Federal Green Party leader, and its only sitting MP, Elizabeth May was married last week — appropriately on Earth Day.
And that’s not the only reason the Green Party has to celebrate. The Green Party is on the rise in various parts of the country, leading May to the more than faint hope that she might actually have some colleagues in the House of Commons after next fall’s election.
In Prince Edward Island, the Green Party has become the official Opposition, with an impressive 30 per cent of the vote. They seated eight MLAs, far more than ever in any other province. BC is next with three.
PEI’s Conservative party will form a minority government, making it the fifth province in Canada to move to a Conservative government.
So what does this mean?
Number one, it means that Canadian voters who lean a little right are all in on the Conservative Party, despite the fact that Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party is trying to offer an alternative choice.
It also means that people are really looking at the Green Party as a viable alternative, as trust in the Liberals erodes, and the NDP continue to fail to inspire anyone — although I will say that our Kootenay-Columbia MP is doing a creditable job, given his third party standing.
But there are a very large chunk of voters who will not vote right wing, and they could possibly be migrating to the Green Party.
I wrote a few weeks ago that I would have a hard time deciding who to vote for next fall and that remains true.
I voted Liberal last time, but the SNC Lavalin affair has me rethinking that. Not because I think Trudeau did anything illegal, but because he and his top advisers bungled the whole affair so badly you wonder how they can tie their shoes, let alone run a country.
I can’t/won’t vote for Andrew Scheer, the Prairie Puritan. Behind those dimples is a man who voted against gay marriage in 2005 and refuses to take part in Pride parades. He is also against women controlling their own reproductive rights, being firmly ‘pro-life’ (a term I do not like).
The Conservative Party policy states that they would not support any legislation to regulate abortion, but that particular policy passed by a razor thin margin at the last policy convention, when there was a serious attempt to remove it from the platform. Should the growing number of Conservatives who want to meddle in social policy continue to rise, I do not know that I would trust Mr. Scheer to maintain his current position.
The late great Pierre Trudeau (a man I personally continue to admire) stated many years ago, “The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation”. I don’t fully trust Andrew Scheer to stay out of my bedroom, so to speak.
So, left with the above choices, the opportunity to look at the Greens is there.
Elizabeth May is a formidable woman, but she has toiled alone in the House of Commons since 2011. Imagine what a difference the addition of a few more MPs could make.
Chances are the next federal government will be a minority of one stripe or another. A minority means you must appease other parties somewhat in order to pass any significant legislation. If there were a group of even half a dozen Green MPs, their influence could be substantial. Look at how three Green MLAs became so very important right here in BC.
So while the horizon may be tinged Tory red in some parts of the country, in the direction of the sunrise, there’s a hint of Green.