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Green Party FTW!

Posted by Qrystal on September 24, 2008 at 14:17.
Category: Concepts. Tags: election, environment, green, politics, voting.

Let me start by saying that I’ve never been interested in politics. Apathetic would be more like it, until I started paying attention and getting disgusted, which then made me want to revert to apathy again. Unfortunately, there is no going back: once you know something, you can’t un-know it. All that was left for me was to figure out where I stand.

The verdict? I’m an idealist. I fully believe that we, as a species, would be best off if we continued to strive towards our mutual ideals, and keep working on finding agreeable grounds for everything. I don’t believe that politics should necessarily be a battle of who can make a bigger ass out of whom, even though that’s how it seems to play out in North America. I seriously think there’s gotta be a better way.

By the title of this article, you might guess that I lean towards Green. In this day and age, though, what idealist doesn’t lean that way? Unfortunately, it seems that these leanings are almost too idealistic for the political system as it is right now. But I’m not just an idealist, but also an optimist, and I have an idea of one way the future can become much Greener, politically speaking.

The Blue and Red Blues

One of the problems is the whole “left versus right” mentality, where choosing one side means being opposed to the other side. You can’t be on the left and the right at the same time, that’s just silly! You must pick either red or blue — oh, but the colour associations in the U.S. are reversed from Canada, which confused me immensely as a border-city resident:

• Canada: left/Liberal/red, right/Conservative/blue;
• U.S.: left/Democrat/blue/Obama, right/Republican/red/McCain.

(*Since I’m Canadian, I’ll be using the Canadian terms from this point on.)

I wouldn’t be surprised if most people just vote for the one of the big two that they dislike the least, to try and ensure that the disliked party doesn’t get into power. Or they vote for the one of the two that isn’t currently in power, because “change is good”, but “none of the other parties have a chance” and it isn’t worth “throwing away your vote” on them. Or they choose whimsically by what their favourite colour is that day, or by which person on the ballot has the nicest sounding name. Or they let something else dictate their choice, like choosing the party that their friends or family members support. (True story: I worked as a Returning Officer in an election, and one old guy loudly demanded to know, “Which one’s Liberal? My family always votes Liberal.”)

Some of us may have knowingly been “throwing away our votes” all our adult lives, trying to believe that choosing a party other than the big two might somehow affect our government, even just a little bit. We idealistically vote for parties whose platforms we actually support. (Or, if we support none of the candidates, some of us may be convinced that making big X’s over all of the candidates’ names, or leaving the ballot blank, will express clear dissatisfaction with all the choices. This doesn’t work, by the way. The ballot is essentially ignored throughout the rest of the processing. Yet another lesson learned when working as a Returning Officer that one time!)

When we spread our collective voting power all over the place, the elected party is basically decided by the people who aren’t as idealistic, and it all comes down to whether the existing government pissed off those people enough that they get voted out, or if they managed to stay low-key enough or fulfil enough promises to hang on to their spot.

I apologize if this sounds overly pessimistic, but I really have very little faith in politics. It seems to me like the current system is too much of a game, when it really should be much more serious than that.

And who am I to criticize?

I am just your average Nobody who doesn’t know much about what’s going on. I do make an effort to know what I’m voting for, but usually I tend to avoid most of what’s going on because most of it depresses me. My lack of full understanding, however, makes me feel like I might actually be well-suited to discuss political matters, because in that respect I am a lot like most of the other voters out there.

Anyways, the reason I’m writing now is because out of my ignorance, an idea ignited. I’m thinking that the only way to know whether my idea might work is to bring it up with a whole lot of people, and see if they think it would work. Politics is all about people, after all (or it would be, if it was the ideal I dream it could be!)

So I’m going to go ahead and speak from my Ignorant-Nobody point of view and propose something that I’d like to think might be crazy enough to actually work. It’s Canada-specific, but would surely have global impact if it was enacted. Here it is:

I think the NDP should join the Green Party.

Go ahead, pause for a moment and think this over. I’ll explain as soon as you’re ready.

So, the idea may be crazy, but the more I think about it, the more I’m sure it will work. But first, a bit of background (as I see it from my vaguely-informed point of view):

The New Democratic Party (NDP) is the third of the big three political parties in Canada, and it has had some time governing in various provinces but never at the federal level. The Green Party is newer and smaller, but has been experiencing a surge in popularity as evidenced in their increasing percentage of the popular vote in federal elections. Surely this is because there are more and more people becoming aware of major environmental issues!

