Elizabeth May was on Power and Politics today claiming that the only reason the Green vote fell from 6.8% to 3.8% was that she was excluded from the debates. This seems to ignore the fact that in 2006 the Greens got 4.5% even though Jim Harris was not in the debates.
This little piece of self -indulgent disingenuity motivated me to have a closer look at the Green vote. May was of course personally elected but the overall Green vote was cut almost in half. Instead of 15 second place finishes they achieved only one (Dufferin Caledon).
But the most significant impact of the Greens may have been assuring Harper of his majority. Here is a list of seats which the Conservatives won by margins less than the Green vote (which is in brackets.)
Over Liberals:
Etobicoke Centre 0.05 (2.76)
Don Valley East 2.2 (3.1)
Don Valley West 1.2 (3.20)
Etobicoke Centre 0.05 (2.76)
Mississauga East C 1.4 ((2.3)
Moncton 4.1 (4.5)
Nippissing 0.03 (6.02)
Yukon 0.8 (18.9)
Winnipeg SC 1.7 (3.5)
Over NDP:
Montmagny 0.2 (2.9)
Lotbiniere 1.4 (1.7)
Bramalea G M 0.9 (3.0)
Elmwood-Transcona 0.9 (3.1)
Saskatoon R B 1.8 (2.1)
Palliser 2.3 (2.9)
Van Island N 3.1 (5.1)
So instead of a Parliament composed of 167 Conservatives, 102 NDP, 34 Liberals and four Boq (plus May) we might have had a Parliament of 151 - 109 - 43 - 4 - 1.
A case can also be made that the Greens deprived the NDP of two Bloq seats :
Bas Richilieu 2.4 (3.0)
Richmond -Arth 1.4 (2.1)
And four Liberal seats:
Westmount 1.6 (3.7)
Lac St Louis 4.1 (4.3)
Winnipeg North 0.5 (1.8)
Vancouver Centre 5.0 (15.4)
In which case we might have woken up this morning to a Parliament of :
151 Cons, 115 NDP, 39 Libs, 2 Bloq and one other.
And an entirely different future for Canada.
Thanks Greens.