Feeling green

It’s great to have a Green Party, a party that’s not afraid to put the environment ahead of the economy, a party with progressive views on other issues. So it’s great that in yesterday’s provincial election the British Columbia Greens trebled their seats in the legislature from one to three. Bravo. Well done.

Now that I’ve got the niceties out of the way: Fucking Greens, fucking bastards.

For sixteen years, BC has had a “Liberal” government, led first by slimy Gordon Campbell, then by sleazy Christy Clark. I put the name of the party in quotations because in BC this party is far-from-Liberal, comprised as it is of SoCred retreads and chancers. (When the uniquely British Columbian, hyper socially conservative Social Credit Party was kicked into the long grass in 1991, the sore losers set about taking over  the opposition Liberal Party. Although Gordon Campbell did have a road to Damascus moment about climate change and introduced the country’s first carbon tax, there is nothing else at all Liberal about this party.)

The far-from-Liberals should have been gone four years ago and would have been if the fucking Greens hadn’t split the progressive vote in multiple ridings, denying the seats to the NDP and handing them to Christy Clark. (Granted, the NDP ran a pretty lacklustre campaign with a pretty lacklustre leader. But still.)

And yesterday it happened again.

I don’t begrudge the Greens their three seats. I begrudge them once again splitting the progressive vote in sixteen ridings which could have given the NDP a resounding win. It’s more than fair to say the NDP could be a lot stronger on environmental issues and if they were this might not have happened. And, yes, it’s fair to say that the NDP could have played nice (but didn’t) by reaching out to the Greens with an offer of strategic campaigning. If that had happened several ridings in the interior would be orange today.

But it’s also more than fair to say that in any sane (by my standards) world the main goal of this election should have been getting rid of Christy Bloody Clark. The Greens could have (but didn’t) forever polished their image by stepping out of the way in a few key ridings to ensure an end to the reign of Clark, the fracking queen. Live to fight another day.

Instead we have “Liberals” 43, NDP 41, Greens 3. And a smarmy Green Party leader, Andrew Weaver, who made it clear before election day that he’d be happy to work – perhaps even accept a cabinet position – with Christy Clark’s government. That alone should have lost Weaver his seat, but it didn’t.

If the recount in the riding won by the NDP by a mere nine votes goes the other way, bloody Clark will have the slimmest of majorities. If it stays as is we have the prospect of another Clark government propped up by the Greens. (You could not make this shit up.)

Best case scenario? A short-lived minority “Liberal” government, followed by another election resulting in British Columbian voters doing to the Greens what British voters did to the LibDems who’d propped up David Cameron’s Tories for five years.

In the meantime, I’m feeling very green – as in I want to throw up.