Well, the 'day of reckoning' is here.
This campaign was a great learning experience for me. I don't envy whoever has to run against me next time, I will be much more prepared!
The all-candidates meetings were one of the more successful aspects of my campaign. I was able to pull decided voters for other parties over to the Green side, which can be tough to do when most people who show up to those already know who they are voting for. We were the strongest sign presence along 12th Avenue and Broadway, but I'll be the first to admit that through the rest of the riding I had to do better.
I was able to pull off a remarkably low waste campaign, using previously used municipal election signs for all of my lawn signs, and making 'informational posters' instead of brochures which allowed me to use 250 sheets of paper instead of 20,000+.
The biggest struggle through this campaign was doing too much on my own. I realised that the Green Party has a long way to go in building the infrastructure to win a campaign. We need to look at things like forming constituency associations. This had a lot to do with me taking on so many roles it was tough to do any of them effectively. If we want to truly compete with the other parties, we need a group of people within the riding who meet regularly and are ready to build an election team from their various networks before the election.
I think in realising how far we have to go, it is important to recognise how far we have come. On Earth Day I had the pleasure of listening to Adrianne Carr and Elizabeth May speak. Hearing about their struggles in the early days of the Green Party when the party was polling a fraction of a percent or a couple of percent, it was encouraging to think that we are now unquestionably seen as BC's third party and are really the party with all the momentum.
We may not do it this time, at least in Vancouver Hastings, but we are laying some excellent groundwork for the future. For now I'll cross my fingers and hope that STV goes through and we are preparing for the next election under that system, but either way the work begins tomorrow.
My rational hopeful prediction is that we can draw 20-25% of the vote in this riding, giving us a solid base to build a win from next election. If all the stars were to align perfectly, the ultimate result for this election would be a win amongst a handful of strong Green MLA's, and a tie between the NDP and Liberals. I'll have to keep the fingers on both my hands crossed for that one though!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Old Parties Promoting Yesterday's Solutions to Tomorrow's Problems
Some people are saying that the strategic vote should be cast to rid the province of the Liberals. Of course these people are NDP supporters. The desperation of the NDP is crystallized in tired attempts to scare Green supporters into propping up a flagging party instead of bringing substantive policy forward and allowing voters to decide for themselves.
Do these 'strategic' voters believe that the NDP offers much different from Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals? Worse than simply lacking inspiration, the NDP are downright regressive, even irresponsible. Their opposition to the carbon tax flies in the face of just about all expert opinion on how to combat climate change. Tax shifting is essential to clean energy conversion and a prosperous green economy. Axe the tax is a reckless stunt that gambles with our environment to curry votes.
The truly strategic voter will vote for a real strategy for saving our planet, our economy and ourselves. BC Greens' policies are years ahead of either the BC Liberals or the NDP and present a viable path toward developing a true green economy and removing our reliance on oil and gas. The Greens' ideals of decentralization, regional and local self-sufficiency, steady-state economics, transparent democracy, preventative healthcare, social equality and a guaranteed liveable income appeal to a much broader range of British Columbians than either of the narrow agendas of the Liberals or NDP.
It is time for us to pull our collective heads out of the time warp that the old parties have lead us into. Issues such as government corruption, climate change, peak oil, rampant river diversion developments, decimated wild salmon stocks and a nearly non-existent forest industry all require radical new thinking and strong, clearly articulated leadership. None of this is forthcoming from either the NDP or the Liberals.
It remains up to the real strategic voters of BC to demonstrate loud and clear that we deserve and expect better. This can be achieved by voting for a new green economy -- an economy that tackles climate change, creates new jobs, and is fair to all.
So go ahead, vote strategically. Vote Green.
Do these 'strategic' voters believe that the NDP offers much different from Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals? Worse than simply lacking inspiration, the NDP are downright regressive, even irresponsible. Their opposition to the carbon tax flies in the face of just about all expert opinion on how to combat climate change. Tax shifting is essential to clean energy conversion and a prosperous green economy. Axe the tax is a reckless stunt that gambles with our environment to curry votes.
