By-Election Results - Ouch
Well, that didn't go well. The CPC gets 2 new seats, the NDP holds one, and the Bloc holds one while losing another. I needed to check Elections Canada to see how we did as the MSM didn't mention the Green Party. Once I saw the results I knew why.
Green results:
New Westminster--Coquitlam: 1046 votes, 4.3%, 1500 behind the Liberals for 3rd
Cumberland--Colchester--Musquodoboit Valley: 807 votes, 3.3%, 31 votes ahead of the Christian Heritage Party candidate, over 4k behind the Liberals.
Hochelaga: 571 votes, 3.3%, 1200 behind the CPC just 450 ahead of the neo-Rhino's
Montmagny--L'Islet--Kamouraska--Rivière-du-Loup: 472 votes, 1.7%, nearly 900 behind the NDP for 4th
Ouch. I know our candidates did their best but the results were very, very ugly. No one did better than 4.3%, we almost fell behind the CHP in one riding, and never seriously threatened any of the big 4. The biggest loser though is the Liberal party, finishing 3rd in all 4 by-elections and over 5k behind in all of them. It is obvious the CPC put a lot of effort into all but the Hochelaga riding as they came in 1st in 2 and 2nd in the third (3400 back of the NDP) while flopping in Hochelaga (10.1% while the Bloc got over 50%).
Thanks to the candidates for putting in a game effort. Sadly, things went pretty much as badly as they could. It is obvious we need to figure out how to do better in by-elections as this type of result is not acceptable. If we beat one of the big parties we get noticed, if we do like we did here (sub 5%) we will be ignored completely by the media and that leads to being ignored by the public.
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Yes, our election party on
Yes, our election party on the West Coast would have been more rowdy had we hit 20%.
I'm not sure about the lay of the land in the other ridings, in BC we had a outspoken environmental activist and city councillor (who supported in the past Green policies such as the carbon tax) drafted for the NDP, who won, so it is probably the next best result.
Although it is unfortunate, that his campaign was based mainly on opposing the provincial harmonization plan instead of the more substantial issues where his credibility lied.
The one thing is clear, is we need to need specifics to answer the question why vote Green if we want to keep our vote up.
Two years ago, when we experienced strong growth, we took the carbon tax and hammered it into the public's consciousness for almost a year straight.
Whatever is next --high speed trains, legalize pot, green tax exemptions -- we just need to focus on one tangible item/campaign to keep us relevant.
Yes, the wholistic approach is needed. Unfortunately, we can't throw policy books at people and hope they read it. People are overwhelmed and yet feel helpless with the economy suffering, and while a majority of people want to see major action on climate instability, they need that simple straw to grasp.
simple straw to grasp
Well said. Campaigns are fought on one priority issue. And you need to choose the right one.
I do want to say, that the BC
I do want to say, that the BC candidate worked extremely hard. She was out door knocking many days a week and performed excellent in all the debates.
She did her best as a candidate.
There could have been more resources from the central party devoted to a by-election, but I will address those concerns in a less public area.
I'll address them here...
You are very kind Dan. I don't see why it should be private. I sincerely hope that outsiders read this blog, and find out that the GPC did nothing to support these by-election candidates. We're better off being looked at strangely for not bothering to contest by-elections than having people wandering around with the mistaken impression that the Party tried and then turned in these depressing results.
I'll say it again here. WE DID NOT EVEN TRY TO HELP THESE POOR CANDIDATES!!!
The Party leadership didn't care in the least, because their favourite daughters names were not on the firing line. I blogged some time ago suggesting that nothing was planned. Then I commented that nothing was happening halfway through. Now it's over, and it is a total embarrassment.
3 out of 4 of these by-elections have been known about for 6 months or so.
Where are those commentators who took me to task for criticising the unseen efforts behind the scenes? Kindly step forward, and comment on how this is all part of the secret plan.
Could that be it? Are we deliberately lowering expectations so as to make 6% look like a stellar victory? Now what a cunning strategy that would be eh? But lets not be cynical. It's time to be team players right? Rally about the leader, and turn this into a victory eh? Rah Rah Rah. Go Elizabeth Go...
Ask what you did to help first
To all those people who may have opinions and criticism i would first like you to ask "What did I do to help them?" before pointing the fingers at others. I am in Calgary and I donated money to several of the candidates as well as phone polling with Grimes for Jason Blanch. I had no training or campaign experience but I took the caller list and did my best being 3-4 time zones away. Now I'm not saying i'm a hero. . . the candidates are the heroes. What I'm saying is if you didn't take time or cash to help them maybe keep the criticism to a minimum. It's the volunteers that will win us the seats not the money.
To all the candidates you have my thanks.
