Green Party Unity

Whooee! Well, friends an' foes, I spent the weekend at the Green Party convention down in the centre of the universe. I had the pleasure of meetin' Sylvie Lemieux, a gal from up Ottawa way who was lookin' to challenge Earth Mother Lizzie May fer the leadership of us treehuggin' Greenies. Sylvie ain't gonna get a chance to challenge Lizzie now or in the foreseeable future. Neither is anybody else, by the looks of it. Sylvie ain't bitter, though, an' I gotta admire her for that.

The party decided that we ain't ever gonna have a leadership race unless fewer than 60% of the members endorse the leader within six months after a federal election. Now, what we gotta remember here is that the folks who want a change of leadership or even them who just want a leadership contest are the selfsame disgruntled folks who ain't renewing their Green Party memberships. The ones who are happy with the status quo will stay put. The "meaningless" membership numbers may decline but sure as shit at least 60% the happy clams who don't quit are gonna endorse the leader.

So far, I ain't quittin' the Greens. I reckon when you support a party you can't be a hunnert percent's worth happy with every dang policy -- unless yer a rubber stamp without any mind of yer own. I reckon even if we did have a leadership contest, Lizzie would win it anyway so I'm gonna keep on doin' what us card-carryin' party members do: support the party leader. A couple policies got adopted that I ain't too happy with but it could be worse. I could be a Liberal. The Green Party leader's at least a small-g green.

I wanna share a press release that Sylvie Lemieux put out yesterday. It reflects the selfsame attitude I heard her express on the convention floor and in personal conversation.

Lemieux calls for united effort to elect Green MPs

Ottawa, Aug 23 – Green Party leadership hopeful Sylvie Lemieux would like to thank all Green Party members who supported her motion and proposed workshop amendment calling for the Green Party to respect the intent of its constitution by holding regular leadership contests, not leadership reviews.

“Its clear from the voting results, however, that the majority of members who participated in the online Bonser ballot and who attended the convention would prefer using a leadership review process and for the reviews to take place after each election,” she said. "We are a grassroots party and the members have spoken."

Lemieux will now turn her focus to preparing for the next election campaign. “Canadians are counting on the Green Party to be the conscience of the country,” she said. “I am ready, willing and able to do whatever I can to help move the party forward, in a united effort, to elect our first Green MPs to parliament.”

I'd say Sylvie's showin' determination, magnanimosity, good leadership an' she's showin' she's a good soldier. She's a former Lt. Colonel in the Canadian Forces, after all, an' I reckon she knows a thing or two about the chain of command. She told me that the leadership issue was a skirmish she lost but the war is to get Greens into Parliament an' help save the planet an' that war ain't over by a long shot.

JimBobby

Elizabeth May's Nomination: Challenges and Opportunities

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, the gal I adore, Earth Mother Lizzie May, got the nomination to run out on Vancouver Island in the Saanich Gulf Islands riding. Green Party blogger Camille Labchuk wrote up a blog on it and there's some comment action over there. Commenter Mark Francis brought up a couplafew points regardin' Ignatieff's less-than-stellar environmental stance vis-a-vis the tar sands, incumbent Gary Lunn's vulnerability and the need for getting "boots on the ground." Here's my response recycled:

Mark makes some good points. Every candidate will have some baggage. For the Libs, Ignatieff’s environmental intransigence will be serious baggage for small-g green voters. He’s on record supporting nukes, too. His militaristic support for Bush’s Iraq invasion/fiasco doesn’t really speak well for his international savvy, either, and won’t play well with the stereotypical west coast flower children. Hetherington will be saddled heavily with her un-green leader.

Lunn is vulnerable on Chalk River. As Minister of Natural Resources, he was the guy who fired Linda Keen so ignominiously in the middle of the night. He was responsible for restarting the limping reactor that is now giving Canada an international black eye in the medical isotope department. So hapless was Lunn that he was relieved of that portfolio and it was handed off to the even more hapless Lisa Raitt.

