Election Day

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!

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.