<strong>Written By:</strong> 4Canada
<strong>Date:</strong> 2006-08-12 12:45:52
<a href="/article/4552783-beating-harper-ndp--greens">Article Link</a>

Expect a new Liberal leader to step in and accept business support in return for doing what business wants in the same way Martin and Chrétien took over Mulroney policies to woo business backing. The main difference between then and now was that the former division between the old Tories and the Reformers made life easier for the Liberals.

The best immediate prospect seem to be more minority government, but with the NDP holding the balance of power, and able to extract concessions from the Liberals, or less so from the Conservatives.

However, prospects for more division on the left could threaten the NDP standings in the House.

Later this month, the Green party will select a new leader, possibly Elizabeth May. The Greens polled 4.3 per cent of the national vote in the 2004 election ensuring them public funding. In 2006, their support stalled at 4.5 per cent. But they are attracting young, passionate members, largely based on the obvious-to-all-but-fans-of-the-National Post deterioration in the conditions of human existence. In 2006, the Greens received their largest support (6.5 per cent) in Alberta where Harper is strongest and the assault on the environment the most evident.

In an article published in Canadian Forum in 1989, former NDP MP Lynn McDonald called on the NDP to be the Green Party of Canada. One of the most effective members ever to be elected — it was her private member's bill banning tobacco advertising that began the fight back against smoking in public spaces — McDonald saw that the traditional sources of appeal for the NDP would not be enough to bring it to power.

<a href="http://www.rabble.ca/politics.shtml?sh_itm=7603e6ffc2f6dfc9d109554ec6bfc779&rXn=1&">http://www.rabble.ca/politics.shtml?sh_itm=7603e6ffc2f6dfc9d109554ec6bfc779&rXn=1&</a>;

   

The problem with this is the problem with all "catch-all" parties, everything gets reduced to a lowest common denominator mush. As but one example, generations of socialists have tried to no avail to convert the NDP to socialism. The result is a continuous slide to the right by the NDP since it was formed. The Green Party was formed by fed-up NDPers and quasi-anarchist enviros who would never join the NDP anyway. For the Greens to join the NDP would be suicidal, they would end up one more minority fighting knee deep in the mush. (This is why we need a proportional ballot - or something similar - that will allow people to have a clear ideological choice, then make formal give and take coalitions.) Of course, Campbell is right, we can't wait for the installation of the proportional ballot with the neoconazi threat bearing doewn on us. Why not an electoral alliance instead of a party merger? Greens would support Dippers where the Green vote would make a difference. In exchange, the Dippers could allow the Greens to take a couple of seats. Then they could work together in pariament on those issues they have in common. Rather than a merged "Green Democrats" have Green-NDP slates...

   

anarcho,

I actually agree with you on this. I don't want to see them merge either and want electoral reform. But,if it could prevent Harper from being elected again, even into a minority, I certainly would have no qualms about voting for either of their candidates to supress him.

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"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." Friedrich Nietzsche

   

If they could come together on equal terms as a new party maybe, but many NDP have a real hate on for anyone and anything Green Party. We are always accused by them of losing this or that riding, as if the votes of the people somehow belong to them and them only. You can see some of the venom some NDP have for Greens on this very website.

While the Greens did only make a slight gain over last election they have plenty of room to grow, and grow they are all over Canada. Like another poster said - pro-rep-gov would do more to solve Canada's woes than a joining of the left, as it would take away the problems that have kept the parties separate anyways. They can work together in the House on common issues, and that is the key.

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If there was ever a time for Canadians to become pushy - now is the time - for time is running out on this nation called Canada.

   

The policies of the Greens are actually quite Red.

   

Red/Green?

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"We can have a democracy or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few. We cannot have both."
- Justice Louis Brandeis

   

If you had said - some of the Green policies are red - I would have agreed with you. A good idea is a good idea no matter where it comes from.

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If there was ever a time for Canadians to become pushy - now is the time - for time is running out on this nation called Canada.

   

Yes, I am well aware of the venom and am peeved by it. It is pure sectarianism. I have to tell you this, when I vote, I vote Green. The reason I support the Greens over the NDP is because I find the Greens to the left of the Dippers in a number of important areas.

   

err, these areas are decentralization, direct democracy, a more consensus-type approach, "human scale" - all fundamentally anarchist ideas I might add.

   

"Bow your heads for the men's prayer. (group recites) I am a man, but I can change. If I have to, I guess..."
- Red Green

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We have met the enemy and he is us
Pogo
A mind is a fire to be kindled, not a vessel to be filled.
Plutarch

   

The Reds are Green...or the Greens are Red? Anyone what to run as MP for Possum Lodge?

   

The Green Party - Five rats who know it's time to jump ship - while the rest of us dance in the ballroom on a 45 degree slope.

The Green Party cannot save us, it is far too late. The damage is already done. And the MSM would never give them the air time they need to sway the ignorant masses enough for a victory.

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“The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous, the essential act of warfare is the destruction of the produce of human labour”

   

It's not only the Greens the media covers over - it's pretty much anyone who dares say - "hey something is not right with the status quo". Those people come from all parties and from all stripes, but tipping the apple cart doesn't sell apples to those that pull the strings.

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If there was ever a time for Canadians to become pushy - now is the time - for time is running out on this nation called Canada.

   

You've got that right. The MSM only want to satisfy their advertisers and their Zionist owners, which means that journalism has mostly become sensationalism and that the real news - about things that people know is not right - is not covered as it would upset the apple cart and the newspaper would lose market share or the radio/tv staion would lose ratings. So they keep on pandering to the smallest common denominator and things are getting worse every year. Hurrah for cyberspace.