Prince Edward Island, Canada’s smallest province, goes to the polls next week.
Campaigning has come to a halt after the death of one of the Green Party candidates and his young son in a canoe accident.
All four parties have suspended their campaigns out of respect.
According to the most recent opinion polls, the Liberals and the Greens are neck-and-neck. The Liberals are currently in power, and the Greens are the third party in the Assembly. The Progressive Conservatives are the Official Opposition, but are trailing in third place. The New Democratic Party does not have any MLAs and is mired in single digits.
Before this tragic event, the main issue about the PEI election was the surge in the Green Party. Mind you, PEI is teeny-tiny, so a Green surge there isn’t likely to have a major influence elsewhere , but a straw in the wind, perhaps.
Speaking just in terms of practicalities, in a system like Canada’s, this doesn’t have much effect, does it? The Green Party will just put some new candidate in the unfortunately-dead guy’s place, and about the same people who would have supported the Green Party before will still support them, and the new guy (if he’s elected) would vote in the same way as the dead guy on almost all bills, right?
That’s pretty much it. We vote for parties, not candidates because it is parties that determine policies and members of parliament or provincial assemblies almost always vote along strict party lines. If they don’t they will be expelled and not permitted to run under the party banner. So the party will replace him and things will go on as before.
Just checked things out. It appears that Elections P.E.I. has cancelled the vote in Underhay’s district. A byelection will be held within the next three months.
This will make the provincial election very interesting if it is close.
I don’t know a whole lot (virtually anything) about PEI politics, but aren’t the Greens and the Liberals more natural allies than the Tories with either of them? Can the Greens and Liberals refuse to form a government with the Tories and instead form one themselves with the Greens more in control? I think that is within the law but is it one of those things that just isn’t done?
Pure arithmetic, yes, the Greens and Liberals could team up and have a majority. But there is a general sense that the party with the largest number of seats should have first chance to form a government. That’s especially the case when the party that was in power has been soundly defeated by the voters (reduced to third party and Premier defeated personally).
If the Greens tried to form a government with the Liberals, they would likely be seen as overriding the decision of the voters to kick the Liberals out of power. As one defeated British Prime Minister once said: “It’s not clear who the British want people want as Prime Minister, but it’s clear they don’t want me.”
Yes, the Greens generally have been trying to shake the image of granola hippies who insist everyone ride bikes. From the little I know, they’ve tried to be more business-friendly, but sustainable business practices, etc. They’re not eco-socialistes. They’re more trying to project an image of eco-pragmatists.
For instance, in New Brunswick, they’re cooperating with the Conservative minority government, but they’re in a formal coalition with the NDP in BC.
