As people try to figure out what went wrong for Liberal environmentalist Briony Penn in her bid to defeat Conservative cabinet minister Gary Lunn in Saanich-Gulf Islands, some will look to the Green Party.
With most polls reporting, Penn was about 4,000 votes short of Lunn, taking about four percent less of the vote. The Green candidate, Andrew Lewis, had well over 6,000 votes—plenty to put Penn over the top if they'd gone to her.
“We got squeezed by strategic voting in this riding and it failed,” said Lewis. There were many efforts to get environmental and progressive voters to vote for Penn, but they did not pay off, he said. “People who voted strategically for the Liberal wasted their votes.”
As it happens, even the NDP candidate who withdrew three weeks ago, Julian West, had almost 3,500 votes. If Penn couldn't attract more votes from someone who wasn't even running a campaign, there's little reason to believe she should be able to take votes from Lewis.
Strategic voting is a product of a dysfunctional electoral system, Lewis said. “We've got to move past this and push for electoral reform,” he said. “You can't complain about the results if you're not involved in changing the system.”
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee's Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. You can reach him here.
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carfreed
3 years ago
lunn/penn/green
Those NDP votes need to be looked into.
I received a call on Monday night encouraging me to vote for Julian West.
Did these voters know that Julian had withdrawn?
Somethings rotten in the state of Lunnland.
Frank
3 years ago
carfreed
Out of curiousity, what did they say to encourage you?
jimmy_laroux
3 years ago
Julian West got 3667 votes!
How is this possible?
VancouverPointGreen
3 years ago
Must change electoral system.
Say what you will about the Greens or Lewis. May was the only leader to bring up the need to bring in electoral reform and proportional representation in the debates and throughout the campaign. Many Green candidates across Canada brought this up and continue to bring it up. So why are they continuously blamed for splitting the vote? If anything, the Liberals should be pleased that many Greens switched their votes in favour of the Liberals to prevent a Tory majority. Can we quit the blame game now?...
As for the NDP....
AI
3 years ago
Why are Greens blamed for splitting the vote?
Um, because they split the vote? That springs to mind as a reason why people would blame the Greens for splitting the vote. Their good environmental intentions elected the worst possible party for the environment.
politico
3 years ago
Its not easy being green
But blame is not the reason.
Lewis got the same vote as he did last time so he did not take away any swing votes from Penn.
That said, the NDP numbers seemed to vanish.
Lunn only gained 1100 or so and Penn about 6100 which leaves approximately 7000 votes from last time around unaccounted for.
We can account for half of those as 3667 brain-dead space cadets voted for a zombie candidate. This leaves 3500 who......... what - stayed home?!
Had these enlightened ones actually voted to make a difference it would have paved the walk many predicted for Penn. Instead we suffer a nauseating renewal of a miserable and destructive agenda.
That said, amazing that Gary lunn received 43% of the vote! I will have to eat crow on that one as I did not see that coming. Still shaking my head.
The numbers don't add up and the last minute phone call supporting West now seems like a very significant tactic.
G West
3 years ago
no big surprise
Canadians don't much like being manipulated - and that's exactly what Penn and her campaign are guilty of. I spoke to several folks in that riding yesterday who voted for Lunn because they thought the Zubyk/Penn gambit to get the NDP out of the picture was slimy and low.
Several of them were NDP supporters.
cocean
3 years ago
Voters turned off by manipulative tactics
I agree with G West that voters don't like being manipulated. Such tactics likely account for this federal election campaign having gone down in history for recording the lowest voter turnout ever, 59.1%.
What's the incentive to go to the polls when your choice is either a) vote for the party you think is best for Canada - and not have your vote count - or b) vote for what you believe to be an inferior party?
No wonder turnout was so low!
"Strategic" voting and vote-swapping don't work. They're too distasteful for most voters to swallow. Ergo, they either stayed home or they voted option 'a'.
The system has to be fixed. No ifs, ands or buts about it. Fix the system, or more voters will absent themselves from the polls.
