Category Archives: ndp

Some Advice

conservative party, green party, liberal party, ndp

The two campaigns in the London North Centre by election that went negative were the Conservative campaign (which went negative on the Liberals) and the NDP campaign (which went negative on the Greens). It’s no coincidence that those campaigns finished third and fourth, behind the positive campaigns of the Liberals and the Green Party.

I bring this up because late last night the NDP sent out an email to their supporters (and moles like me). The first paragraph read:

There’s a new Liberal leader but it’s the same old Liberal party. After 13 years of broken promises and corruption, the Liberals have picked themselves a new front man. Their choice – an out of touch academic who spent 10 years in a scandal ridden cabinet and who’s record as Environment Minister was condemned by environmentalists and the Environment Commissioner. Liberal arrogance – some things never change.

The second paragraph — ready for this? — was as follows:

Today Jack Layton offered his congratulations to Stéphane Dion, saying that he looked forward to debating the new leader in Parliament to get things done for today’s families.

The second paragraph loses some of its sincerity coming after the first, doesn’t it? Listen folks, we’re not going to accomplish anything by being close-minded, mean, and partisan beyond reason. And if that isn’t enough, Canadians increasingly won’t vote for these kinds of politicians and parties. The London North Centre result showed that.

If I were in charge of the NDP’s messaging, I’d turn the venom down a shade, or risk being poisoned by it.

NDP Attacks Greens!

green party, ndp

Oh boy is this an exciting day. The NDP, whose candidate said at the start of this campaign that the Green Party wouldn’t be a factor, has been distributing a specifically anti-Green flyer. Clearly, we’ve now convinced them that we are a factor. There’s much celebration here in the May campaign office.

I heard about the flyer today from a disgruntled NDP volunteer I bumped into while canvassing. She’d been shocked to see it and had refused to hand it out. She mentioned that her young daughter, who’d been canvassing with her, had been particularly upset by the whole thing.

For the text of the flyer, Elizabeth May’s take on the attack, and some pretty funny context to a quote of Elizabeth’s that had its context unduly removed, check out Elizabeth May’s blog post.

Tomorrow. Monday. This is it.

Congratulations Frank!

green party, ndp

Frank de Jong, leader of the Green Party of Ontario, earned an impressive 6.2% of the vote in yesterday’s Parkdale-High Park by-election. The fact that this increase (up from 5.49 in the last federal election) happened in the face of such a tight “horse race” between the NDP and Liberal candidates makes it even more impressive.

It also happened in the face of some mildly amusing minor political interference. My friend Adriana and I were out “main-streeting” for Frank in the final week of the election when we almost got arrested (note: slight exaggeration is in effect) for, of all things, solicitation. (It’s a funny story, ask me about it some time. Turns out not all Toronto police understand that political candidates are allowed by law to, you know, campaign. Like we live in some sort of democracy or something.)

Congratulations to Frank and everyone on his team (even Adriana and I, the trouble makers).

I want to also congratulate Cheri DiNovo on her win. Cheri’s actually a friend of the family, and I wish her the best.

Hit Me With The Double Digits

green party, ndp, polls

Today, for what I’m pretty sure is the first time, the Green Party of Canada hit 10% in a national poll. This reflects positively on our message and our new leader. It reflects negatively on the status quo parties who are failing to offer leadership.

For your reference, in 1993 with only 6.88% of the popular vote, the NDP elected 9 MPs.

Over the coming months, as the Green Party launches a series of policy conferences across the country, expect to see our popularity and credibility continue to rise.

Can I get a yip yip?