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.
I have no confindence at this point that this Ontario showing or Federal Green poling results will get us a debate seat for the next big show. The usual media scum made every effort they could last night to down play our achievments, including Duffy saying we still did not deserve a place in the debate.
What do you think of commentators calling Green votes “protest” votes, Chris?
Not very much. ;-) I’m sure some of our voters were simply registering a protest, but there is no other party in Ontario or Canada right now growing at the rate we are. We’ve also demonstrated staying power, versus other “protest” parties like the CAP who made gains for one election and then all but vanished. (Not to mention the 50% of Ontarians who protested by not even showing up.) Trying to dismiss 8% of the vote as insignificant is lazy analysis.
Where do you think the votes are coming from? Do you think they’re new voters who are going straight to the Greens, or are they being peeled off from other parties?
Also, do you think that you got an extra boost in this election because of the referendum?
I would imagine that people who were motivated enough to come out and vote for MMP would also be more inclined to vote Green as they would be big beneficiaries. Or vice versa.
In the past we’ve observed that about a third of our votes come from the left, a third from the right, and a third from people who would not otherwise vote. We tend to pull slightly more from the NDP, though this time (and, for example, in London North Centre) I heard from a lot of Conservative voters who were coming over. In other words, we’re not vote splitters, we’re vote uniters.
The referendum boost is possible, but I don’t think it’s likely or hugely significant. If anything it was our unique position on faith-based school funding that motivated a lot of people to take a closer look at our full platform.