Apolitical Staples

The Green growth in support is primarily the sum total of three factors: the built-up cynicism of the electorate, plus the emergence of importance of the environment, minus the negatives associated with Elizabeth May as leader.

The last decade has seen a good number of reasons for the public to be critical of politicians and the political process: the billion dollar boondoggle, the sponsorship scandal, the botched gun registry and assorted Liberal ‘entitlements’ sprinkled in for bad measure. Political acrimony naturally results from two consecutive minority parliaments and this political cholesterol builds up in the arteries of the voting public. (Ralph Goodale is a large clot) As a result, any national party not currently represented in Parliament would have growing support. There is a lot of protest vote out there, particularly since we haven’t had time enough to rest after the last election.

The environment issue has already been partially neutralized and the public is beginning to show signs of issue exacerbation. All that remains is for the rewritten Clean Air Act (along with associated programs, regulations etc.) to be rolled out, briefly debated and the country to move on. No one expect environmentalists to support the government’s plan no matter how much or little they are supported by the NDP. To borrow the line from the greenies, the Kyoto target debate is over.

As for May, she is a charming eccentric crusader that no one trusts with the cheque-book of the nation. Sure, she’ll grab some hippies from Taliban Jack, but more people are turned off by her lack of political acumen than are drawn to her innocent charms, despite their cynicism of politicians.

Does this mean long term support? Not to any substantial amount. I expect them to be back to 4- 5% levels once the votes are counted. The longer until the next election the lower their numbers due to the greater distance from C-30 discussions.