[LINK] "The Mean, Green, Tory-Killing Machine"

[rfmcdonald]

Wonkman has a post up noting the extent to which, in northern and interior British Columbia, the Green Party is carving vital votes away from the Conservative Party.

Wanna know why the NDP are now within 5% of winning Central Okanagan? It’s in large part because the Greens have carved 10% off the Conservatives.

Wanna know why the Liberals are now competitive in Chilliwack, which hasn’t sent a Liberal to parliament since 1949? It’s in large part because the Greens have shaved 7-8% off the Conservatives, making it more competitive than it’s been in decades.

Wanna know why Kelowna–Lake Country is now hyper-competitive, when it used to elect Conservatives and Reformers with a solid 60% of the vote? It’s in large part because the Greens are soaking up 10-15% of that Tory voting pool.

Any time you look at one of these rural-BC ridings where the Greens are supposedly “splitting” the vote, what we’re actually looking at is the opposite: a riding which has historically been untouchably Conservative, but which is now in play precisely because the Greens have come out of nowhere and helped dunk the Tories below 50% for the first time in generations.

[. . .]

The Greens have become a party who can hack rural populism, which is what allows them to cleave votes off the Conservatives.

They’ve got the superficial stuff down: the Greens are gritty, “real”, plain-spoken, and so on. But on policy, and especially on policies which distinguish the Conservatives from the Liberals and NDP, the Greens actually have a lot to offer these voters: less restrictive gun control, emphasis on rural communities and development, protections for farmland and greenbelts, and – above all – a sense that the Greens aren’t a threat to the rural way of life, a sense a lot of people will not extend to the Liberals or NDP.