Monday, May 08, 2017

Corporatism versus Unionism. That's Why I Vote Green, for Environmentalism


I expect Christy Clark will remain Canada's most corrupt premier when the ballots are counted tomorrow. She and her Liberal government have a 16-year record to prove they're rotten to the core. Still they're revered even by some outspoken federal Liberals who are willing to overlook all the corruption and the fact that B.C. Liberals are really right wing conservatives.

I went to the advanced polls and I voted for my party. I voted Green. It's the sort of thing that sets the Dippers howling for they alone lay claim to every non-Liberal vote. In my opinion they can take their harangue and pound it up where it belongs. If they can't defeat Clark's Liberals on their own, that's on them, not the Green Party or its supporters.

Writing in The Georgia Straight, Mark Leiren-Young strips the eco-hypocrisy off the Dippers' hides and truly flays their cheap sanctimony.



As nervous NDPers ask why any “progressive” would trust the Greens, I can’t help wondering why any environmentalist would trust the NDP?
...

It wasn’t the Socreds or Liberals who declared environmentalists “enemies of British Columbia,” it was the NDP’s Glen Clark.

Carole James cynically campaigned on a campaign to axe BC’s globally admired carbon tax—torching her party’s environmental platform to kick off her bid to run the province.

B.C.’s former future Premier, Adrian Dix, was so committed to the NDP’s environmental stance that he called an audible on Kinder Morgan mid-campaign.
...

Jolly John Horgan was initially undecided on Kinder Morgan, then he read the tea leaves—and the polls showing the Green Party wasn’t going away—and found religion on pipelines. As someone who is voting on the issue of #stopkm in the hopes of saving our Southern Resident orcas I’m thrilled by Horgan’s change of heart. And smart people I trust like Tzeporah Berman believe Horgan’s Come to Suzuki moment on KM is genuine. Like Fox Mulder I desperately want to believe. But I’m not sold. Neither, apparently, is David Suzuki.
...

In federal elections NDP partisans are adamant that you should vote with your conscience and damn the polls, even when that meant a likelihood of electing Steve Harper. But in B.C. NDPers are arguing that they deserve every anti-Liberal vote by divine right and polls showing the Greens in third place should be taken as gospel.
...

Yes, Weaver supported the first two Liberal budgets—which is cited as proof of his Liberal leanings except when I asked his office about this I was told when Weaver was campaigning he promised to support the first budget of whichever party was elected because they were the government the province had voted for. He felt the second budget worked for his Oak Bay constituents. Make of those answers what you will, but he has not supported a Liberal budget since taking over as leader of the Greens—which certainly isn’t how this accusation is presented—and since landing top job he has almost always either voted with the NDP or against both the Liberals and the NDP.
...

Weaver campaigned to defeat Carole James in her riding after she fought to dismantle the carbon tax he’d helped design and replace it with hot air? Shocking!
...

The NDP has never won in B.C. without a third party drawing from the province’s right-wing champions du jour. Harcourt landed in the premier’s seat with 41 percent of the vote. Glen Clark ran the province with a whopping 39 percent. So with the B.C. Tories gone, the Greens are the only place the "anybody but NDP" vote can go other than staying with Corporate Christy. And regardless of who was running the right wing party du jour there has always been a sizeable “anybody but NDP” vote in B.C.

In a two-party race the NDP has historically been DOA, so even if the BC Liberals helped pump the Greens tires to split the Not So Liberal vote, with the Tories out of the game the B.C. NDP desperately needs Weaver in play to provide a home for voters who would rather be dead than orange. Why does nothing rhyme with orange? If you took the Greens off the ballot tomorrow, Clark could likely take million-dollar bribes on live TV, kick a dog or three, and still cruise to victory.

And that’d be why the NDP brain trust has always done everything in their power to paint the Greens as Liberal-lite.

And maybe they are—but not on the environmental file. The file the Suzuki Foundation and other eco-groups gave the Greens top marks for.

And that’s the issue everyone should be voting on in the 21st century.


19 comments:

  1. The Greens have no chance of forming Government and little chance of holding the balance of power.
    With an NDP Government we would have some chance of environmental enlightenment.
    With a Liberal win we will likely see an escalation of environmental damage.

    Whoever gains power I think it likely we will see BC Hydro rates rocket upwards or we will see the sale of this taxpayer owned resource; for it is almost bankrupt.

    I will hold my nose and vote NDP.

    TB

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  2. Mound said, "I went to the advanced polls and I voted for my party. I voted Green."

    So did I for similar reasons.

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  3. http://the-mound-of-sound.blogspot.ca/2017/05/we-need-to-have-this-figured-out-by.html

    I have no doubt that the Clark Liberals ( in name only) have used their huge election fund to partake in the kind of 'mind think' that is portrayed in the above article.

    Does this make the Green vs NDP discussion redundant?

    TB

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  4. Trail Blazer, I've done the strategic voting thing before and always came away disappointed in myself. The reason I posted this critique is that every argument this fellow makes I've experienced myself. I'll never hold my nose to vote again. Vote for whomever you support. The rest is crap.

