Who's left in Canada? Wasn't that a party?
Some Canadian post-election reflections
My Facebook page made the news! At least for a few minutes…
In the earliest edition of The Tyee’s excellent federal election wrap-up they cited some of the passionate and thoughtful comments by current and former Green leaders on my Facebook post featuring my recent Substack about Elizabeth May and the party. Here’s what The Tyee briefly had online that vanished in an update as new files came in…
On Facebook current and past supporters argued about whether the party still deserved support.
“The Green Party needs to grow itself up and deal with the Green Party issues,” wrote Sylvia Olsen, Adam’s mother... “It’s not all about Elizabeth (May).”
Folk musician Bob Bossin wrote that May was “probably the best MP in parliament and about the best voice for the environment the country has.” The Greens “may not make it to prime time,” he said, but voting against May in Saanich-Gulf Islands “seems to me to be cutting off your nose to spite your face.”
Former Green candidate David Merner said he hoped the Greens would learn from this election. “I agree that the deep dysfunction in the Green Party over the past eight years has been a huge disappointment for dozens of candidates, hundreds of volunteers, and thousands of voters,” he said. “The dysfunction is closely related to a GPC leadership culture that is toxic ... I’m hoping that we’ll be able to look back on tomorrow’s vote as a turning point in the history of the GPC.”
The selection didn’t even include Elizabeth May’s husband and former Green candidate, Jonathan Kidder, chiding me as he made his case for Elizabeth and politely guilted me by reminding me that I was at their wedding.
On that front… When I wrote that story (which has now been checked out about 1000 times) I kept feeling like I was telling people…
“SANTA CLAUS WORKS FOR THE STORE!”
So I braced for the haters.
But even the people who wanted to let me know they were upset about what I wrote -and as of this writing only a few people have done so - they all came at me politely. I think this is what used to be known as civil discourse?
And… who knows if it’ll stay that way but… to date… no haters… no trolls... Instead… a shocking number of “thank yous” - most of them private and off-the-record - from former Green Party candidates, campaign managers and people who worked or volunteered for the party.
“So who the hell ARE you voting for?” - A question to me on Facebook from activist/folkie/legend Bob Bossin… So here’s my voting record going back to the days when records were on vinyl…
So longtime Green - and one of my longtime inspirations, Bob Bossin - asked this on the Facebook exchanges cited above and here’s the funny thing about that question…
Because I know people who were absolutely certain who I was voting for in Saanich-Gulf Islands (which was one of the sparks for the story) I planned to answer that question in the article. Then I attended an all-candidates meeting and was floored when Elizabeth cited an endorsement as if it was a poll. So I flipped that into the story instead,
And since I’d put a public call out for political questions for my podcast Skaana right after the story ran, I was absolutely set to talk about my vote in the Q&A. But no one asked. And someone did ask about orca babies, so I talked/ranted about them instead…
Who’d I vote for in, “Elizabeth’s riding?”
The NDP candidate - Colin Plant.
Nothing strategic about it.
The projections I’d seen - and cited - showed Elizabeth and her Liberal challenger David Beckham (no relation) duelling for the seat. I believed either David or Elizabeth was an equally “strategic vote” to stop the Tories.
But Colin and I have been friends for about thirty years, which always beats politics for me so - even if I’d still been on Team Green - I’d have voted for him.
And if you’re friends with someone running for office and get the chance to vote for them, I think you ought to - regardless of their political affiliation. Running for office has always been a tough gig and I gather it’s worse in the online world, since not everyone is as even-tempered with their criticisms as Green fans.
The good news… I could feel proud about voting for Colin because I actually think he would be a great MP.
Because Colin and I both studied theatre at the University of Victoria - and he teaches high school drama (which my brother used to do) - we mostly talked theatre when we connected. Or we commisserated about the Canucks.
