David Chernushenko steps down
While I'm not happy about the negative spin suggested in an article by Tim Naumetz for CanWest News Service, it does discuss the massive amount of work taken on by Elizabeth May. While David may not be as active in the party as he would have been as leader, he is continuing in the green movement as both a consultant to the government and a green businessman.
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Best wishes for David
I have great respect for David and wish him all the success he deserves. I hope he does come back to run again because we need people like him in Ottawa. The spin on the article is inevitable since David ran for the leadership and I think the media need to get their jabs in. It does bring up a good point of the work load expected of Elizabeth and I think the leadership needs to present more of the cabinet/leadership team to the public. Elizabeth has great energy and she is certainly high profile but cannot remain the only visible voice of the party.
The NDP had the same dilemma when they chose Jack Layton. Many people felt that his high profile would help the party and I think relied too heavily on this at first. (At least this is what I get from ndp supporters I have talked to.) But many people can name more than a few ndp politicians. They have the advantage of already being in Ottawa and we don't which makes it more important for us to present a wider voice. I'm confident that the leadership is thinking about this but I hope the decision isn't waiting for the next election.
Nominated Candidate for Trinity-Spadina, Toronto
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This blog reflects my personal opinion. It is not official Green Party Policy. www.departmentofpeace.ca
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All parties have same problem.
I don't think the problem of the leader getting all the attention is unique to the Greens. We are doing it ourselves often, with some Greens going as far as talking about not splitting the vote to try to get "Harper" out of office. Other than in the riding of Calgary Southwest that statement makes no sense, and yet we fall into the trap of the cult of personality as much as anyone else.
Harper isn't the only Conservative party candidate, and Ms. May isn't the only Green Party candidate. It is incumbent upon all voters to find out who they are voting for locally, and stop focusing on the personality cult around the leaders.
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Russell McOrmond (Constituent, Ottawa South)
Check out my BLOG on Digital Copyright Canada.
Ideas welcome.
Convincing the media to give Shadow Cabinet members and candidates more attention and credit is a challenge. Elizabeth isn't hogging the spotlight, it's being cast on her by others. Strategies and suggestions are very welcome.
Other media attention.
CTV's Question Period will be featuring this issue. Haven't seen it yet, but wanted to post about it so others might check it out.
The Vancouver Sun ran an article from The Montreal Gazette on Thursday with a headline Green Party leader has to learn how to build a team.
While I haven't spoken to him about this issue in particular, I think the media is downplaying Mr. Chernushenko's importance in National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) and the need for him to be officially non-partisan in that important roll.
I don't consider his decision to be a loss to the party, but a gain to our larger movement in having him at NRTEE. I hope that other Greens and greens are thinking the same way, and not accepting the negative spin many reporters seem to have taken.
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Russell McOrmond (Constituent, Ottawa South)
Check out my BLOG on Digital Copyright Canada.
Building a Team
At risk of offending various people, I do think that Elizabeth could have done a better job of settling into the party.
For one thing, when she ran for the leadership it was obvious that she was going to win short of some sort of crazy scandal. But instead of trying to keep above the internal fray of the party, she instantly took sides on some very controversial issues that, IMHO, she knew zero about and completely misread. This supports the view (which I have heard from people who worked with her in the Sierra Club) that she is not a "team player" and instead shoots from the hip and expects everyone else to follow her lead.
I am concerned about this because I have fought for years to have some sort of internal decision-making culture in this party that would be genuinely democratic in nature. In the past our problem has been anarchists who felt free to speak on behalf of the party and were outraged whenever there was an attempt to guage what the ordinary rank-and-file membership felt about issues and follow their direction. Now, again in IMHO, we have a situation where we have a very weak decision-making infrastructure and a very strong person at the helm who doesn't understand that we are drifting towards a Presidential form of decision-making structure instead of a more collective one.
I'm saddened by this, but I have come to the conclusion that ultimately the problem isn't with Ms. May (after all, she does a very good job as a spokesperson and no one expects her to be a saint), but rather with the rank-and-file membership. I discussed this issue with many members during the leadership race and time and again members told me that they didn't really care much about whether or not the GPC was democratic in nature as long as we had a strong leader and it become a more powerful advocate for future generations.
I can understand this feeling, as we are facing a significant catastrophe, but I am not so sanguine about handing the party over the same forces that shape all the others. Inasmuch as we do so, I think that the policy and viewpoint that make the GPC worth supporting will inevitably begin to morph into something like the NDP or Liberals. I realize, however, that outside of Guelph and a few individuals that I have worked with over the years, the majority of members do not care for my opinions, so I have tried to mostly keep quiet.
"There is always an easy solution to every human problem--neat, plausible, and wrong." H.L. Mencken