A Crazy Idea
In light of the recent poll putting the Liberals 9 points behind the Tories, and the Green Party at 13% support, I couldn't help but suggest...
Stephane Dion should try to make a deal with Elizabeth May; if she runs as a Liberal and wins, she will be the next Liberal Environment Minister, and promise to implement the Green Party's (surprisingly sane) environmental platform. It has its disadvantages, but its potential advantages are obvious - it would give Dion more credibility on the environment, and it would siphon away a lot of Green support.
posted by Ryan Ringer @ 3/02/2007 04:45:00 a.m.
6 comments
6 Comments:
You're making the assumption that Elizabeth May is the reason for the Green jump as opposed to disatisfaction with the other parties . . . in particular the Libs.
While I can't discount that May has definitely raised the profile of the GPC, I'm still of the belief that the vote is being parked there . . . maybe not all of the rise, but a significant portion.
If that's true, then trying to regain the Green vote that's been siphoned off from the Libs by reaching out to May will be an exercise in futility.
I'm not sure it's a wise thing to suggest that Dion needs the Greens to solidify his enviro-platform. :)
Cheers,
lance
My humble suggestion is the Liberals need to do something a bit bolder and more aggressive when it comes to policy platform and implementation then what they've currently done.
For example, I've already said they should be fully endorsing either Layton's private members environment bill or publicly stating the goals in the bill should be what is used to reform the CAA (with some Liberal amendments to introduce shorter-term cap goals). IF we're going to lose the environment as an issue for the election (and as what seems to be happening now) we can't just wait and hope the NDP and Tories attempts to get a CAA amended bill fall through.
The other suggestion I've raised is electoral reform. I've urged the Liberals to counter Harper's Senate "half-reform" with something bold - support voting reforms to the House - and I strongly advocate a form of Mixed-Member Proportional Representation - The Senate move is a sham designed to appeal to voters that Harper is seeking democratic reforms.. well, lets give them something really substantial instead.
Lastly, Harper's low road of politics the past week an a bit should be exploited in our own ads - be they ones made by Libloggers or ads similar to the Tory ones. The way to beat a bully is to push back harder.
The Liberal Party has always been a very cautious party when it comes to stuff like this (policies and communications)- well, when you're in Opposition and when you have a bit of a bad momentum in polls with an election looming, now is not the time to be timid or cautious. Its time to be innovative and daring and aggressive.
Those are some humble suggestions that I'd tell Dion to do if I was asked (which I wont be)
the greens are at 8 in the angus reid poll....why do you believe any of them...they always do this before a break and budget to make people support cons.Liberal bloggers should stop running down the pairing of dion and iggy...why do you put that on your blog...dion is doing good and iggy is super.
Clear Grit has gone off the deep end.
To get co-operation from Elizabeth May, the Liberals need to be advocating electoral reform. Elizabeth is happy to demonize the Grits by suggesting that the Greens have environmentally market friendly policies.
Therefore, to work with May, the Liberals need to throw proportional representation into the mix. The Dippers and the Greens are daring us to do this, and will never co-operate with us until we do so. It means that the Liberals have to admit that we failed in the past when dealing with the environment and will support political constraints in the future. But this recognition may be the most significant move the Liberals need to make in the renewal process.
Even if Elizabeth May defected, I am not sure the numbers would change much. I suspect many of those are parking their votes with the Greens due to dissatisfaction with other parties. One of two things come election time will likely happen.
1. The Green Party will soar to much higher numbers and lead to a political re-alignment as the Reform party did in 1993
2. Or the more likely scenario is when it becomes clear the Greens cannot win many if any seats, they will go back to what they voted for before.
I voted Green in the past, temporarily voting for David McGuinty in my riding despite his party -- not because of it. The presumption that people are "parking" their votes isn't really correct. While the GPC isn't the same party as the Greens Internationally, a party that focuses on market based solutions to green problems (especially the tax shift) is what I'm interested in.
Finally the conversation about a carbon tax comes up. Unfortunately I don't think it was done right in that it has to be done as a revenue neutral tax shift, not as a new tax. The average Canadian needs to notice no change in this tax shift, with only those who are already environmentalists or already anti-environmentalists (If you drive a Hummer.. well.. you are already a lost cause) noticing the difference.
The other area I'm interested in is new-economy issues, and the Liberals have been quite poor. I've heard Liberals try to dismiss people like me who believe that the Internet is a good thing for the economy and democracy called the "license to steal" crowd. I'm extremely happy the Liberals didn't have a majority, and that Bill C-60 died on the order paper.
http://digital-copyright.ca
http://flora.ca/
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