Monthly Archives: October 2007

Greens Surge

green party

The Green Party of Ontario surged in popular support last night, almost tripling its vote to 8%. In what was a status quo election, we are the only party to have gained ground, and we’ve done so at an incredible rate. In addition, it’s interesting to note that the Greens came second in this year’s Student Vote, beating both the NDP and the PCs. Momentum is clearly ours.

In Bruce-Grey Owen Sound, Shane Jolley made us proud by breaking records and coming second with 33.5% of the vote, more than double that of the third place Liberal. In other ridings across the country–including Guelph and Barrie–we placed third with strong results that affected the outcome of the election. Despite the predictions of pundits and the wishes of our opponents, our support did not evaporate in election day. We’ve reached the tipping point where the Greens are a serious party that a large cross-section of Ontario is proud to support.

Update: We came third in 16 18 ridings (including Don Valley West where John Tory ran) and had 21 campaigns finish north of 10%. I’m very impressed.

Here in Toronto Centre, Mike McLean pulled an impressive 9.67% of the vote, a huge increase that represents almost half of either the NDP or PC support. The Green Party is now a serious factor in this riding, and my optimism for the next federal election, be it general or by, has been solidified.

As for the referendum results, I’ll comment on them in a separate post once I stop swearing and throwing things.

Suicide Bombings A Good Sign: Oda

foreign affairs, peace,

The Harper cabinet minister who removed “equality” from the mandate of Status of Women Canada, arguing that that would improve women’s equality, today went further down the rabbit hole:

One of the cabinet ministers visiting Afghanistan to meet with that country’s leadership and Canadian troops says that roadside and suicide bombings in Kabul indicate that the situation is improving in the country.

According to the Canadian Press, International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda went before skeptical Afghan journalists and said roadside and suicide bombings indicate that the insurgents have made a shift in tactics. She said that shows the success of the NATO mission.

I wonder, if the insurgents get their hands on a dirty bomb or worse, will Oda continue to take that as a positive indicator of progress?

Cruel Ufford

ontario referendum on mmp

Michael Ufford of No MMP signed an email two days ago that read, in part:

But there are still a lot of undecided voters out there. One survey indicates that there are more undecided women than men. I wonder if this is due to the cruel promise that a change in electoral system alone will automatically result in more women in the legislature?

From the Elections New Zealand (a country that uses MMP) website:

As the Royal Commission and pro-MMP campaigners had predicted, Parliament has become much more diverse and representative of modern New Zealand society – in 2006 39 women, 21 Maori, four Pacific Islanders, and two Asian MPs are among the 121 MPs.

No, there’s no guarantee that MMP would do the same here. All we have is overwhelming evidence that it would. Perhaps Michael could explain why he thinks that drawing attention to that evidence is cruel?