Anyways, as far as I can tell, it has always (in my ten years of being of being old enough to vote) seemed to me that the NDP and the Green Party are quite similar. Both claim to defy classification on the left-right spectrum, claiming instead to be proposing fiscally responsible approaches to humanistic concerns. But of course they have to claim that, because they’re trying to take votes from both the Liberals and the Conservatives.

What’s important is that both of their platforms have included (according to my brief overview of the wikipedia entries and the party websites for both) many of the same goals:

• reducing the gap between “the rich and the rest”
• reducing homelessness by increasing subsidized housing
• standing against privatization of health and education
• more progress towards upholding the Kyoto Protocol
• improved public transportation
• more incentives for sustainable technology
• creating more pro-environment jobs
• increased focus on arts and culture

..and surely many more. The point is that they both acknowledge that people need the environment to be healthy, and any people-based government must take into account the environment and the future. But, as it stands with NDP versus Green, there is no way for us Canadians to clearly demonstrate support for all of these things, because our votes will be split among the two choices (with some scattered between Big Red and Big Blue, for those afraid of “throwing votes away” to the lesser parties).

I should mention that, thankfully, all parties have acknowledged the necessity of taking green incentives into account, and so there is some environmental hope no matter what happens at the next election (as long as the party in power fulfils at least some of their promises).

But I would really like to see something HUUUUUGE happen in the Green movement! I want to get excited about how I can affect my country with my vote, and I want to unequivocally say HEY! Let’s GO GREEN, CANADA!

I am surely not alone in this view. This is why I believe that if any political party decided to abandon its history to make a serious jump towards showing support for a healthy and sustainable future, I’m sure that party would get huge support from the increasingly environmentally-conscious populace.

Not to mention, the media would eat it up!

But I don’t think we (at least, I) would trust the Liberals or Conservatives if they decided to try this. It’s the NDP who are closest to the Green Party in their views, so they should be the ones who do it! They’d also benefit the most from a merger right now since they are the underdogs compared to the Liberals and Conservatives. It seems to me that it’s almost a no-brainer, but I’ll say it again:

I think the NDP should join the Green Party.

Incidentally, the Wikipedia entry on the NDP states that the party’s colours are both orange and green, so they obviously want to be thought of as greenish already! All they have to do is make it official, and the result will surely win over the hearts of Canadians across all our glorious provinces and territories.

It may seem backwards to think that the bigger NDP should join the smaller Greens, but this is the most crucial point in the whole idea: if the NDP can Go Green, then so can all of Canada. Not to mention that the “New” in NDP is almost fifty years old! Isn’t it about time for a facelift? And does any Canadian really want to vote for a party whose name contains one of the American political parties, when one major source of our national pride is that we are “Not Americans”? A change would surely do the party some good, and in particular, I’m certain that my idea would result in great success for the party. Plus, the new logo that I designed represents the merger nicely, dontcha think? :P

Changing to such a government would also do wonders for our national identity. We know we’re known as polite, friendly, and peace-loving, but wouldn’t it be great to be known as green leaders as well? Currently, we’re not, and that’s a shame because we have such a vast portion of the world to take care of. Isn’t it about time we step up and do everything we can to go greener? Wouldn’t it be nice if our government was triumphantly leading the way, instead of shuffling its feet?

Why This Will Work

If the NDP joins the Green Party, it will change how Canadians see their choices in elections, and it will have a tremendous impact on the voter turnout. Not only that, but we will be able to communicate more clearly what we (idealistic green treehuggers like myself, anyways) want out of our government.

My predictions, if (when!) this merger happens:

• All the votes that are normally scattered between NDP and Green would end up solidly in the new merged party. Duh.
• Many votes from people who tend to “vote against A by voting for B” would be able to confidently put their votes in the new-and-much-bigger Green party, to vote against both.
• Many people who didn’t vote before, because they hate the whole political circus, would have a place to put their vote that would actually make a difference.
• The Green Party would win a vast majority, because the country is ripe for a drastic change and the only way to get it would be to not vote for the same-old same-old.

This last point is why I have entitled this article: Green Party FTW! My proposed change will not only result in a strong political party, but I think they will be serious contenders For The Win.

Your thoughts?

Please please PLEASE feel free to comment on any or all that I’ve said, because I know my views are naïve! Also feel free to point other people to this article in any way you think may help this cause, because I really think it would work. Cheers!

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