Greens could leapfrog NDP: pollster
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 10:37 amGreens could leapfrog NDP: pollster
[ https://ipolitics.ca/2016/08/06/greens- ... -pollster/ ]
Party should target labour movement
Written by Janice Dickson Published Saturday, August 6th, 2016
EXCERPT:
The pollster spoke at length about the party’s strengths and weaknesses and suggested there are two profoundly different futures for the Green Party, adding that the status quo would be a “tough slog”.
Proportional representation will present brilliant opportunities for the party, according to Graves, and given that most Canadians are on side with reform, the Greens need to ‘make sure it goes forward.’
“Moving to proportional representation will solve the biggest barriers to Green Party success,” he said.
The party also needs to capitalize on its strengths, suggested Graves.
One is their popular leader.
They should also to continue to champion their core issue, which is of tremendous and growing salience: the environment.
The Party’s biggest weakness, however, is a notion among supporters that voting for a Green in a federal election is a wasted vote, or leads to split votes. Other weaknesses Grave outlined include a lack of resources and the difficulty in attracting attention during federal election campaigns.
They also need get away from being perceived as a “one-trick pony,” he said.
But in order to achieve this kind of success, Greens have to know who they’re dealing with – that is, who their supporters are.
Graves presented a profile of Green Party supporters.
They tend to be younger, more cosmopolitan and open to the world, but also more economically vulnerable and more likely to question authority. Green supporters are far more pessimistic about their economic prospects and more civically engaged, he said.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has been getting a lot of help in advocating for proportional representation this weekend.
On Friday, the co-leader of New Zealand’s Green party spoke with May in Ottawa and sang the praises of his country’s proportional representation electoral system as Canadian MPs debate whether to adopt PR here.
“Parliament has become much more representative, so we have more women in Parliament than we’ve ever had before,” said James Shaw.
= = = = = = =
The case for Elizabeth May as the next NDP leader
[ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... e31411637/
Gerald Caplan Special to The Globe and Mail Published Monday, Aug. 15, 2016 2:16PM EDT Last updated Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016 9:39AM EDT
Gerald Caplan is an Africa scholar, a former New Democratic Party national director and a regular panelist on CBC’s Power & Politics.
EXCERPT:
Third, Green Leader Elizabeth May strongly disagreed on the Israeli resolutions and may resign as leader. Or not. Listening to her it’s hard to tell. This would be an even greater body blow to the party, since it really has no existence beyond her. By the time you read this, the Green Party may well be headless. That’s as bad as a head without a party.
Yet the Greens have one important thing going for them at the moment: the NDP. Compare the two: The Green brand is by definition pro-environment, perhaps the greatest cause of our time. The NDP, on the other hand, has as of the moment no brand at all and no new leader on the horizon. If you now expect me to say the obvious, okay, here goes: Isn’t there a solution for both camps hidden in plain sight right here?
It’s obvious to all that the NDP is in pretty serious trouble. The warm regard in which so many Canadians long held the NDP has pretty clearly evaporated. Once, back in the Ed Broadbent days, the party was a highly regarded institution, even to those who didn’t vote for it. Polls showed that the NDP was trusted and admired for one thing above all: being on the side of the ordinary citizen, the little guy, regular Canadians, “people like you,” who knew they could count on the NDP.
Of course the NDP needed policies that credibly reflected “people like you.” Symbolized frequently by Tommy Douglas and medicare, the NDP usually delivered. Is the Leap Manifesto, perhaps in some modified form, today’s equivalent? If not, what is? Does the past still have useful lessons for today’s PTSD-afflicted party?
And whatever happened to Leap anyway?
After Broadbent, the federal party hit the doldrums for several years, re-emerging only with Jack Layton in the new millennium. Being on the side of “people like you” hadn’t helped in the slightest until Jack restored the party to modest strength, based both on old truths and personal appeal. Finally, at the very end of his fourth campaign, he personally caught fire in Quebec and went on to make history. Suddenly, the party became a serious contender for government.
Then, with Jack gone far too soon, came the ill-conceived 2015 NDP campaign fought with balanced budgets – exactly the policy of the 1 per cent. Trust in the NDP largely collapsed, surging in substantial part to the canny Liberals.
And wouldn’t you know it, the Green Party’s platform also advocates a balanced budget. This strengthens the argument of those who argue the Greens are really just a conservative party with an environmental hobby.
Can trust in the NDP be rekindled? Is there some potential leader waiting in the wings who can reignite Canadians’ faith in the party and articulate the policies to legitimize such confidence? A laser-like focus on global warning plus inequality seems a good beginning.
Say, didn’t I hear that Elizabeth May knows something about climate change, among other public policies? And wasn’t she a fine MP, worthy of being called a parliamentarian? And isn’t she a leader in search of a party?
Well, there’s the rub. Maybe not. She’s been busy these past weeks bad-mouthing the role of leader as “a thankless task devoid of any fun.” But surely you can’t judge by leading just one party. Try another, what can you lose? It sure sounds as if there’s a match made in heaven looming here.
