Attention headline writers
Dear headline writers: I know you think you’re being quite witty when you come up with It’s not easy being Green, or It’s getting a little easier to be Green, or some variation thereof for an article about the Green Party. But you’re actually not. If I had been keeping a tally, I could probably point you to at least one major column per month with a similar headline.
It’s not that I have a particular problem with the idea that being Green isn’t easy, because it’s actually quite hard. Small parties like the Greens face a continual uphill climb thanks, primarily, Canada’s outdates first-past-the-post voting system. Check out a letter from Fair Vote Canada’s Executive Director Larry Gordon in yesterday’s Toronto Star for more info on this.
And as Barbara Yaffe explains in a column today, Greens in Europe have had representation for decades (oh how I envy their fair voting systems), and the UK elected its first Green MP under first-past-the-post this past spring. The Canadian Greens are employing a similar strategy to the one that elected UK Greens leader Caroline Lucas — we have identified our most promising riding, and we are focusing our effort and resources on electing an MP, Elizabeth May, in Saanich–Gulf Islands. The favourable news continually coming out of the riding makes it a little easier being Green.
Georges Laraque is also making being Green these days a little easier. As Jane Taber wrote in the Globe on the weekend, “Since becoming deputy leader, he has done about 20 interviews a day. Ms. May may be on to something.” Greens across the country are excited about our new deputy, and the reach he has. Not to die-hard politicos, and those who are already Green-friendly, but he has reach in communities that may have been turned away from politics by the shenanigans and dirty politics in Ottawa.
I could go on, but I have a trial today and I have to get to court. To sum up, it’s getting easier to be Green every year, and I can’t wait to elect an MP (or a few!) in the next election. And headline writers, you’re not wrong, but you need some new material.
Scridb filter