Out of curiosity, what are your chances of winning? Is Verdun-Saint Henri-Saint Paul-Pointe Saint Charles an NDP stronghold, competitive, or what? And how did you become the NDP candidate, is there a primary?
In Canadian politics it’s usually a toss up between either an interested person asking about if anyone minds if he or she runs, or alternatively a political party asking individual if he or she would please run. Active campaigns to decide who will represent a party at the local level do occur, but are few and far between.
When I learned matt was running again, I looked up the stats for Verdun - St. Henri in the last election.
The results were:
Liberal - 51.3%
Bloc Quebecois - 29.4%
Progessive Conservative - 6.5%
Canadian Alliance - 5.1%
NDP - 2.5%
Green Party - 2.3%
Marijuana Party - 2.3%
Communist Party - 0.4%
Natural Law Party - 0.3%
BTW, I’m much more confident of my percentage chances this election. Since it’s a by-election and I’m 1 out of 7 ridings instead of 1 out of 301, I’ve gotten a lot more financial, logistical, and people-power support from the party this time around. Also, I don’t believe as many other left-wing/protest-vote parties will be running this time. and people aren’t as scared of the Bloc Québécois or the Canadian Alliance. I believe I can get a substantially higher portion of the vote this time around.
Someone asked whether his riding was an NDP stronghold, and so I gave you guys the statistics that I had been interested in finding!
I do think matt’ll do better this time, and even if he doesn’t, I really don’t think it has any bearing on him. The truth is that the Liberals and the B.Q. are more popular parties.
And just because he may not win is absolutely no reason not to try as hard as he can. Things need to be taken slowly, people’s minds can’t be changed in a few years. Heck, I voted for the NDP in Westmount, where there was less than no chance of it making a difference, but it still mattered.
Hej Matt!
I’m coming to Ottawa and Montréal for my holidays, perhaps around the end of June/beginning of July (though I have to be in town for the Toronto dopefest)… do you accept retroactive contributions? In person?
And all it takes to double last election’s return a really good evening out negotiating with the Mary Jane party’s candidate.
More seriously, although the NDP is not likely to win in this by-election, and generally wins few seats in a general election, it does an excellent job at sometimes forcing one or more of the major parties to move toward its positions in order to attract people who would otherwise vote NDP. Often the NDP brings serious social issues to the attention of the public and the major parites. It performs a very valuable role as the conscience of the House of Commons.
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