I’d Be Grumpy Too

green party, ndp, polls

I think I know why the NDP have been so grumpy lately. They must have had some advance knowledge of this poll:

It suggested the Liberals had the support of 35 per cent of respondents while the Tories were at 31 per cent, the NDP was at 12 per cent and the Green party was at 10 per cent.

Yikes! Only a two-point gap stands between the NDP and being knocked out of their perpetual third place. I wonder what the margin of error was for that poll…

The Decima poll of 1,025 respondents was conducted from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3, and is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points 19 times in 20.

Uh-oh. The NDP/Green gap is within the margin of error. This is what they call a “statistical tie.” Plus, the NDP — and the Conservatives for that matter — are probably still hurting from losing to the Green Party in the London North Centre by election. How embarrassing is that. ;-)

Keep watching those grey political skies. They may clear up soon.

The Same Sex Marriage Debate

social justice

If you take for granted that reopening the same-sex marriage debate is a bad idea from a human rights and social justice standpoint, you’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of the multitude of reasons this vote shouldn’t be taking place.

First, it’s a politically cynical move. Harper’s not just doing this because he said he would. (He’s already demonstrated his sense of humour by breaking a key promise that had the word “trust” in it.) Rather, he’s orchestrating this vote because a number of his socially conservative MPs and supporters want him to prove that he’s still at least open to the idea of discriminating based on sexual orientation. (Call it, neo-openmindedness.) Since the vote is almost certain to fail, that’s the only thing he could possibly accomplish.

Second, it’s a moot move. Not only is the vote likely to fail, but even if it succeeded, Harper would need to invoke the Charter’s notwithstanding clause in order to actually outlaw same-sex marriage, and he already said he wouldn’t do that. So, again, what are we doing here?

Finally, it’s a waste of time. The House can only accomplish so much, and there’s lots to do. They shouldn’t spend any more energy on something that was already decided (and decided correctly) just to appeal to the small number of Canadians who want to believe they’re still voting for the Reform party. And Canada should not be subjected to more divisiveness because a minority government wants to boost its ratings.

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.

Félicitations, Stéphane

green party, liberal party

I’ve spent the day watching the Liberal leadership convention, and Stéphane Dion was just announced the winner of the final ballot. Those of you who have been watching as well will remember Stéphane as the “green” candidate, literally. He was the only leadership contender whose supporters weren’t using red as their primary colour.

And, of course, I want to also congratulate my former Liberal opponent Bill Graham on the completion of a very successful leadership term. I like Bill a lot, and he’s been a good MP for Toronto Centre.

Watching the leadership race of a rival political party from some other parties can be a conflicted event. On the one hand, you want the best candidate to win for the sake of the country. On the other, you can’t help but speculate on which leadership candidate might be the greater benefit to your own party.

Thankfully, we don’t have that problem (or at least not nearly as much) in the Green party. At the end of the day, what’s good for our party is good for the country, because unlike other parties, we’ve explicitly said that the implementation of our policies and the health of our democracy come first. (It’s sometimes said that we’re the only party that hopes to work itself out of existence.)

Dion, therefore, was the best choice by both measures. Not only does he have the best values and priorities of any of the Liberal leadership contenders, he’ll also be the most willing to cooperate with Green MPs. His biggest challenge, of course, is that he’s still the leader of a party that is systematically invested in the status quo. It will therefore be harder for him to change our country’s disastrous course, which is just one of the reasons why we still need new voices in parliament.

The next few months will be interesting.