Gustav
3 years ago
Poetic Justice
The Liberals weren't entitled to anyone's vote. If I'd lived in Saanich-Gulf Islands, I'd have voted NDP anyway, as a endorsement of its programme and social democratic values. I don't consider the Liberal Party to be a progressive party and so the call to vote strategically for Liberals has never influenced me in the least.
On the contrary, given the unethical way in which the Liberals maligned Julian West, my opinion of that party sunk to a new low. It seems that Gary Lunn wasn't the only candidate lacking stature.
verdant1
3 years ago
The NDP Zombie Army
Andrew, you can't be serious about tagging the Greens with this one!
How sad is the fact that thousands of NDP supporters who took the time to vote would vote for someone not even running? I mean, everybody in Canada knew about Julian West. There were more than enough votes there to put Penn over the top. Alas, social democracy descends into senility ...
chichi
3 years ago
Nippers for Naked Non-Starter nuked Penn
Andrew MacLeod, that is the most inflammatory, stupid headline. If even half the Nippers who went ahead & voted for the not-running nudist had given Penn the nod instead, she'd be of to Ottawa this morning. If half of the same stupid nipper partisans of Central Nova had done the same Elizabeth May would be there too.
Aquarian Age
3 years ago
Twisted Title
Hi there,
I just want to say that I think it's really twisted that people would blame the Green party for the fact that the Conservatives have a poor environmental record. For one thing, the Liberals were noted by the NDP for being the party that 'outed' their candidate for his past indiscretions, in fact, if you checked out "riding talk" on the CBC website, some of the people of that riding who would have voted NDP were even considering the Tories over Penn for her unprovoked attack of the NDP candidate which resulted in his career ending.
The way that people have blamed the Green party overall for the liberals losing is just unfair. If the Liberals are so concerned about the environment then how come they are about to abandon their proposed "Green Shift Tax" after only one campaign when the real Green party has been losing for 30 years and still hasn't given up? I have never voted Liberal because they have a solid track record of lying to the public and I just don't trust them, and they have plenty of allies in big business, just like the Conservatives. I prefer the NDP over the Liberals.
I voted Green even though I knew they would "lose" because I think it sends a valuable message to Ottawa.
G West
3 years ago
Aquarian Age
I hate to break it to you but Ottawa ain't listening....as I said above, my contacts in the riding lead me to believe that a lot of voters saw typical Campbell/David Anderson/ Basi Boyz tactics all over Penn's 'anointing' and either stayed home or voted for Lunn.
Rabid Liberals like Ujjal Dosanjh may have a problem with that but then Liberals never have had much luck with principles and morals have they?
Further, as Ujji's outbursts indicate, they have a significant problem with anger and self-control. When someone separates them from power - no matter what the circumstances - it seems to upset their equilibrium....
So no, it's not the Greens fault at all - Penn and her tactics brought it on themselves.
And that really is too bad because Lunn is a dead loss as a cabinet minister representing Saanich and the Islands.
Dave2
3 years ago
Who's wasted votes?
>. “People who voted strategically for the Liberal wasted their votes.”
huh? One could say the almost exact same thing regarding S-GI... “People who voted strategically for the Green wasted their votes.”
Andrew MacLeod
3 years ago
Tagging the Greens
To the person who didn't like the headline: you will note it ends in a question mark. It was intended as a question, not an assertion.
To the person who thinks I'm blaming the Greens: There are people who are, but I'm not one of them. Frankly, I don't think the Liberals have anyone to blame but themselves for their decline across the country. Neither do Saanich-Gulf Islands voters who gave significant backing to a candidate who'd withdrawn.
Gustav
3 years ago
"Wasted" votes
I support electoral reform and I understand the sense in which the term wasted votes is used by critics of first-past-the-post. But I don't accept the implication that one's vote has no value if cast for a candidate or party that has no realistic chance of winning.
I'd sooner cast my ballot for a party I support than give it to a party (like the Liberals) I neither respect nor trust--even if the alternative is even more distasteful.