PEI proves we need a war effort backing the Greens

It was an historic breakthrough Tuesday for the Green Party of Prince Edward Island — they elected eight members to the provincial legislature, the most Greens ever elected to one body in Canada. (Vancouver is lucky to have seven Greens elected, but they’re split among city council, parks board and school board.)

In fact, the Greens became PEI’s official opposition party, giving them considerable power since the Conservatives, who elected 12 MLAs, will only be able to form a minority government. The incumbent Liberals were relegated to third spot, with just six seats.

With the existential threat of climate change looming, I’m a big supporter of the Green Party, wherever it fields candidates. Tuesday night’s election results boosted my optimism for how well the federal Greens under Elizabeth May will do this October. However, I must admit I was also slightly disappointed in the results (and, of course, given my March 28 blog, totally disappointed that pro rep was defeated by a slim majority!).

News coverage indicated that PEI’s Greens were consistently polling in first place, so I’d been hoping not for opposition status but, instead, victory. And now I’m wondering why polling indicated the Greens would do much better than they did.

One possible explanation is that the Green Party in most jurisdictions has yet to developa sophisticated ground game — namely, the ability to identify supporters during the election campaign and get out the vote on election day. As someone who’s run for office and been elected four times, I know these two elements require a highly developed and sophisticated campaign, one that’s well-funded and well-resourced with literally thousands of volunteers.

During the Second World War, we put aside our political differences in order to make the war effort our Number 1 priority and have it succeed. As terrible as World War II was, it didn’t hold as many dire threats to so many aspects of life on earth as climate change does. Can you imagine what would have happened election night in PEI if people got behind the Green Party, volunteering and contributing to their campaign, like it was as important as winning World War II?

I believe we must vote with climate change as our Number One priority. Going forward, we also have to support with our time and effort — and donations! — the political party committed to taking on climate change. Only the Greens offer this solution.