940,642 Canadians Can’t be Wrong (but They Can be Ignored)
13,832,972 votes were cast nationally of which, 6.8% chose to vote for the Green Party. That’s roughly one in every fourteen voters. The Green Party was able to win precisely zero seats in the House of Commons. Conversely, the Bloc Quebecois managed 9.97% of the vote and won 50 seats.
The why is easy to understand - Green votes were spread all across Canada, while Bloc votes were isolated in Quebec - but does it just doesn’t sit right with me that there should be such a disparity. I guess I’d prefer to see a proportional government where the percentage of votes for a party is closely reflected in the percentage of seats they hold in parliment. Of course this would also assume that people tend to vote for a party and not and individual, which while true for me, likely isn’t so for everybody.
Had I been voting for an individual and not a party, I would have been considering my riding’s Green candidate as a tree planter/floor layer with no real political experience or relevant education. I have never heard him speak, and have only once seen a picture of him. He didn’t come knocking at my door, and as far as I’ve seen, he didn’t even put up any signs. Not a particularily strong individual, that’s certain. But I didn’t vote for an individual. I voted for change.
I don’t necessarily support all of the Green Parties plans. Some I directly disagree with. I don’t really think now would be a great time for sweeping economic change, nor do I think the global warming is the immediate pending disaster that Al Gore has made it out to be. I do think that now is the time to be seriously researching and evaluating what’s going on in our environment. Now is the time to be spending a lot of money in R&D to try and find solutions which will be effective and lasting. I voted Green not because I expected my candidate to win, but because I felt it important to send a message to the Conservative government that Canadians care about the environment and expect action.
Sadly, with no seats won for the Green, and only a small shift from the Liberals to the NDP, I worry this won’t be the case. The status quo will continue, and me and 940,641 other Canadian will be silenced. Fingers crossed that I’m wrong.
