.
Too bad it seems in the States, the Greens appear to be a past-time for has-been politicians whose only purpose in life is to run. You know, like Ralph Nader?
…is essentially a Green Party member, in my thinking. From his populist economic message and strong stance for environmental protection, I think he’s the closest thing we have. At least in the Senate.