Then, when I ran for Saanich Council in 2022, Colin was the person I watched at every all-candidates meeting before, during and after to see how he handled himself. I wasn’t just interested in how he spoke, but how he listened. What also impressed me was that he seemed to have done his homework on every issue that came up. He hasn’t topped polls by accident.
So… voted for Colin… donated to him. And I think he’d have been - and may one day be - a friggin’ awesome MP for SG-I.
And I was with Colin’s team when the polls started coming in.
And at the wake for the South Island NDP at Swan’s pub when he and outgoing Victoria NDP MP Laurel Collins addressed heart-broken supporters…
And now… just to keep things confusing… I also donated to Stephanie McLean - the former Alberta NDP cabinet minister who won Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke for the Liberals.
I met Stephanie when she was kind enough to make time to help me out a bit when I was running the Victoria Green Campaign in 2019. I met her because I’d been asked to try to recruit her to run for the Green Party. I think she was a helluva score for the Liberals.
To keep things more interesting… I registered as a Liberal to vote for Mark Carney as leader - which was sparked by a Bob Bossin Facebook post suggesting this strategy - because even if Carney was turfing the carbon tax he clearly believes in the climate crisis on a level we haven’t seen from any non-Green federal leader with a chance at Canada’s top gig since Liberal footnote Stéphane Dion and his trusty dog, Kyoto. But also…. I think that’s how actual change is gonna happen - getting greener people in office from every party - ‘cause it ain’t gonna come from praying for prop rep.
So that meant I got to attend the packed Carney rally on election eve in Saanichton where people were parking a kilometer away - at 10 pm in a place where you’re lucky to find restaurants that stay open for dinner - to catch his 100th event of the election.
What struck me… he was kind enough to starts by talking to the huge crowd that couldn’t get in the venue (which included me), even though the event wasn’t set up for it and he had to shout to us without a microphone… if he was taking the speaking class I taught at UVic I’m thinking he was A- (at best) ‘cause he couldn’t land a cheer line, including the one at the end of his speech… the reason I woudn’t drop him to a “B” is because he was clearly still reeling from attending the memorial for the people killed at the Lapu Lapu festival in Vancouver… and the most excitement I heard in his voice was when he went full hockey fan and talked about Evan Bouchard scoring for the Oilers.
And I suspect if I’d listened hard enough… somewhere in the audience I could have heard a policy advisor weeping over the PM talking about being an Oiler’s fan in BC.
Anyway… Bob’s post about joining the Liberals to vote for a climate candidate reminded me of how not very liberal BC Liberal Kevin Falcon lost his first Liberal leadership race to Christie Clark. It was all because an environmental filmmaker - my buddy and former boss, Jon Cooksey, signed up at least 1000 “green libs” to block him ‘cause as bad as everyone else was he considered frakking Falcon “anti-earth.”
And Falcon lost his shot by less than those 1000 votes…
Jon hoped to pull off the type of coup that almost happened with the BC NDP and urged Elizabeth May to run for the Liberal leadership the way Anjali Appadurai did for BC’s provincial NDP in 2022. The irony of Jon’s idea was off the charts - and it may have been doable - since Campbell had highjacked the Liberals from an actual Liberal, Gordon Wilson, and turned it into BC’s latest vehicle for the anti-NDP vote.
And since I’m flashing my secret ballots here…
I think this covers the rest of my federal voting history from this century…
I was in Hedy Fry’s riding before moving to Elizabeth-for-life-land.
Beyond losing way too many friends to HIV-AIDS, I accidentally became Maclean’s Magazine’s go-to reporter on AIDs in BC, starting back before it had a name. So I remember Hedy almost blowing up her career as a politician and a doctor to do right by her queer patients. So hell yah she had my vote. And there’s a reason that she was just reelected to a historic 470th term.
Before that I lucked out and had the privilege of voting for Svend Robinson - when he was in Burnaby - not when he was running against Hedy.
I got to do that several times.
