Most of the criticism of the Grit-Green deal in Central Nova is aimed at Stephane Dion, but that guy is one shrewd operator. In one fell swoop he eliminates the competition, while giving the appearance of having only altruistic motivations.
Clever.
The same can't be said of Elizabeth May.
The Green Party sees itself as centrist. It stands left on most environmental and social issues, and mostly right fiscally. It also sees itself as a fresh alternative to the 'big three' mainstream parties.
That's all gone now.
Elizabeth May has done a lot of damage to her party. Her message to Greens and prospective Greens is that the vision of the Party, the long-term aims that were just starting to be taken seriously -- those goals, those ideals -- are secondary to beating/humiliating Stephen Harper and the Conservatives. She's giving up on Green.
At a time when the Greens have seen their best showing in an election and have been the beneficiary of the election laws that augment their coffers for each vote, the Greens should have been prepared for the next election as being their break-through chance. The environment is their issue, and it's hot. They could be setting the agenda. Instead, it will likely be their demise.
Stephane Dion supported Elizabeth May in her bid to participate in the Leadership Debate. Although without a seat in Parliament it is unlikely she would have been allowed, she has just blown the opportunity of receiving scads of free publicity come election time. Her fight to join the leadership debate would have been the chance to get her message out during an election. It would have been a free vehicle to headlines. And she traded it in for a chance to lose, while being endorsed by a Liberal. What an idiot.
Dion is laughing. He's just neutralized his enemy. So what if there's no Liberal in Central Nova -- there's no Green in the Leadership Debate.
canadianna
8 comments:
Dion's Liberals may have scored a tactical victory against the NDP, or not, but the Conservatives are their real opponents - and he hasn't done anything to hurt them, rather the opposite probably?
Its nice to see that this blogger has lifted my thooughts on Dions brilliance from the comment sections of other blogs, posted about 36hours ago, perhaps I should blog myself.
What I disagree strenously about is the thought that Dion has not taken away anything from the cons.
What is happening is the thought of evil harper is being ingrained at almost every mention of this deal by the media.
What will happen from now until election time will be further broadcasting of the green platform as that, not of another party on the left but a fiscaly conservative party to appeal to conservatives on the right.
This is briliant move by Dion, and clever move by May which will as an end result elect the green party its first MPs.
Watch for the next few polls to reflect an uptick for Dion and May with a small slide for the Cons, NDP and Bloc.
What a fantastic way for Dion to show leadership of a different Kind. the ability to work with others to achieve a common goal, Such a contrast to the divisiveness of Harpers style of your with me or against me so called leadership.
If you dont believe it look at the response from the NDp and the Conservatives. if it were good for them they would be lauding it or laughing at it not swinging wildly at the air.
I encourage you Fiscally conservative and socialy consious conservatives to have another look at the green party.
1st Anonymous -- Agreed, he hasn't hurt the Conservatives; the victory is against the Greens -- he has effectively ensured that swing voters won't turn to the Greens.
May is compelled to support Dion regardless of his past performance or the Liberals' current policy. She has endorsed Dion for PM and will be unable to score any political points against him by criticizing him or the Liberals to gain votes for her party. In fact, the Green Party might now bleed support because their leader is not a contender to represent the party in Parliament.
Whether this helps the Conservatives or not remains to be seen, but it won't hurt the Liberals and it could well eliminate the choice of many for alternative to the current government. I think the Greens are dead.
2nd Anonymous -- I don't 'lift' ideas for my posts from the comment sections of other blogs or from anywhere else.
Given that the only similarity between our ideas is that Dion has pulled off something clever, then I think it's a coincidence. I know that it's probably hard to grasp, but of the millions of people who have read about the Dion-May thing, I doubt we're the only two who've seen that this is a good strategy on his part. The fact that our opinions differ on every other point, it seems to me we both probably came up with the idea independently.
Maybe you should start a blog, but be prepared: there are some very weird commenters out there.
I don't really believe that Dion would intentionally wish to further damage his "leadership" and further alienate his own party, but maybe Dion also thought that his political wedding with May on Friday April 13 (Mayday?) might shift the bad news focus from the constant drain of Liberal MPs that are quitting under his "leadership":
Joe Comuzzi
Jean Lapierre
Lucienne Robillard
Mr. Dithers
Bill Graham
Andy Scott
Jim Peterson
Belinda Stronach
Are there others?
I'm a Conservative, and I can say without doubt that if I was a Liberal supporter in Central Nova, I'd be LIVID. Dion can't seriously believe that every Liberal--and there were ten thousand of them last time out--will automatically vote for May.
I've seen quite a few letters to quite a few editors complaining of "disenfranchisement". That may go a bit far (you can still vote), but they have a point. If you really want to vote Liberal in that riding...you can't.
Harper's just gotta be chortling at all this. He watched from the sidelines as the right split its vote time after time: now the left's doing it, only more so.
You're parting comment to the 2nd Anonymous person was just brilliant; an in your face "You're going to face others just like yourself - Be prepared!" Love it, love it, love it!!!
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dion the puppetmaster?
possible i guess... but not a lot of evidence of his tactical or strategic genius so far, to back that thesis up.
A Liberal strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there is widespread anger at the deal in caucus, which Liberals feel could be used against them in a federal election.
but i've been wrong before.
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Neo -- I hardly think Dion orchestrated it. It hadn't occurred to me that I'd given him that much credit. What I really meant was the natural fallout of such an action -- the truth is, I think Dion's a bit dense on things like this -- he probably just thought he was doing something nice. But he will reap the benefits whether the consequences are intended or not.
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