This letter is in response to the Maxed Out column in the Sept. 13 edition of Pique (“Now is the time for pragmatic politics”).
As usual, G.D. has some good points in his argument for strategic voting in the upcoming Oct. 19 provincial election. However, in this case, I believe he is missing the specifics of the people who live in “the corridor.”
Our riding is different from most of the other Lower Mainland ridings. A majority of people who live here are here for the lifestyle. We like the outdoors and active living, which our natural environment makes possible in many different ways. Because the Green Party of BC is the most progressive in terms of protecting that very environment we love so much, people in our riding feel more connected to the policies of the Greens than the NDP.
While in other ridings G.D’s strategy, to consolidate the centre-left vote behind an NDP candidate, may be the best one to beat the Conservative candidate, this may not be the case in our riding. In fact, my opinion is that the best strategy to prevent a Conservative win in the West Vancouver-Sea to Sky riding is to put the centre-left vote behind the Green candidate.
For the proof that ours is an absolutely winnable riding for the Greens, just go back to the 2020 election when the race between the Green and the Liberal candidate was so close the ballots had to be recounted. The Greens ended up just 60 votes short of the Liberals.
So how would that play out in the overall provincial election—say the Greens get a seat or several seats in the next legislature? And let’s say the NDP ends up one or several seats short of a majority. Sound familiar? Well, it should, because that is what happened in the 2017 B.C. election. Then the NDP and the Greens got together with a confidence-and-supply agreement and formed government.
And what was accomplished during that parliamentary term? We now have the most progressive climate protection policy in Canada called CleanBC. We also, finally, have a new forest protection plan called the Forest and Range Practices Act.
However, as of late the NDP seems to be lacking focus and determination in following its own environmental policies. Examples are its continued subsidies and support of fossil fuel infrastructure such as gas pipelines and LNG export facilities, such as Woodfibre in Squamish and some indications that it may scrap the pollution pay principle for CO2. We absolutely need the Green voice in Victoria to keep the NDP on track!
