Melbourne Greens lead the vote but will lose as Libertarians gang up with Socialists

Skygods vs Earthlings points out that the right wing nature of the socialists in Australia has opened up a "green opportunity" for the Greens there, but the same situation in Nova Scotia has seen local Greens do nothing....

Would YOU let your daughter marry a GREEN?!

Christine Milne, leader of the Aussie Greens, reminded the Australian establishment (the socialists ganging up with their sworn enemies the capitalists --- like it was August 1939 all over again) what Gandhi once said :

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they attack you, then you win."

You go girl !

Meanwhile Skygods vs Earthlings (SVE) dares asks if all the abuse the Australian Greens are getting is going to backfire to their credit.

"Deniers are a Green's best friend" : controversial post from Michael Marshall

Michael Marshall has a controversial new post over at his blog Skygods vs Earthlings that is sure to raise some hackles among Greens, at least initially.

But I bet ,at least among politically astute Greens , he might find wide agreement and even excitement.....

Tando departs - who will run for Greens in E. May's old bailwick ?

Angus 'Tando' MacIssac, the longtime Tory MLA for Antigonish has suddenly resigned, citing urgent family matters.

The former deputy premier did seem to be running this last time just for the sake of the party, in the eyes of one observer who watched him during the all-candidates debate at St Fx in June's general election.

Who will the Greens run in the by-election to be held in about seven months time, max ?

It is E. May's home turf and she polled very well in Antigonish town, the core of the riding.

But this hasn't helped the local provincial Greens - the two provincial candidates have both been parachutes, albeit that the 2009 parachute, Rebecca Mosher ,(Ms 'Evergreen' herself !) was born and raised and holds land in Antigonish.

She publicly decried the weakness of the local greens in Antigonish - asking why a university town and home to the Antigonish/Coady Movement should be about the weakest riding out of 52 in all of Nova Scotia.

Disgraceful !

And Antigonish hasn't exactly lacked money and staffers from the Ottawa offices of the GPC in recent years.

We'll see.

Webber finds while Libs bled to NDP in last week of election,Green vote went up

New Brunswick historian and political scientist Patrick Webber who has an abiding interest in the smaller/newer parties of Atlantic Canada (he has an article in the current issue of ACADIENSIS) has done a riding by riding study of the advance polls results a week before the June 2009 election in NS.

He finds, overall, that the Libs bled 10% of their support to NDP between then and election day, while Green vote went UP not down - a total surprise, as tiny parties traditionally lose half their support as polling day approaches.

Looking at it on a riding by riding basis, he found the Liberal loss of support to the NDP, in that last week, moved a few seats to NDP from PCs, so ironically the Liberals got what they felt they badly needed - to come out slightly ahead of PCs to become the Official Opposition.

But being the Third Party in the House never hurt John Hamm in 1999 though....

Medicare USA ? Yes we can't !

Obama seems likely to back off from his promise to bring in some public medicine in the US.

They still use old imperial feet and inches, avoid celsius temperatures and metric measurements, so it seems sensible to avoid this new-fangled medicare as well.

Progressive or regressive ? Canadian Greens can't seem to figure them out .

America seems a little of both....

Greens cheer as Jack is re-elected for another term

Who is the best vote getter the federal Greens in Canada have right now ?

Most Greens, upon reflection, would say "Jack Layton" .

Because of the vicissitudes the GPC is going through right now, the reasons for their current exalted standings in opinion polls must surely lie more with how Canadians view their third party than how they regard their fourth national party.

This weekend's NDP Convention in Halifax showed us a lot more Jack than we have seen lately and as a result we can expect his personal approval ratings to fall even further.

Jack , at least as Jack-the-Leader-in-Public, has an prompt answer for every problem and seems to be entirely unreflective.

One simply never hears him say, " I'm not sure we have an answer for that, let me think a little about that, it seems to have no easy sollution that will make most everybody happy."

Most people respect Jack Layton as the leader of a party with a long worthy tradition of keeping the other guys honest but would hate to see him given the reins of power.

OBAMA IS NO 'DP' & NEITHER IS JACK

The decision of the NDP not to decide on a name shortening also gave Greens hope this weekend.

Having a party name that isn't turned in a set of initials is a godsend for Greens.

Ditto for the Liberals, Conservatives, Labour, Republicans and Democrats.

No one calls the Liberals the LPs or the republicans RPs.

Only parties with three word names suffer that fate : CCF and NDP for example.

But almost every New Democrat rejecting the dropping of the new off their party name claimed they feared being called DPs.

In the 1950s, DP was the "N" word for Canada.

But the Canadian 'Democrats' claim that they fear they'd end up being called DPs is just a smokescreen : NDPers actually seem to like being known by their initials !

Why, when it only conjures up fearsome organizations like KGB and KKK with similar three letter names, is beyond explanation.

But Greens can be grateful for the NDP decision not to decide.

And for the fact that only 11% of the NDP delegates said "Jack, its time to go."

They won't have to face Democrats as they chase votes in the next year - but they will get to face off against 'Smiling Jack' one more time....

Hats off to Paul Shreenan the GREEN who keeps on greenin'

Paul Shreenan, the recent Green Party of Canada candidate in the federal riding of Dartmouth Cole Harbour is at it, again.

"It" is being active and public on green oriented issues between elections.

He was on CBC Radio's Maritime Noon a week or so ago - making the point that much of our 'litter' - once defined as that natural stuff that falls off trees on its way to becoming humus and soil, is now redefined 'as the synthetic stuff falling off of patrons eating fast food takeout'.

Another word debased.

A Green talking to real people - not just other Greens ??!!

Don't fall off your chair - it does happen - in other provinces and in other countries.

But rarely in Nova Scotia.

Chris and Mike Milburn - they are active Greens in their community in between elections.

Probably some others - tell me about yourself - prove me wrong - get active !

I need to do the same.

We all do....