Green party support highest between elections

Amazing! The Invisible Green Hand! This hand is invisible because it doesn't exist. It is not surprising that the Greens have few links to large environmental groups , although a few of them are also also market oriented. It is common knowledge that environmental costs are not usually factored into prices.
The polls show the Greens climbing towards the NDP. It is fashionable to be pro-environment, so much so that even the Conservatives are wearing green even though the cloth is made from artificial materials.

Green Party support highest between elections
MURRAY CAMPBELL

From Friday's Globe and Mail

E-mail Murray Campbell | Read Bio | Latest Columns
September 14, 2007 at 4:54 AM EDT

One of the great mysteries of Ontario politics is that the Green Party looks strong between elections and then ends up sucking the exhaust fumes of the main parties when the ballots are counted. So many people park their votes with them between voting days that they should adopt as their logo the green P signs used by municipal lots.

Frank de Jong, who's been party leader since 1993, has figured it out. There were too many Green candidates who didn't know their solar panels from their sports utility vehicles.

"The public is ahead of the Green Party," he said. "Even though people want to vote Green, they look at the candidates and say, 'That guy's not up to the job,' and they hold their nose and vote for someone else."

Mr. de Jong believes it's going to be different this time.

Special Report: Ontario Election
"The Green Party is a player in this election," he said yesterday after parking his bicycle in front of Queen's Park and holding a sparsely attended news conference at which he released the party's platform.

Maybe it will be different. Mr. de Jong doesn't give himself much of a chance against Tony Ruprecht, a Liberal who has no influence at Queen's Park but has a stranglehold on his Toronto Davenport riding. But he has higher hopes in a handful of other constituencies.

The party has a lot of history to overcome, however. It was riding as high as 6 per cent support in the polls before the 2003 election but managed to get just 2.8 per cent when the ballots were cast. It's been consistently polling about 8 per cent since then but it didn't come close to achieving that in by-elections.

Part of the party's problem is that it has few links with the green establishment, the big non-governmental organizations. The Greens' free-enterprise philosophy, what the 51-year-old Mr. de Jong calls "the invisible green hand," drives many environmentalists crazy because they prefer a command-and-control philosophy. Keith Stewart, who manages the climate-change campaign at WWF Canada, says the environmental movement members support the mainstream parties but there's little relationship with the Green Party. Mr. de Jong describes his relations with environmental organizations as "tenuous."

The Greens recorded double-digit support levels in two polls this week - just behind the NDP - and one argument in Mr. de Jong's favour is that the environment issue has zoomed up the charts in voter priority rankings. What should work against him is that the mainstream parties know this, too, and are presenting themselves as greener than a leprechaun's tunic. Consider two greenish Toronto ridings: The NDP is running incumbent Peter Tabuns, a former head of Greenpeace, in Danforth, while the Liberals are backing Kate Holloway, a former Green Party executive, in Trinity-Spadina.

The Green platform that Mr. de Jong presented yesterday is light years ahead of what the party used to offer. It seeks to ease the burden of homeowners and businesses by shifting $7.9-billion of tax revenue to resources and activities that are harmful to the environment. "Pay for what you burn, not what you earn," said Mr. de Jong. It would reduce personal taxes - including a cancellation of the $2.6-billion health tax - and impose an initial 2 per cent carbon tax on oil, natural gas and coal imported or extracted.

The Green Leader promises it will be revenue neutral but that may not be the way middle-class suburbanites view it. "We shouldn't be holier than thou on this issue, but if someone has a big house they should pay the true cost and everyone will agree with that."

He'd better be right if he doesn't want his support to evaporate once again on Oct. 10.

mcampbell@globeandmail.com