Re: “Green Party is a viable alternative”
Green Party supporters Lisa Bramson and Julia Roberts speak well of the party’s policies, Elizabeth May, and the local candidate. They may be right. If we were voting in Germany, with its admirable electoral system, a Green vote cast almost anywhere can really count. The trouble is that we live in Canada and in most places the party’s merits simply won’t matter.
We vote in a BC constituency with redrawn borders that favours the Conservatives. Neither the Greens nor the Liberals have a chance of winning this riding. Regrettably, the more support the Greens are able to get the more likely the Conservatives will win, for it would mean that the majority of electors who oppose Stephen Harper will be even more divided than they already are. Divide and rule is a principle greatly to Harper’s advantage, and he’s adept at exploiting it.
Green sympathizers might consider giving money to one of the two or three constituencies in BC where the Party has a real chance — certainly Elizabeth May’s. But please realize that a Green vote in this constituency will simply help Stephen Harper, with his dismal record on the environment and much else, remain in power.
Bob Malcolmson, Nelson