Saturday, April 14, 2007

On the Greens and the Liberals...

Having just returned from a great day of academic meetings in Chicago, here are my quick two-cents on the May-Dion deal:

i) May has just torpedoed the chances of every other Green candidate save her. Suppose a voter wants to support environmental action. Why in the world would they waste their vote on the Green candidate when they can vote for a Liberal candidate who comes with Ms May's seal of approval.
ii) There is nothing unseemly or untoward about this. At worst, it is awkward. The logic of a plurality system is that the number of parties is always being winnowed. This is why the Progressive Conservatives and the Alliance merged (and, by the way Monte, that happened in a backroom as well). That May has recognized that she cannot win and achieve her objectives on her own and has essentially merged with the Liberals is to her credit. As for Dion, not running a candidate in Central Nova is a small price to pay.
iii) It will be extremely hard to estimate and demonstrate after the election, but I think this is worth 2 points for the Liberals.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

As a (former) Green supporter, it's very sad since the Greens had a chance of becoming the #2 party in AB. Forget that now. May has extremely strong in emphasizing that Greens who lean to the conservative side are not welcome in her party. My hope is that eventually all the Liberal supporting traitors leave the Green party and leave it to the more reasonable among us. Until that time, no $$$.