And while I don’t think I ever told them I voted for them, both Svend and Hedy appeared on stage with my comedy troupe, Local Anxiety. So did former Prime Minister, Kim Campbell, weeks after she became former Prime Minister. And nope, didn’t vote for her…
The Last Green?
At her victory speech, Elizabeth May, called out people predicting this election would be the end of the Greens. And, yep, some people did.
Not me. I didn’t predict the end of the Greens. I predicted that - if she won - Elizabeth would be the last elected Green MP, just like she was the first one.
I didn’t see Paul Manly taking back Nanaimo-Ladysmith. I didn’t remotely buy the poll numbers his team was flashing.
And I believed that as utterly illogical as it seemed, the Greens were not doing the work to help Ontario’s first and last Green MP, Mike Morrice, keep his gig - nevermind for him to elect any Green friends in the province with all the seats.
Why?
Because the party’s national campaign focused on co-leader, Jonathan Pedneault, who finished a heroic fifth in Outremont.
To be fair, I agree with Elizabeth’s take that if Jonathan appeared in the debates the Greens would have done much better. And I’m sure Jonathan would have made it all the way up to fourth place in his riding! Okay, maybe, maybe, he comes second.
So why the heck wasn’t now former Kitchener Green MP Mike Morrice front and centre in the party’s national advertising campaign instead of a co-leader who was as likely to win that seat as you were? Again, I’m assuming you’re not Rachel Bendayan, the incumbent Liberal MP from Outremont, who received over 55 percent of the vote.
A debate bump does not beat 55%.
A wish from a genie who just popped out of a magic lamp doesn’t beat that.
Serious people…
There was really no way to cut one Canada cliché from their national ads to put Mike on screen during the playoffs?
I would be fascinated to know how much the party spent on Jonathan’s run in an unwinnable riding versus how much they spent on Mike’s reelection campaign.
And what was the game plan behind running the supposed “future of the party” in a riding with a wildly popular incumbent?
Also, just curious, how much did the Greens spend to land 171 votes for deputy leader, Rainbow Eyes, in the Northwest Territories?
Party of one…
So this popped on the news right after my post went live… First thought… Since I’m assuming/praying Jonathan never believed he was winning in Outremont… pretty sure the party (aka Elizabeth) had a plan for his future… and this was not it.
A modest proposal…
Elizabeth has made repeated pitches for the role of Speaker of the House before.
She is a friggin’ genius at parliamentary procedure.
The Liberals and the NDP barely have enough members to hold up a government - and that’s if no one gets the sniffles.
This is the time to make Elizabeth speaker.
A less modest proposal…
In the debates, Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet pitched the idea of all the parties meeting right after the election. I think he said a week after?
I hope Prime Minister, Mark Carney, takes him up on that.
And I hope that as he deals with the madness of King Trump that Carney finds a way to work with all the parties.
I wish we were in a world where he could offer the Tories, the NDP and the Bloc a seat each in Cabinet - or at least pull together an anti-Trump all-star team with players from all parties - but not sure our world is wired for that. And fairly sure that, given a choice, Pierre Poilievre would rather tax carbon.
Could the guy who beat Pierre Poilievre in his riding have had a better last name?
I am all about the Fanjoy!
I think the loudest cheers I heard at the NDP wake may have been whenever FANJOY popped up on the TV screens and it was clear he was taking down Canada’s former future Prime Minister.
About my don’t vote Green piece…
I’d always intended to write one story on the Greens for this election. Period. Plus one riff on Pierre Pollution and his skill at opposing.
I know people who vote Green because they know I vote Green, because I’ve been kind of evangelical in the past about the party and Elizabeth.
I had all sorts of issues with the Greens after I left the Victoria campaign in 2019. I still voted Green because hey, I got to vote for Elizabeth!
I had even more concerns about the party’s viability and values in 2021 when it was supposedly run by Annamie Paul. I still voted Green because, hey, I got to vote for Elizabeth!
