Sunday, May 13, 2007
Things to Watch for in the Next Election
The latest polls (with which, as a former Prime Minister would remind us were he still with us, dogs know what to do) are showing the Liberals with a decent shot of getting back into government. All evidence suggests that this is on the strength of the green issue (which is hardly a surprise, given that Stéphane Dion was elected on the most one trick pony-esque platform of any leader of a national party for as long as I can remember).
These same polls show the Green Party at high levels of support (ten percent-ish). This is hardly unprecedented during inter-election periods, and there's no reason to believe that the Green (note capital G) vote won't collapse this time around as well, but that's still a hefty chunk of Canadian voters who claim that they plan to vote Green.
So here's the thing: given that the apparent best strategy for the Liberals, as it so often is, is to convince voters who are to their left that they represent the lesser evil, what's to become of the relationship between Dion and his BFF Elizabeth May?
(And yes, I'm suitably ashamed to be familiar with the acronym "BFF".)
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The latest polls (with which, as a former Prime Minister would remind us were he still with us, dogs know what to do) are showing the Liberals with a decent shot of getting back into government. All evidence suggests that this is on the strength of the green issue (which is hardly a surprise, given that Stéphane Dion was elected on the most one trick pony-esque platform of any leader of a national party for as long as I can remember).
These same polls show the Green Party at high levels of support (ten percent-ish). This is hardly unprecedented during inter-election periods, and there's no reason to believe that the Green (note capital G) vote won't collapse this time around as well, but that's still a hefty chunk of Canadian voters who claim that they plan to vote Green.
So here's the thing: given that the apparent best strategy for the Liberals, as it so often is, is to convince voters who are to their left that they represent the lesser evil, what's to become of the relationship between Dion and his BFF Elizabeth May?
(And yes, I'm suitably ashamed to be familiar with the acronym "BFF".)