Elizabeth May’s biggest piece of baggage seems to be the parachute label. If she can wrap herself in SGI issues and make herself visible enough between now and whenever the Cons get too unpalatable for Layton, she may be able to shake that off. Her environmental credentials and those of the GPC are impeccable. For small-g green voters, she should be able to capitalize on the Liberal leader’s poor environmental stance.

The Herzog flair-up will be seen by most as a sour grapes thing; internal, riding-level party power politics: no worse, better or different than what happens with every party. Elections Canada will not find anything amiss with the riding funding plan and despite some valid concerns regarding top-down party management, Herzog’s complaints will not continue to play a significant part in an election campaign.

Have the NDP nominated anyone? BC voters have the advantage of having had a provincial NDP government by which to judge the NDP’s commitment to the environment. Sure, federal NDP does not equal provincial NDP… except when the NDP wants it to.

I’m a longtime GPC member and EDA exec. I wasn’t too keen on the SGI choice but now that it is a done deal, I’ll be putting my support behind Elizabeth. The decision to run her wherever she is most electable wasn’t a top down decision but was endorsed by the rank and file. My biggest concern centres around the availability of SGI foot soldiers. When Elizabeth ran in London, the foot soldiers flocked in from Toronto and elsewhere in densely populated southern Ontario to knock on doors. I fear that sort of feet-on-the-ground support will be much more difficult to muster in SGI where the doors are further apart and the population nearby is sparser.

JimBobby

Electoral Reform in My Lifetime? I Doubt It.

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, I was just over to POGGE's fine boog an' left me a bigass comment on the troublems with our dumbass electoral system. One o' the commenters by the name o' Greg said he figgered he only had 3 parties to choose from an' that got my Green Party hackles raised up so I lit in with a ramblin' diatribe. Here it is:

Greg said: Finally, I could withhold my vote...

There is another party that runs in all ridings and has remained steadfastly in favour of PR. While the Greens have not elected anyone, GPC support has been steadily growing and the unfairness of FPTP is driven home to more and more voters after each election.

NDP and GPC voters tend to have a better grasp on the problems with the current system simply because we are the ones most victimized by it. The two leading parties are the main beneficiaries of the unfair FPTP system and find it very easy -- and self-serving -- to deny that any problem exists.

I worked alongside my GPC candidate in the 2008 election. She was a big Fair Vote Canada campaigner and worked tirelessly in the Ontario referendum. Whenever she would bring up electoral reform, it would end up working against her. After a few such debacles, it was decided to keep the issue low key. It just didn't resonate or else it was deemed too complicated -- or a dead duck done deal due to the resounding defeat in the referendum.

Attempting to get votes, knowing full well that your party doesn't stand a chance in FPTP, can be frustrating. People will ask, "Why bother?" One of the best reasons has to be the mere fact that once a person sees his or her vote declared essentially meaningless due to FPTP, they will be more receptive and more vocal about the inherent unfairness of the current system.

When enough people start asking why a party that gets 8% or 9% of the popular votes gets 0% representation, we might stand a chance of changing the system. And, it's not just the disenfranchised GPC and NDP voters who can see the discrepancy.

Obviously, the main beneficiaries will be loathe to change a system in which they are the main beneficiaries. I'm not sure we can change that. A Liberal or Con MP who votes for a system that will deprive his party of seats will quickly be dropped from the party.

In the meantime, all we can do is vote our conscience and do our best to inform the public that we have a patently unfair system. I'm 60 YO and have lost all hope that the system will change within my lifetime. That won't stop me from pushing for change. Hey... I'm still pushing for world peace, too.

JimBobby

Blair Wilson MP, Green Party of Canada

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, it's been a big 24 hours for the Green Party. As most followers of the Canadian political scene are now well aware, the Green Party has accepted independent MP Blair Wilson's offer to join the Greens, thereby becoming the first Green Party MP in Canada. I must admit I wasn't entirely overjoyed when I read that Wilson had been "turfed" from the Liberals in fall of 2007 due to financial irregularities under investigation by Elections Canada. Various bloggers, including me, took the assertion by Canadian Press and other MSM outlets at face value.

