Politics and Media Blog Project
Blue, Red, Orange or... Green?
I hope everyone is doing well with this very busy time of year! Hopefully when some free time comes up there will be more posting to the blog.
Across the news the London North-Centre by-election is making headlines, and not because Pearson took the seat. The focus tends to be on Green Party leader Elizabeth May, who was a strong second, (slightly) ahead of Conservative Dianne Haskett.
I personally received a visit to my home from a Green Party representative, who I found to be very interesting. The thing that suprised me is that the gentleman stayed to speak to me although I informed him immediately that I would be voting for the Conservative party but am a strong believer in the need for our COUNTRY to take a more proactive stance on the environment.
By this I mean that I don't find the environment to be a negotiable party platform, but rather a civic responsibility that WILL come about if citizens so desire. On this, I found it interesting that the Green representative felt the Greens would be best suited to a cooperation with other parties. This is personally where I feel a party like the Greens belong, by playing a role to aid whoever is in power to recognize the urgent issues we have created in our environment. In this way I've always felt issues like the environment belong to the people's interest groups.
I think that all the major parties, not specifically the Conservatives, should take note of the Green success story in our riding this week. Certainly the Conservatives were behind the Greens, but the riding is definitively Liberal (under Fontana) and the Greens took votes from across the mao. This to me, then, seems to be a far more general commentary on the need to step up to environmental commitments. Certainly the Liberal caucus had their own measure of disconnection with vital environmental problems, and the NDP has not recently had sufficient power in the house to show their resolve either way.
It's time to take a positive stance for the environment, and I for one hope the Greens get where they belong... right in the faces of the political leaders.
I would welcome any thoughts! Particularly any other experiences anyone had during the by-election.
I hope everyone is doing well with this very busy time of year! Hopefully when some free time comes up there will be more posting to the blog.
Across the news the London North-Centre by-election is making headlines, and not because Pearson took the seat. The focus tends to be on Green Party leader Elizabeth May, who was a strong second, (slightly) ahead of Conservative Dianne Haskett.
I personally received a visit to my home from a Green Party representative, who I found to be very interesting. The thing that suprised me is that the gentleman stayed to speak to me although I informed him immediately that I would be voting for the Conservative party but am a strong believer in the need for our COUNTRY to take a more proactive stance on the environment.
By this I mean that I don't find the environment to be a negotiable party platform, but rather a civic responsibility that WILL come about if citizens so desire. On this, I found it interesting that the Green representative felt the Greens would be best suited to a cooperation with other parties. This is personally where I feel a party like the Greens belong, by playing a role to aid whoever is in power to recognize the urgent issues we have created in our environment. In this way I've always felt issues like the environment belong to the people's interest groups.
I think that all the major parties, not specifically the Conservatives, should take note of the Green success story in our riding this week. Certainly the Conservatives were behind the Greens, but the riding is definitively Liberal (under Fontana) and the Greens took votes from across the mao. This to me, then, seems to be a far more general commentary on the need to step up to environmental commitments. Certainly the Liberal caucus had their own measure of disconnection with vital environmental problems, and the NDP has not recently had sufficient power in the house to show their resolve either way.
It's time to take a positive stance for the environment, and I for one hope the Greens get where they belong... right in the faces of the political leaders.
I would welcome any thoughts! Particularly any other experiences anyone had during the by-election.
posted by AcceptanceSpeech at 6:36 PM
3 Comments:
I should also mention the vote percentages in this riding. This is interesting in that we see all the major parties losing considerable votes to the Greens, with the loss by the Liberals and the Conservatives quite comparable.
Jan. 23/2006 Nov. 27/2006
Liberal 40.1 34.9 5.2% decrease
Conservative 29.9 24.5 5.4% decrease
NDP 23.8 14.1 9.7% decrease
Green 5.5 25.8 20.3% increase
November 27, 2006
Canadian Action Will Arlow 53 0.1
Independent Robert Ede 78 0.2
Conservative Dianne Haskett 9,327 24.5
PC Party Steve Hunter 146 0.4
Green Party Elizabeth May 9,845 25.8
Liberal Glen Pearson 13,285 34.9
N.D.P. Megan Walker 5,365 14.1
January 23, 2006
Joe Fontana Liberal Party of Canada 24,109 40.1
Stephen Maynard New Democratic Party 14,271 23.8
John Mazzilli Conservative Party of Canada 17,968 29.9
Margaret Mondaca Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada 160 0.3
Rod Morley Progressive Canadian Party 283 0.5
Stuart Smith Green Party of Canada 3,300 5.5
I was also very pleased that the Green Party did so well in the LNC riding, one which has traditionally been a very strong supporter of the Liberals. Sooner than later the environment will become an issue that all political parties, regardless of their ideology, will have to address. As is evident in the recent Green Lane controversy, it is clear that we are all paying the price for the poor environmental planning in municipalities many miles away. The problems of others will soon become our own. Although, I am a Liberal, I am hoping that somewhere, sometime soon, the Green Party with be able to gain a seat in parliament.
I would also like to note that I am very pleased that Glen Pearson was victorious (I will admit I was unsure of what the outcome would be). I had the opportunity to help campaign for Mr. Pearson last year when he ran for the provinical seat in London-Fanshawe and he is truly a very admirable man who I think will do great things for LNC. Not only is the director of a foodbank and a previous firefighter but he has also devoted much of his time to working with poverty stricked communities in Africa. These endeavours, I believe prove that he has an instrinsic value to help those in need. A quality which I think is rare among many of todays politicians.
Once the public really starts demanding change on environmental issues, than parties like the Liberals we'll just pay lip-service to those issues or actually implement pro-environmental initiatives and take the votes away from the Greens.
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