Together we can shake up Parliament and double the Green voice

A fresh Green voice in Parliament is the biggest change that we can hope for on election day Monday, March 19. This is the most promising message that we can deliver for Canada, for our kids and for the planet. A new Green MP, or even a strong Green turnout in Toronto-Danforth would be the biggest, boldest and most effective message that we could send to Parliament that we need fundamental change, to revitalize democracy, for forward thinking, and for real, positive, sensible solutions to the challenges we face.

There is a very different feeling in the air than we got last year. Our base support has grown, but there is an enormous number of undecided voters out there, almost all of them supportive of what our party stands for. Those who have already decided on a non-Green vote are often apologetic, and many say they wish they could vote Green instead. Decided NDP voters fear the Liberals and the much smaller number of decided Liberal voters fear the NDP. The number of non-Green voters who love the party or the candidate they are voting for is tiny. Conservative voters are so very rare that they are not really a factor. It’s very easy for me to convince undecided voters to go Green, and just as easy to convince people who think they have made up their minds to reconsider.

That’s because there are no risks to a Green vote and tremendous advantages to be gained. The Liberals and New Democrats these days are not so very different. Both have become large parties vying for the centrist vote by sticking to safe, modest proposals at a time when bold initiatives are needed to confront the challenges we face. And for the next three and a half years, they will have to work together anyway. Both parties have now built such strong party loyalist networks, that the particular candidate is largely irrelevant. It literally would not matter if either of them won. In either case, Toronto-Danforth would end up with an MP who is more loyal to his party than to the people who elected him. In either case, they would have an MP who votes strictly on party lines and reads prepared scripts on approved party positions. And in either case, in order to make progress in Parliament, an opposition MP of any party would have to cooperate with other parties in order to get progress.

More and more volunteers are pouring into our office on the Danforth at Chester every day, and still there are not nearly enough for us to reach all the voters we would like to meet. Today, I’ll be heading out to canvass with another couple of teams from out of town. Like so many people across Canada, they want to see another Green MP sitting beside Elizabeth. There is a giddy end-of-campaign enthusiasm trickling through the team and we’re having fun together. Yesterday, we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by greeting people with chocolate coins up and down Danforth.

Voters in Toronto-Danforth have never been so assaulted by expensive, expansive, persistent and negative campaigning and misleading spin. It is effective, but it’s something I do not want to slip into and I am proud of all the supporters I routinely meet who have given or will be giving their votes to me because I haven’t harassed them or tried to frighten them.

In these final two days of the campaign, I am asking for three things. First, that you remember to vote Green this Monday, March 19. Second, that you make a point of telling your neighbours that you’re voting Green and urging them to do the same. It is very unlikely that you’ll find people who are unsympathetic to a Green voter. And some of them will be swayed. Finally, make some time in these last two days to help call people to get our support out. We need all hands on deck.