Yesterday, I spent some time defending the Greens' embrace of what I referred to as a questionable choice for MP. Today, I did what I should have done yesterday. I looked into what really happened in October 2007 when Wilson and the Liberal Party disassociated themselves from one another. It turns out Wilson was not turfed. He was not expelled. He was not fired. He was not ejected.

He resigned. He voluntarily stepped down when he was being investigated by Elections Canada.

At the time, Liberal leader Stephane Dion praised Wilson's action.

Vancouver MP Blair Wilson resigned from the federal Liberal caucus on Sunday, following accusations that he didn't disclose all his expenses during the 2006 federal election.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion confirmed the news in a written statement Sunday night.

"I have accepted Mr. Wilson's resignation from his position as national revenue critic, and as a member of our national caucus, effective immediately," he said.

Wilson denied the allegations and said in a written statement that he is confident his name will be cleared.

He has not suggested he is leaving his post as MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast, which means he will have to sit as an Independent.

"I will collaborate fully with Elections Canada, and do whatever I can to help expedite its investigation into the allegations," Wilson said.

...

Dion praised Wilson for asking Elections Canada to investigate the matter. Dion said the allegations against Wilson are serious and that they raise questions that must be addressed immediately.

"I have instructed the Liberal Party of Canada to provide whatever assistance they can to Elections Canada as it reviews the allegations," Dion said in his statement.

...

Liberal MP Marlene Jennings said that Wilson did the right thing by stepping down "at the first hint" of any questions about his campaign expenses.
(Source: CBC.ca)

As he said he would, Wilson cooperated fully with Elections Canada. Recently, he was cleared of any serious malfeasance. Unfortunately, the damage had been done. The smear job that led to the investigation had sullied Wilson's reputation enough that, even after he was cleared, the Liberals refused to take him back into the fold. So much for doing the right thing.

Now that Wilson has joined the Greens, the Liberal long knives are out. BCer in TO Jeff contends that Wilson was asked to leave the Liberal caucus. Jeff may have some inside info that the CBC, Dion and Jennings didn't know about. Or he may be blowing smoke. Jeff rhymes off a litany of problems he says the Liberals have with Wilson. Among those, is a $1.9 million dollar lawsuit brought forth by Wilson's wife's stepfather. According to published reports yesterday, the amount in dispute was reduced to just $11,000. Let's not let facts get in the way of sour grapes, though.

Jason Cherniak also continues the smear job. Cherniak states that Wilson "(w)as kicked out of the Liberal caucus for allegations of financial and legal improprieties." Jason is Stephane Dion's number one blogging friend. I wonder how Jason squares Dion's October 2007 praise of Wilson stepping down at the first hint of impropriety with his own false statement that Wilson was kicked out. As a lawyer, I expect Jason to know the difference between allegations and convictions. As a lawyer, I expect Jason to grasp the concept of innocent until proven guilty. As a lawyer, Jason should know that those allegations were, for the most part, dismissed by Elections Canada after a lengthy investigation. Don't let the facts get in the way of a smear job, Jason.

Pogge also bought into the story that Wilson was kicked out of the Liberal caucus. So did a few others. I can't blame them. I thought that was the case, too. After all, that's the way it was reported by CP.

Now, however, I'm setting the record straight. As evidenced by Dion's praise and MP Jennings' affirmation, Wilson was not kicked out of the party. I left a comment on Jason's blog a couple of hours ago. I cited Dion's praise and quoted the CBC article. I am still waiting for that comment to be published and responded to, Jason.

I expect it's too much to ask every blogger who bought into the "he was turfed" storyline to recant. I'm going to make the rounds and try to set the record straight and I do expect some bloggers to admit, like I have, that they jumped to a conclusion without investigating whether or not Wilson had really been turfed or fired or expelled or disgraced. We'll see.

I just went back to the original Canadian Press story that said Wilson had been "turfed." The story has been edited. It now states that Wilson resigned.

After that, I'll try to post another boog story on this whole Blair Wilson thing. I ain't quite as obsessed as some bloggers are but I've spouted off in a lot of comments sections and I'm aiming to recycle some of my copious verbosity here on my own little boog.

JB