HO HO HO!
Will the Greens be Giant-Killers in Election 2006?
John Kendle

So another Canadian federal election campaign draws to a close. Who will win? Who knows?

All I know is that I will likely be watching the election results after yet another viewing of the Fantastic Four, courtesy of my sons. But when I do tune in to CBC to get the news, the result I will be most interested in will not be the one most people care about.

Yes, I will be awfully disappointed if (when?) Stephen Harper becomes prime minister.

But I have this niggling sense that I may also be excited by the results of Campaign 2006.

If what I have been hearing and reading for the past few weeks actually rings true at the ballot box on Jan. 23, the election of 2006 may well be remembered as the one in which the Green Party became a viable political force in this country.

What makes me think this?

Anecdotally, I have heard from many Liberal or NDP voters that they are turning Green this year.

Many are doing so out of protest. Their votes are their way of saying the traditional parties no longer serve their interests nor realize their visions of the country.

Many others who will vote Green have told me they are doing so because they believe in the party’s environmental stances, its progressive social policies, its economic values and its stand on fundamentally reassessing this country’s approach to health care.

To these voters, the Green Party offers a vision of a nurturing society which acknowledges that living in the world requires care for the future as well as the now.

More than half-a-million voters embraced this vision in the election of 2004. Given the climate of backbiting and scandal that has pervaded the campaign of 2006, I will not be surprised if many more Canadians do likewise this time out.

The Greens may not quite attain a million votes, but they may come close. Whatever the final figure, the underlying truth of this election for many has been that the Green message should be taken seriously — enough so that even the parties of realpolitik must take notice.

Of course, many pundits in the traditional media will express their moral outrage at the growing group of Green voters.

“What a waste,” they will roar. “The Greens are an airy-fairy bunch of dreamers.”

The pundits will — of course — simply be making as much noise as they can. They will also — of course — be wrong.

It seems to me that the decision to vote Green has been a simple one for a an awful lot of people who have followed this campaign.

Since December, the Green Party has been the only party that has consistently stayed above the internecine squabbling of the major players. The Green Party has quietly and consistently presented a dignified message of hope for Canada.

A vote for hope can never be wrong.

It can only be exciting.