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  5. I am a social democrat and always have been so I will always vote NDP, which like other parties, does not always live up to what it should be. It is up to me to work to point it in the right direction.

    I love Liz May, but am aware the Greens are conservatives with compost bins and I certainly wouldn't trust a person who said he would work with the most corrupt provincial government I have ever seen and I have seen some.

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  6. I do agree with Mound that Clark and the rest of her wrecking crew is rotten to the core and richly deserve to be sidelined like our PC's to the east. A vote for Green though in reality at this point is a path for victory for the bastards. Sadly, their machine has been completely bought and paid for and the stooge at the helm only needs to repeat a few well rehearsed lines and they win. The NDP remain crippled by their public sector union base and will not be able to move much beyond. That said, a surprise could happen, nobody expected the dolt Cluck to win last time and she pulled it off. Horgan is a decent chap and would give us the much needed break from the harper gang that we've been stuck with for the last 16 years.

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  7. Supporting the Green party (federally or provincially) under the fptp system has been thoroughly demonstrated to be suicidal behavior.

    Oh and Weaver was the architect of the anti-BDS nonsense. He will either take enough votes to hand CC a victory or hold the balance of power and repeat the Lib-Dem UK tragedy. (or we'll get lucky and get a Horgan govt)

    Hope the water is nice, enjoy the swim, lemming.

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  8. "lemming" nice touch, NPoV. That's sooo Dipper of you.

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  9. He's full of it. So are you on this issue. After the NDP is elected and brings in proportional representation, I'm fine with Green votes unless they turn even further into Liberals with composters. But right now, you're just pushing for Christy Clark to get elected again, with a clever stack of sophistry. Disgusts me.

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  10. Oh, to clarify: By "he" I meant this Mark Leiren-Young fellow. Incidentally, another thing that disgusts me is your headline. Have some guts and follow through--so you're anti-union and anti-working-class now? Make your damn case then, show your colours.

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  11. One can rail against what one desires. However logic should trump (no pun intended) ideology. The Liberal support the Greens because the Greens drain votes. They have no chance of forming anything other than a minority government. I have never seen an election were a party with one seat out of 84 and the chance of maybe winning an additional two seats, has been given so much credibility. I would suggest that the BC media ( a wholly owned subsidiary of the BC Liberal party)is in on the scam. At the same time, vote how you feel, but don't ever feel smug when the most corrupt government in BC history is re-elected.

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  12. That's very generous of you, PLG. Always nice to hear how Greens should vote - from a New Dem. Sorry you're disgusted. Lunch? Or are you content to feed on your emotions?

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  13. Seeing scams now, are you MacDuff? Why would you assume I'll feel smug when Christy is re-elected? There always has to be some mysterious, sinister force to be blamed for the NDP's now chronic-failure to resonate with the public. Remind me, how many governments in how many years? And that goes back decades before the Greens existed. You're just using the Greens as the whipping boy for your party's in-house failures. Good luck with that.

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  14. MoS. I am not seeing scams, just observing the news coverage. It is not only about the Greens but about most news stories. If you agree that the BC media covered BC Rail and the Health Care firings honestly and openly, then one needs to take a closer look. I see your point about all the losses but it does not absolve anyone who claims to want CC out, but votes for another party. I am not NDP, but they have the best chance to rid us of this corrupt bunch. The Greens have some good ideas, but so does Bernie Sanders and look were that got him. I am a big Bernie fan, because he seems to bring a human approach to politics.

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  15. No, the only meaningful information on BC Rail and Site C came from Norm Farrell. No argument there. I neither need nor want anyone's absolution for voting for the party I support. I'm not claiming I want her out. I want her out. That doesn't somehow oblige me to vote NDP. I did that with Adrian Dix and I'm still bitter about how, in my opinion, he threw the last election.

    The last NDP leader I supported was Mike Harcourt. I loathed Glen Clark and felt only slightly less disdain for Carole James, Queen "Axe the Tax." I simply can't support the party and I deeply regret the one instance when I did only to see Christy mop the floor with her NDP rival.

    The Green Party's day is coming and it may arrive before the NDP gets another shot at screwing the pooch. I'll invest my vote in something I'm committed to, the environment.

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  16. The Green Party's day will only come if we get proportional representation (especially with frankly pretty lame Green parties like we have in BC). And we will only get proportional representation in the near future if the NDP are elected in this election. So the Green party's only medium-term chance in BC is to elect the NDP today. Why do you hate the Green party so, Mound?

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  17. Me? Why does Weaver hate the Green Party so much ought to be your question? Why not ask him?

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  18. Credit where it is due.
    The Provincial Liberals are a right wing coalition whose success comes from a common purpose; which is greed.
    The Progressives cannot or will not find common ground to take power from the Liberals .


    TB

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  19. Hopefully, we get an NDP minority government, with Green Party support. Have the two parties announced any sort of cooperation together should the NDP win 42 seats and the Green 2?

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