Monday, October 20, 2008

The Green Party results
In Atlantic Canada, the Greens came in fourth in all ridings except Central Nova, where they beat the NDP and came in second.
In Quebec, it was mostly fifth place finishes where they ran candidates-68 ridings showed them at number 5. They were sixth in one and fourth in three. They did manage to beat the Conservatives, Liberals, BQ or NDP in a couple of ridings.
Ontario was mostly fourth place finishes. Greens beat the Conservatives in 2 ridings, the Liberals in one and the NDP in eight.
In Manitoba, it was mostly fourth place finishes again. They did manage to beat the Liberals in one riding and the NDP in one riding.
In Saskatchewan, the Greens beat the Liberals in two ridings. In Alberta the Greens managed a second place showing and beat the Liberals in 11 ridings and the NDP in 6.
In BC, the Greens beat the Liberals in nine ridings and the NDP in three. The Greens also beat the NDP in the Yukon.
Any future growth will likely come in the five most western provinces.
What the Liberals need to do next.

1) Acknowledge that if the majority of Quebec citizens reject the Trudeau vision of federalism, no minority of Canadians living outside of Quebec has the right to try to force Quebec to accept the Trudeau vision of federalism as the only acceptable vison of how the country should work.
2) Apologize to Quebec for the role the Liberal party played in the death of Meech Lake. Have Jean Chretien, Sharon Carstairs and Frank McKenna apologize for their role in the death of Meech Lake.
3) Acknowledge that western Canada is under represented in the House of Commons and the Senate and pledge to give western Canadians fair representation in both places.
4) Support the current legislation to elect senators for fixed terms. Liberals should not be sending Canadian soldiers and diplomats to die trying to establish democracy in Afghanistan, while maintaining that those same citizens aren’t good enough to run for the senate, or even vote for a senator.
5) Promise no new taxes. Not green taxes, no new taxes.
6) Come up with some simple ideas to save tax payers money and be seen to be co-operating with other parties to implement the ideas in the minority parliament.
7) Have a one person, one vote leadership race, and charge a lot of money to take part in the vote.