So why is no one on either side proposing?
[ https://ipolitics.ca/2016/08/06/greens- ... -pollster/ ]
Party should target labour movement
Written by Janice Dickson Published Saturday, August 6th, 2016
EXCERPT:
The pollster spoke at length about the party’s strengths and weaknesses and suggested there are two profoundly different futures for the Green Party, adding that the status quo would be a “tough slog”.
Proportional representation will present brilliant opportunities for the party, according to Graves, and given that most Canadians are on side with reform, the Greens need to ‘make sure it goes forward.’
“Moving to proportional representation will solve the biggest barriers to Green Party success,” he said.
The party also needs to capitalize on its strengths, suggested Graves.
One is their popular leader.
They should also to continue to champion their core issue, which is of tremendous and growing salience: the environment.
The Party’s biggest weakness, however, is a notion among supporters that voting for a Green in a federal election is a wasted vote, or leads to split votes. Other weaknesses Grave outlined include a lack of resources and the difficulty in attracting attention during federal election campaigns.
They also need get away from being perceived as a “one-trick pony,” he said.
But in order to achieve this kind of success, Greens have to know who they’re dealing with – that is, who their supporters are.
Graves presented a profile of Green Party supporters.
They tend to be younger, more cosmopolitan and open to the world, but also more economically vulnerable and more likely to question authority. Green supporters are far more pessimistic about their economic prospects and more civically engaged, he said.
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has been getting a lot of help in advocating for proportional representation this weekend.
On Friday, the co-leader of New Zealand’s Green party spoke with May in Ottawa and sang the praises of his country’s proportional representation electoral system as Canadian MPs debate whether to adopt PR here.
“Parliament has become much more representative, so we have more women in Parliament than we’ve ever had before,” said James Shaw.
= = = = = = =
The case for Elizabeth May as the next NDP leader
[ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... e31411637/
Gerald Caplan Special to The Globe and Mail Published Monday, Aug. 15, 2016 2:16PM EDT Last updated Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016 9:39AM EDT
Gerald Caplan is an Africa scholar, a former New Democratic Party national director and a regular panelist on CBC’s Power & Politics.
EXCERPT:
Third, Green Leader Elizabeth May strongly disagreed on the Israeli resolutions and may resign as leader. Or not. Listening to her it’s hard to tell. This would be an even greater body blow to the party, since it really has no existence beyond her. By the time you read this, the Green Party may well be headless. That’s as bad as a head without a party.
Yet the Greens have one important thing going for them at the moment: the NDP. Compare the two: The Green brand is by definition pro-environment, perhaps the greatest cause of our time. The NDP, on the other hand, has as of the moment no brand at all and no new leader on the horizon. If you now expect me to say the obvious, okay, here goes: Isn’t there a solution for both camps hidden in plain sight right here?
It’s obvious to all that the NDP is in pretty serious trouble. The warm regard in which so many Canadians long held the NDP has pretty clearly evaporated. Once, back in the Ed Broadbent days, the party was a highly regarded institution, even to those who didn’t vote for it. Polls showed that the NDP was trusted and admired for one thing above all: being on the side of the ordinary citizen, the little guy, regular Canadians, “people like you,” who knew they could count on the NDP.
Of course the NDP needed policies that credibly reflected “people like you.” Symbolized frequently by Tommy Douglas and medicare, the NDP usually delivered. Is the Leap Manifesto, perhaps in some modified form, today’s equivalent? If not, what is? Does the past still have useful lessons for today’s PTSD-afflicted party?
And whatever happened to Leap anyway?
After Broadbent, the federal party hit the doldrums for several years, re-emerging only with Jack Layton in the new millennium. Being on the side of “people like you” hadn’t helped in the slightest until Jack restored the party to modest strength, based both on old truths and personal appeal. Finally, at the very end of his fourth campaign, he personally caught fire in Quebec and went on to make history. Suddenly, the party became a serious contender for government.
Then, with Jack gone far too soon, came the ill-conceived 2015 NDP campaign fought with balanced budgets – exactly the policy of the 1 per cent. Trust in the NDP largely collapsed, surging in substantial part to the canny Liberals.
And wouldn’t you know it, the Green Party’s platform also advocates a balanced budget. This strengthens the argument of those who argue the Greens are really just a conservative party with an environmental hobby.
Can trust in the NDP be rekindled? Is there some potential leader waiting in the wings who can reignite Canadians’ faith in the party and articulate the policies to legitimize such confidence? A laser-like focus on global warning plus inequality seems a good beginning.
Say, didn’t I hear that Elizabeth May knows something about climate change, among other public policies? And wasn’t she a fine MP, worthy of being called a parliamentarian? And isn’t she a leader in search of a party?
Well, there’s the rub. Maybe not. She’s been busy these past weeks bad-mouthing the role of leader as “a thankless task devoid of any fun.” But surely you can’t judge by leading just one party. Try another, what can you lose? It sure sounds as if there’s a match made in heaven looming here.
So why is no one on either side proposing?