But 2025… when a guy who wrote a book on climate policy was running against a guy whose platform was f*** the planet… and when I’d heard from a former party insider who I absolutely trust that the Green’s biggest accomplishment over the last few elections had been increasing the efficiency of the Tory vote… and after looking at how utterly useless the party has been at electing anyone other than Elizabeth and seeing there wasn’t a plan to change that other than hoping that the electoral system would magically change in the middle of an election campaign… I couldn’t do it again… Even if I hadn’t had a friend on the ballot.
But I’d intended to say my piece and then shut up about the election because… I teach at the University of Victoria… I had over 400 students this term… it was the end of term… I had grading to do… and students worrying about grades… and I kept getting edit notes on my new kids book about saving the oceans.
Then the debate debacle… And co-leader Jonathan Pedneault’s response to being booted did not pass the sniff test for me. So I wrote about that…
Then I was ready to hit the button to publish my story, but I kept reading sketchy polling data from Green and what started as a little aside in the story about dodgy data was suddenly longer than the rest of the post. And at least until last week I had a lot of Greens in my social media feeds… many of them warning people that they had polls that absitively showed Greens as the “strategic vote” in Nanaimo-Ladysmith and Saanich Gulf-Islands. So I turned my polling thoughts into a standalone story.
Spoiler alert: based on the votes… The Greens were not “the strategic vote” to stop the Tories in those ridings. The polls and projections I thought were sketchy turned out to be, let’s go with “wrong.” The projections I suspected were right… turned out to be right.
Claims that Paul Manly was the top non-Tory choice in Nanaimo-Ladysmith… well, he finished fourth… Pundits and projections showing the Greens biggest challenger in SG-I were the Libs, not the Tories, also turned out to be right. Tories finished a respectable third.
And then… I finally published the only piece I’d planned to write and… because of who responded and how thoughtful and passionate those responses were… was so so glad I published my writing here, where no editor added a clickbait headline or tweaked a line and where, if anyone called out an error, I could fix it immediately. So that story - and the response to it - convinced me I’ll be sharing more stuff here and less through publications that have serious circulations and, ya know, pay me.
Next…
Other than sharing the link to it, I generally keep my personal Substack separate from my Skaana Substack, where the focus is ocean life and all things eco. But I have not stopped talking about how thrilled I am about our next episode - an interview with Lummi elder, Squil-le-he-le Raynell Morris, about her documentary Resident Orca (about the last southern resident orca in captivity). Talking with Squil-le-he-le reminded me how and why Skaana started and why we keep doing it. Assuming the tech plays well with us, that’ll be live next week.
I've had several former Green campaign managers reach out to me privately about my recent pieces on the Green Party of Canada. Thanks for being game to share this publicly and for the number-crunching. I'm assuming that by any metric, Annamie Paul's Greens ran a more successful campaign in 2021?
After the disaster of the 2015 election campaign I stepped back from active involvement with the Federal Greens. 2019 was marginally better but the party still did not understand how to create a grassroots local organization that could actually win significantly more seats.
The party has needed to shift the power to the EDAs. But they have not and I do not see this happening.
I have seen the insides of a lot of political parties federally and provincially, I have never seen as top down a party as the Greens and the people at the top do not seem to have the skills to make good decisions that lead to a stronger party that wins seats.
1.25% of the vote. That is all the party managed. That is only one in 80 Canadians cast their vote for the Greens. One quarter of the Green votes went to three candidates, May, Morice, and Manly. In the other 340 ridings the Greens managed less than 1% of the vote (yes, that is in part because the party could not get 108 of its candidates nominated)
Victoria, where I live, the Green candidate managed 3.1%. This is a seat where the Greens came a competitive second in the 2-13 by-election and the 2015 and 2019 federal elections.
The Federal Greens are not in a similar place to when it was an offshoot of the BC Greens from 1984 to 2000. The Greens would not be in this situation if Jim Harris, who is the man that build the federal Greens, had remained leader.