Everybody should remember to go vote tomorrow. This certainly hasn’t been the most inspiring campaign, but it is still important to make the effort – especially for those living in swing ridings.
Those for whom climate change is a key electoral issue may want to have a look at VoteForClimate.ca.
Author: Milan
In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford.
Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here.
View all posts by Milan
CBC.ca has a fun little summarization of the stances of the candidates on various issues. This is their version of the parties’ climate change plans:
“Melting ice caps, weather “events,” and disappearing habitats. All parties want to be seen to have strong policies in place to deal with climate change, without putting undo stress on the economy.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/leadersparties/partyissues/environment1.html
Undo stress, indeed.
September 30th, 2008
Does global warming trump all hot-button ethical issues?
Imagine you go to a conference on major bioethical questions — controversial issues like abortion, embryonic stem cells, assisted reproduction and euthanasia — and a keynote speaker uses all his allotted time warning about global warming. Is this the wrong issue to discuss — or the only one worth talking about?
…
If western countries closed all their hospitals, he said, life expectancy there would drop by only eight months.
Three senior Canadian members of the 2007 Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are calling on Elizabeth May to lead Greens to make the difference in more than 50 close ridings where the Conservatives are set to win with a fraction of the expected Green Party vote. The leading Canadian climate scientists making the call are Dr. Andrew Weaver from the University of Victoria, Dr. William Peltier from the University of Toronto and Dr. John Stone from Carleton University.
“It looks like the unprecedented desire to vote for the environment could result in a terrible three way split of environmental voters in key ridings. Elizabeth May and her appeal have an extraordinary opportunity to make the change the Green movement wants to see in our government. Ms. May and the Greens alone can help make the difference between the Harper majority that the climate scientists fear and a Liberal minority under which great progress can be made to fight climate change.”
Falling short of a direct appeal for strategic voting, May hinted supporters should calculate their chances of defeating Conservatives by voting Liberal.
She said Greens could not alone put Liberals over the top in many ridings, but they should “vote accordingly.”
But later Sunday the Green party released a statement stressing that May “has not called on voters to abandon Green party candidates.”
“Ms. May did say that, ‘Being honest with the voters, I acknowledge that there is concern over vote-splitting in a small number of ridings. But I am not going to say ‘vote Liberal here, vote NDP there.'” the statement noted. “I repeated over and over that I would not advise voters to vote for anyone other than Greens. I do not support strategic voting and I have not advised voters to choose any candidate other than Green.”
Sunday Dion made his strongest pitch yet for Green party supporters to vote for the Grits in Tuesday’s election, saying he’s been endorsed by a Nobel Prize winning scientist as the only leader who will actually deal with climate change.
Dion’s future questioned after renewed Tory minority
Popular support for the Liberals dropped to 26.2 per cent, the lowest since Confederation as Harper’s Conservatives return to Parliament with 16 more seats, though still shy of a majority
Election night! (No, not that one.)
Canadian elections strengthen Conservatives, drinkers
Posted by John McGrath
Well, it was a short, boring campaign, and, uh, nothing really happened. I’m writing this before the polls have all reported in, but the Conservatives have almost certainly gained a couple dozen seats, putting them just — just — short of a majority government. The Liberals have run on a campaign of trying to be mildly less abusive of the planet, and will be even weaker in the 40th Parliament than they were in the 39th.