The truly strategic voter will vote for a real strategy for saving our planet, our economy and ourselves. BC Greens' policies are years ahead of either the BC Liberals or the NDP and present a viable path toward developing a true green economy and removing our reliance on oil and gas. The Greens' ideals of decentralization, regional and local self-sufficiency, steady-state economics, transparent democracy, preventative healthcare, social equality and a guaranteed liveable income appeal to a much broader range of British Columbians than either of the narrow agendas of the Liberals or NDP.
It is time for us to pull our collective heads out of the time warp that the old parties have lead us into. Issues such as government corruption, climate change, peak oil, rampant river diversion developments, decimated wild salmon stocks and a nearly non-existent forest industry all require radical new thinking and strong, clearly articulated leadership. None of this is forthcoming from either the NDP or the Liberals.
It remains up to the real strategic voters of BC to demonstrate loud and clear that we deserve and expect better. This can be achieved by voting for a new green economy -- an economy that tackles climate change, creates new jobs, and is fair to all.
So go ahead, vote strategically. Vote Green.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
End of week one
So the election campaign is now well underway. It has been fairly quiet in our riding so far but expect things to pick up quickly now.
One of the major reasons for the quiet was no doubt the tragic death of Liberal candidate Andrew Mak, who suffered a heart attack last weekend. My sincerest condolences to his family, I hope that the election was not a contributing factor but anyone who has been involved with an election campaign knows how stressful it can be.
This week the Liberals named their replacement candidate, Haida Lane.
It was an interesting week on all fronts particularly with regard to the NDP. Although Carole James called for a carbon tax just a couple of years ago, her and local NDP MLA Shane Simpson have gone on the attack against the Liberals with their 'Axe the Tax' campaign. The ironic thing is that while the NDP are calling for 'Cap-and-Trade' instead, they actually voted against the Western Climate Initiative, a cap-and-trade system, just a couple of months ago. There was a lot of controversy when several environmental organisations came out in support of the Liberals as a result of this and a key party supporter quit the NDP.
For me it is quite disappointing. I have never been a supporter of the BC NDP but saw the environment as one of their strong points up until the last couple of years. Under the leadership of Carole James they have stooped to the lowest of lows and are now siding with 'Climate Change Deniers' (the Conservative Party of BC) and the federal Conservative Party, who were 'Climate Change Deniers' until recently but are now better described as 'Climate Change Ignorers'.
The fact of the matter is that we need a carbon tax and cap-and-trade. In the big picture these are all just small steps and we need many small steps to get where we are going. The NDP seemed to understand this just a couple of years ago but have now completely abandoned their principles to pander to reactionaries who are not willing to change their own habits for the benefit of future generations. How can we ask industry to pay all the costs of greenhouse gas emissions if we are not willing to pay our own fair share?
There were plenty of areas where the NDP could have successfully attacked the Liberals over the environment. Their record has been downright terrible in many respects. But they chose to focus on the one area which might win them some rural votes in a pathetic attempt to win an election which is unwinnable due to the fact that their leader is even more unpopular than Gordon Campbell. No one may have heard of Jane Sterk, but at least the more they hear about her the more they like her!
Really the important point of all this is that our legislature is completely dysfunctional. We need to elect Green Party members to bring balance to our government. The Green Party has been standing by the same principles for more than 25 years, and we will stand by the same principles when we elect MLA's. Right now our legislature is controlled by the reactionary segment of our population, instead of the majority view. When you go to vote on May 12th (and please do - this is possibly the most important election in our history) remember this. When BC-STV is successfully passed, many of these problems will be resolved. But the 2013 election is four years away. And the way it is looking now it will be another 4 years of Liberal arrogance and NDP whining.
The only option for change we have for this upcoming government is to bring Green MLA's into the legislature under the current system.
This is not possible without your support. Please help out however you can - whether you can come out every night for the next three weeks and help the cause, or simply tell ten friends who live in the riding - your support is appreciated.
One of the major reasons for the quiet was no doubt the tragic death of Liberal candidate Andrew Mak, who suffered a heart attack last weekend. My sincerest condolences to his family, I hope that the election was not a contributing factor but anyone who has been involved with an election campaign knows how stressful it can be.
