Don't vote for this guy .....and get Christy Clark instead!
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| BC Green Party leader Andrew Weaver |
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| BC Liberal Premier Christy Clark |
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime"
- Eminem - Lose Yourself
By Bill Tieleman
Let’s cut to the chase – Christy Clark and the BC Liberals could be narrowly re-elected on May 9 – if enough people who desperately want to get rid of her vote for the Green Party instead of their local BC New Democrat Party candidate.
Let’s cut to the chase – Christy Clark and the BC Liberals could be narrowly re-elected on May 9 – if enough people who desperately want to get rid of her vote for the Green Party instead of their local BC New Democrat Party candidate.
And then the BC Liberal machine fueled by corporate cash will roll on for another 4 years of abuse – of the environment, people with disabilities, those on social assistance, workers at minimum wage, Metro Vancouver and Victoria renters who will never be able to buy a home or even rent one for long – you name it, people will suffer big time.
And Christy Clark will Cheshire Cat smile at you all the way.
That’s what’s at stake – and there is little time left to avoid a potential political disaster.
Fact: the Green Party has one seat and could possibly win a couple more – if it can win more than 35% of the vote in some ridings.
Fact: the Green Party is polling at somewhere between 14% and 19% province-wide.
Fact: the BC NDP have 35 seats and are polling at about 40%.
Fact: the BC Liberals have 47 seats and are also polling at about 40%. But the advantage goes to the BC Liberals -- they have more seats, more money to spend and the benefit of incumbency.
To defeat Christy Clark it will take the BC NDP to win 10 more seats – and that’s net seats – any seat they lose takes away from those net 10.
I’m not going to question Andrew Weaver and Green candidates any more than I already have – there are serious concerns about whether they care if Christy Clark is re-elected or not – see my The Tyee column to read about their many serious contradictions.
But I will say Weaver has run a good campaign – good enough that it might unfortunately just let Christy Clark sneak back into power by encouraging enough voters to case a Green ballot in ridings that the BC NDP simply must win or hold to have a chance to defeat the BC Liberals.
In those ridings a Green vote will not elect a Green MLA – it will ensure the elections of a BC Liberal MLA who will be led by Christy Clark.
If you are concerned about the environment, if you are upset with the Christy Clark government’s cheerleading support for hunting grizzly bears, for oil tankers, the Kinder Morgan pipeline, LNG, Site C – it’s a long list – then you owe it to yourself to think carefully about your vote on May 9.
If you also care about Christy Clark’s pay for play politics, about the unlimited corporate and foreign donations to the BC Liberal Party that have given it a huge advantage – think carefully.
If you are concerned about the lack of integrity in the BC Liberals – a party led by a campaign manager who is facing criminal breach of trust charges in Ontario for her alleged role in deleting government records while serving as deputy chief of staff to a former Liberal premier – watch this hard hitting independent video – the toughest look at BC Liberal charges and convictions – from the Better Government BC Society – and think carefully about your vote.
You may not like our electoral system but it’s the candidate with the most votes who wins – and with three parties it’s a zero-sum game. If you take away your vote from the NDP candidate and give it to the Green candidate, unless that Green can take 38% or more of the vote – you are helping a BC Liberal win. It’s that simple.
It's also important for potential Green Party voters to check out the BC NDP platform - because there are a lot of similarities - including a commitment to end corporate and union donations in politics - a change that simply has to happen to end the ability of any party to unfairly influence both elections and government policies.
It's also important for potential Green Party voters to check out the BC NDP platform - because there are a lot of similarities - including a commitment to end corporate and union donations in politics - a change that simply has to happen to end the ability of any party to unfairly influence both elections and government policies.
And if you don't believe me, check out the same math from Martyn Brown, the former chief of staff to Premier Gordon Campbell - who now wants Christy Clark defeated. As Brown rightly says:
Friends: don't do the crime if you can't bear the time."