Thanks Martin for helping out
Thanks Martin for helping out where you could. Having been a candidate in a by-election myself, I know that all the extra help is required. By-elections can be difficult, as they don't have the same collective narrative as a general election campaign and in many ways they are more stressful on the candidates.
I did what I could from a few ridings over, canvassing a few days days, helping with messaging, and such, although I had hoped to do more.
I can feel some disappointment, but I also believe we should take care in how we express it.
Without all the buzz of a general election, each candidates earned every vote they received.
I don't think we should take away from that.
Good efforts by candidates
I am certain that the candidates all did their best and worked hard. The challenge is that the CPC machine was clearly in full force in 3 of these ridings (the New York Yankees of politics - they can throw more money at any problem than everyone else combined) while the 4th was a Bloc stronghold. The NDP put in all their efforts in BC to ensure they won that seat (a smart strategy imo - pick where you can win and do everything you can to win).
To me the poor results are an indicator that we need to plan out a by-election as well as an election strategy. They are different beasts and require different strategies. For a by-election where there is just one going on we can devote a lot of effort to that one. When we have 4 on one day it is more of a challenge. I suspect some felt the NDP was running a good candidate and that if we worked too hard in BC we'd be giving the riding to the CPC. The Quebec ridings were probably viewed as write offs (Bloc strong in both) thus we should've put a lot more effort into the NS riding but it doesn't appear that happened.
There are an assortment of reasons for not attacking these particular by-elections, a big one being the pain that Guelph caused when all our efforts were put in, it looked like we could win, then we were blindsided by an election call. It looked likely we'd get that again this time. Also any votes in a by-election do not count towards the revenue we get from the $1.95 per vote subsidy afaik thus no reward was coming to us except a slight shot at some publicity.
I know I didn't put in any real effort to assist this time, in part because my personal time is so limited (amazing what 3 kids do to your time eh?). We all need to find ways to help though as moving ahead of at least one of the big 3 (or 4) in every by-election should be a goal as it always gets us some positive press.
Wellington-Halton Hills
That's the sort of reasoning that's needed
John, you're right that by-elections do actually matter, they do require planning and execution, and we should be learning and growing with experience. Maybe one day...
NDP look like the real winners
Sorry to say but it looks like the NDP got the best of the by-election results. In Nova Scotia and in British Columbia they seem to have positioned themselves as the "real opposition" to the Conservatives. Heck, they even finished second on Montreal Island where they already hold a seat (Outremont). Perhaps the idea of electing a bilingual leader and focusing long term on non-traditional areas of strength seems to be paying off for the NDP. Is there something the Greens can learn from this?
In the bigger picture of Canadian politics here is what I see playing out. For the last 15 years Canada has basically elected Centrist governments (Liberals) because the right(Reform/PCs) was fractured and the left(NDP) was disorganized. With corruption(Sponsorship), weak leaders(Dion), arrogance(feeling that Liberals have a right to be elected), and lack of ideas(can you name a Liberal policy?) finally wearing them down the Liberals are starting to collapse. So former Centrist voters are either going right(Conservatives) or to the left(NDP). Thus we have a more polarized country.
So where do the Greens fit into this?
As for the Green result, I'd like to echo the congratulations stated above. It's clear these campaigns passed some major hurdles(having a candidate, creating a website, being present at all debates, setting up phone canvassing, etc...) Hopefully next time further goals can be reached(10% of vote, x# of volunteers, a campaign office, x$ of donations, etc...)
It would be helpful if each EDA came up with a set of goals they would like to achieve. As long as this is done I think we can frame each election as a success(or a learning opportunity).
Matthew Piggott
Kitchener Centre
Support hierarchy. It is
Support hierarchy.
It is clear that candidates need more support. Platform aside, our showing in these byelections seems deficient when compared to the last general election.
The only reason I can see for such a decline is that the individual campaigns did not have the benefit of a national campaign presence.
Seeing as how there were only a handful of byelections, there should have been expert support available for all of them.
Price of our size
It is clear that, as a smaller party, we have to be focused in a limited number of areas when it comes to getting elected. In the past we had more of a by-election focus at times and it might have cost us dearly due to an inability to adjust when the carpet was yanked out from under us.
Right now an election could come at any moment. The 4 people voted in could have less than 6 months before they are campaigning again. Thus the parties number one focus has been on the riding May will run in. Ideally we will set up a plan (as I mentioned before) for by-elections and the like but right now the #1 goal is to be ready for a general election.
This is a major problem and shows the only good that could come out of the CPC winning a majority (as looks more likely with each day). We'd have 4 years to plan without fear of the government suddenly going back to the polls. It's a shame the general public (and media) didn't hit on Harper harder for breaking his fixed election promise last time as since he 100% got away with it the big 2 no longer fear that the voters will punish them if they go to the polls early.
Wellington-Halton Hills