This week the Liberals named their replacement candidate, Haida Lane.
It was an interesting week on all fronts particularly with regard to the NDP. Although Carole James called for a carbon tax just a couple of years ago, her and local NDP MLA Shane Simpson have gone on the attack against the Liberals with their 'Axe the Tax' campaign. The ironic thing is that while the NDP are calling for 'Cap-and-Trade' instead, they actually voted against the Western Climate Initiative, a cap-and-trade system, just a couple of months ago. There was a lot of controversy when several environmental organisations came out in support of the Liberals as a result of this and a key party supporter quit the NDP.
For me it is quite disappointing. I have never been a supporter of the BC NDP but saw the environment as one of their strong points up until the last couple of years. Under the leadership of Carole James they have stooped to the lowest of lows and are now siding with 'Climate Change Deniers' (the Conservative Party of BC) and the federal Conservative Party, who were 'Climate Change Deniers' until recently but are now better described as 'Climate Change Ignorers'.
The fact of the matter is that we need a carbon tax and cap-and-trade. In the big picture these are all just small steps and we need many small steps to get where we are going. The NDP seemed to understand this just a couple of years ago but have now completely abandoned their principles to pander to reactionaries who are not willing to change their own habits for the benefit of future generations. How can we ask industry to pay all the costs of greenhouse gas emissions if we are not willing to pay our own fair share?
There were plenty of areas where the NDP could have successfully attacked the Liberals over the environment. Their record has been downright terrible in many respects. But they chose to focus on the one area which might win them some rural votes in a pathetic attempt to win an election which is unwinnable due to the fact that their leader is even more unpopular than Gordon Campbell. No one may have heard of Jane Sterk, but at least the more they hear about her the more they like her!
Really the important point of all this is that our legislature is completely dysfunctional. We need to elect Green Party members to bring balance to our government. The Green Party has been standing by the same principles for more than 25 years, and we will stand by the same principles when we elect MLA's. Right now our legislature is controlled by the reactionary segment of our population, instead of the majority view. When you go to vote on May 12th (and please do - this is possibly the most important election in our history) remember this. When BC-STV is successfully passed, many of these problems will be resolved. But the 2013 election is four years away. And the way it is looking now it will be another 4 years of Liberal arrogance and NDP whining.
The only option for change we have for this upcoming government is to bring Green MLA's into the legislature under the current system.
This is not possible without your support. Please help out however you can - whether you can come out every night for the next three weeks and help the cause, or simply tell ten friends who live in the riding - your support is appreciated.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Campaign kickoff!
So the 2009 BC provincial election is officially underway as of today.
I am excited to be running a zero waste sign campaign! This is the result of several months hard work on my part - at first I envisioned a great cost savings too. I re-used material that was given to me from our municipal campaign.
It was a lot of hard work moving so much material around, disassembling the signs from their wooden frames, cleaning the signs to prepare them for screenprinting and bringing them all in. This was especially complicated by a move which required me to move all the hundreds of board of coroplast and framing materials.
But the hard work all paid off today when I picked up the large size signs and dropped the rest of the material off for the small size which will be ready tomorrow. If you know anyone in the riding who would be willing to take a signs please have them contact me at sign@ryanconroy.ca, especially if they are on a major street but we have signs for everyone.
I am excited to be running a zero waste sign campaign! This is the result of several months hard work on my part - at first I envisioned a great cost savings too. I re-used material that was given to me from our municipal campaign.
It was a lot of hard work moving so much material around, disassembling the signs from their wooden frames, cleaning the signs to prepare them for screenprinting and bringing them all in. This was especially complicated by a move which required me to move all the hundreds of board of coroplast and framing materials.
But the hard work all paid off today when I picked up the large size signs and dropped the rest of the material off for the small size which will be ready tomorrow. If you know anyone in the riding who would be willing to take a signs please have them contact me at sign@ryanconroy.ca, especially if they are on a major street but we have signs for everyone.
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