It's all down to the wire now -- and as Eminem said:
This is your one shot - your opportunity to defeat the Christy Clark BC Liberals and it takes a vote for the BC NDP to do it – don’t let this chance slip.
"Four more years wasted:
that will be our sentence, if we split the vote for change, instead of standing
together for new NDP government that might liberate the change we all want,
green and orange alike.
Friends: don't do the crime if you can't bear the time."
It's all down to the wire now -- and as Eminem said:
"Look, if you had, one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted. In one moment
Would you capture it, or just let it slip?"
To seize everything you ever wanted. In one moment
Would you capture it, or just let it slip?"
Bill Tieleman is a former NDP strategist whose West
Star Communications firm has clients in labour, business, not-for-profits and
First Nations.
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6 comments:
Weaver has spent this campaign shoveling condescending crapola. Got a hunch most Greens find him old and out-of-touch. This election has boiled down to one issue - No more Christy Clark! Green voters get that!!!
Let's pull together everybody:
NDP, Greens and disenchanted Liberals! Vote Clark out by voting NDP!
I am posting this May 10th so analysis may change based on recounts. I ran a few numbers off the elections site through a spread sheet (too bad elections BC doesn't already provide a spreadsheet the way we do in Alberta).
What actually happened on election day was that the Greens split the anti-Liberal vote in 6 ridings, resulting in Liberal MLAS. BUT, the Greens split the anti-NDP vote in a similar 16 Districts, resulting in NDP MLAs. It depends on how you look at it.
Green Party support was pretty heavily concentrated in the three ridings that they won.
The Greens came second to the Liberals in one riding and second to the NDP in four.
I haven't been following the actual campaign that much from here in Alberta, but the Green's results reminds me a lot of the NDP in Alberta prior to the last election. For decades their vote was concentrated in a handful of ridings filled with true believers. They were the fifth-ranked party going into their winning election. Interestingly, the NDP outpolled the combined PC and Wildrose parties in only 25 (+/- 2 seats - did not check the two seats that went elsewhere) of the 54 seats that they won in 2015, so if you are going to complain about vote-splitting, spare a few tears for your neighbouring province. One could also make a case for the Wildrose and NDP splitting the throw-the-bums-out vote.
Here we are in Alberta a couple of years later with Wildrose/PC merger talks underway. As the NDP Svengali, I guess you'll get going on those NDP/Green Party merger talks now. Right?
Would you like to come to the Aubrey school PTA with special guest Katrina Chen on June the 5th at 7:30 PM? I'm hoping to see some familiar faces there!
Sorry, Bill. I won't be voting NDP, and I won't be voting Liberal, in whatever election we face next. Those parties are both relics. I voted Green on May 9 and I will vote Green when the NDP minority fails. You talk about wanting to get rid of Clark as the highest priority. My highest priority is to make it impossible for either the Liberals or the NDP to ever achieve a majority again. They are both so beholden to interest groups that they are incapable of fairly governing. Proportional representation can't come soon enough.
Often our views part company on political issues, put best by a Great Generation gentleman whose celebration of life that just ended in his 99th year we will attend Friday : he said to me once, "Well, Baird, I'm afraid you won't get much support from me on that idea...!" Much more the kind of propriety championed by the Marquess of Queensbury than media troll-ism in such a respectful put-down. Meanwhile your views on the how the past government utterly failed to heed the advice by Mr. Filmon is 100% spot-on.
Our cabin is a bit north of the Highway 24 connector between Hwy. 97 and Hwy 5. The bug kill of nearly a decade back has never been cleared out of the Crown land that circles our lake and the neighbouring one. One lightning strike and the east end of Sulphurous + Deka lakes will positively explode in a heartbeat and consume all the properties near those stands of dead pine. Your inclusion of the metrics on "prevention" -vs- "cure" of firestorms were depressingly impressive.
Keep up this kind of analysis and my support, too, will continue for future BT screeds.
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