Thursday, December 15, 2005

Allow the Green Party into the national debate.

Please understand, I am an undecided voter, and I have never voted Green before, nor do I anticipate doing so. I also realize that this posting is about as foolish, as playing lawn darts in a mine field, because it might be construed as my personal intention to vote Green, and sway your vote that way.

This however is not why I feel compelled to post, instead I am posting because I honestly feel a fifth podium should be placed on the stage for the National Debate. Jim Harris should have his opportunity to sink or swim with the big dogs.

Why do I feel this way? Well Jim managed to pull enough votes in the previous election to earn Federal funding for this election. It is also my understanding that the Green party is truly a National party, with candidates in all ridings (at least in the '04 election.) In fact in a number of ridings those candidates received more votes then other national party candidates in their ridings (clearly not all the candidates, but some.)

Further, the party has a complete platform, and offers an opportunity for Canadians to support an alternative view point. In addition the party claims to resonate with the alienated young voters, in some respect I agree with this, as many students at my wife's university are/were gaga for Green in the last election.

I used to think that the Canadian political landscape was static, you had three parties, Liberal, PC, and NDP. I also used to be a naive child, our landscape is about as dynamic as can be, with the PC, CCRAP, Reform, BQ, and those are just some of the parties in that I have seen since I have started voting, if you look back historically the landscape has always fluctuated. So give Green a chance to at least present itself, as it has clearly gone through a lot of growth, and belongs a tier above the Marijuana, Marxist, and Communist parties.

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