You keep on telling yourself that Bob. While the other parties may encroach on Green territory, they are only helping the Greens whose support usually is reduced as the the environment gets pushed back into the 3rd or 4th issue on everyone's minds.

Instead, voters will be looking to see if the Green Candidate is worth their vote. The NDP is going to be the biggest victim, as they and the liberals are running on the same platform. In the West, especially, you will see the Green Party gain significantly percentages of the vote, as the anti-government backlash that had long kept the reform/tories afloat will be seeking a new way to reject Ottawa. Don't be surprised if you see a significant showing in Vancouver Center, Quadra, as well as in Interior ridings. By the time the election nears, be prepared to see the Greens riding at 14% in the polls nationally, and if Liz May gets in the debates, you may see that edge to 18-19%.

You probably will see the vote concentrated in BC, high 2nd place showings in Alberta, (they'll still be Tory) and maybe a few spikes in Urban Ontario ridings and the maritimes.

If only the "Greens" were actually green. But so far, Elizabeth May has edged to the right until she felt at home in Brian Mulroney's team (and I don't buy her excuses for that). Same story for the Green Party in Germany: far, far to the right, only masquerading as environmentalists.

Better to stay with the New Democrats and support their proven environmental record combined with their compassion for the people as well.

Smart leadership would prompt Jack Layton, Ms May, and Stephane Dion to form a working Coalition to defeat the Harper Conservatives ... and then continue working together to preserve the environment. And to save Canadian sovereignty.

Well Written Well Said Bob! The only other factor in the equation is the almighty debate.But then,they won't do any better than the NDP who isn't really a factor in Federal Canadian politics.Will people take a serious look at green candidates,not until they stop running flakes in most of the ridings.

"Better to stay with the New Democrats and support their proven environmental record combined with their compassion for the people as well. "

How is the NDP environmental record proven? They haven't been government, and many NDPers if they like outdoors recreation will still get into their
SUV's, haul their nylon rip-stop tents to the nearest campground (within range so they can use
their plastic cellphones), and plastic tarps,
not mention using bleached white tissue paper when it comes to taking a dump in the forest.
There's the white gas that's used to start the
BBQ (no starting the fire the green way with
dry twigs or wood shavings and dried leaves)

If they have their babies with them, that means
no natural fibred flannel or cotton diapers, but
the pastic disposable kind.

The NDP's campaign offices being green? Ha! Take
a look. The plastic PC over there, the petroluem
distillate based cleaner used for cleaning the photocopy machine here, the bleached white reams of paper in the back, and not to mention the cans of Comet and Windex in the cleaning closet. Plastic telephones, thermo fax paper..

The plastic signs made from polymer plastic sheeting.

Leader's posters made from clay coated chemically
treated paper with petroleum based inks.

The only "green" thing would be the pencils and
the potted plants and the fruit in the bowl on
the desk next to the receptionist.

The NDP Green? The Green Party is "green"?

Get real.

"Smart leadership would prompt Jack Layton, Ms May, and Stephane Dion to form a working Coalition to defeat the Harper Conservatives"

And yet, Layton seems completely intent on providing anything but "smart leadership" by dancing with the devil and trying to work with Harper on an environmental compromise in the upcoming session. Remember the last time he teamed up with Harper? It was to force an untimely election that the Conservatives won. Way to go Jack! Only the NDP are true Conservative fighters, he says. We're on to you Jack... no wonder there is a real grass roots movement in the NDP to turf him before he does even more damage.

I'll second the question on the NdP's green credentials -- at least in gov't. That's where they are so divided over their union ties that the environment is often traded off in reckless manner. Don't get me wrong, I hope Layton can wrangle some commonsense out of Harper in this minority situation, but if it comes down to Greens and NdP stealing mostly Liberal votes and handing ridings to the Cons, the environment and those who favour social justice will be crying from the same songbook that US democrat supporters have had to warble the last terrible six years.

Dan,
That is the craziest comment I've ever seen on a blog. Do you seriously think the Greens have much growth potential beyond 8%? Even if they're higher than that in the polls through the election period, it will all get poached by the Liberals in the last week, but calling for Green supporters to "strategically" vote Liberal. It sure will be easy considering the Green leader said LAST ELECTION (just one year ago) she couldn't vote Green unless she was in a safe seat.

I can see the Liberal ads now ...

Realism, I think you misevaluate where Greens pull their support from. They will pull more new support from right, than from the left. But rather than be squished out, they will have higher consideration.

Also, I did say in the polls. It won't translate directly into seats and may not directly amount to votes. Typically, the Greens like the NDP have a higher level of support in youth who do not always turnout in numbers.

Well, it appears, according to Stan Lee Park's wisdom, that scrap pieces of birchbark will be the new medium for the Green Party.

Hey, maybe Betty can borrow Mulroney's chin or something to draw a bit more support from the corporate sector.

Stan, just where dd you get the enviro-friendly computer to churn out all that purity.

No doubt former Albertan Bob Russell has trouble seeing the environmental crisis with all that oily stuff clouding his vision.

A wedge issue? Try THE issue.

Amazing, that so many of the people who like to squeeze oil out of old dinosaur poop eventually begin to act like dinosaurs.

Bob is very much on the ball, the Greens are unlikely to win seats in the next election, but it is not beyond realistic. Reform was not supposed to win anything when they came into existence.

I also know that Bob feels the environment is the most important issue facing the country and would like to see the federal Liberals govern again to deal with the current crisis. I know few people as passionate about the environment as he is.

Where do the Greens get there votes from? This is a very important question to ask. People presume that Green voters are drawn from the left more than anywhere else, but that tends not to be the case in practice.

The Greens seem to be very good at getting new voters to come out in elections, especially younger voters. Turn out from Canadians below age 40 is very low - as a nation it is important understand why they are not voting.

One thing I noticed in the London North by-election is that the Greens had a young campaign team - something that is very, very rare in politics in Canada.

The recent Liberal leadership race did not seem to have any resonance with anyone younger than the boomer generation. The NDP has not had a presence with the youth since the 1970s.

What are the Greens doign to get the youth involved? I saw this same youth involvement in the Victoria civic elections in 2005 for the Greens in Victoria.

Meanwhile, on environmental issues, the NDP does not have anything approaching a good record provincially or federally. The federal Liberals had close to 13 years to act on environmental issues and did not take one significant concrete action. If people like it or not, Mulroney was the best PM we had for the environment.

If the environment becomes the main issue and if the public under age 40 chooses to vote, do not rule out the Greens being able to elect an MP.

An interesting question after this arises if the Greens were to get close to as many votes as the Bloc and gets no representation. We also continue the problem we had in 1993, 1997 and 2000 where most MPs were elected with a low plurality of the votes.