Consider the problem in the riding of Halton. In the last election, Garth Turner, running for the Conservatives, won a tight race against Liberal Gary Carr. A mere 2,000 votes separated the two. Since then, Garth Turner has switched parties, joining the Lliberals, and still under a cloud that makes him a risky proposition for the Liberals.
So what happens in the next election? Do the Liberals run Turner? If so, how many of the 30,000 Conservative votes does he manage to keep? How many of the 28,000 Liberal votes can he count on? In the mean time, the Conservatives are bound to run a strong candidate, in part because this riding is very winnable, and partly out of revenge.
Check out what Canadian bloggers have said about Garth Turner
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Faced with this connundrum, I would suggest that Stephane Dion and Elizabeth May strike a deal. Garth Turner will be told to step aside, and the Green Party, whose candidate earned a respectable 4,000 votes the last time around, will run with the endorsement of the Liberals.
In return, the Green Party will not run, say, in Parkdale-High-Park, lending a hand to Gerard Kennedy (who played a key role in helping Stephane Dion win the Liberal Party leadership) in Kennedy's bid to break into federal politics.
The cool thing about this idea is that the NDP, who earned only slightly more votes than the Green in Halton, are not likely to be a factor the way they will be in Central Nova. Combine the Green vote with enough Liberal and NDP votes, and the Liberals could take Halton.
And this wouldn't be a hard thing to do, because both Garth Turner and his constituents would support the move to give Halton to the Green Party:
By the time I walked into the Dresden arena, I’d reached the inevitable conclusion that this was, in fact, the right thing to happen. It is time to try and do politics differently. After all, my experiences of the past year and a half have been predicated on questioning the absolute nature, authority and stifling oppression of party politics. I’ve seen how the mainline parties operate, how voters are marginalized, how leaders abuse their positions and how nothing, nothing matters but the acquiring and holding of power. My refusal to knuckle under led directly to my unenviable journey, and onto the doorstep of Stephane Dion. With Elizabeth May and the unproven Greens, he has taken a big risk. I am going to support him in that, without reservation. It’s worth the roll.
And, in case you were wondering, the people of Dresden think it’s a good move, too. That was the overwhelming sense I got from conversations, from the questions after my speech, and the head bobbing that went on as I mentioned Dion and May. Maybe it’s because this is corn country. Maybe because people who live in small towns understand a whole lot better what being green is, and why there’s no choice. Maybe they were trying to irritate their Conservative MP, who was in the audience. Maybe they’re just hungry, too, for a sea change in political life.
Update: I made a big mistake. Dresden is not in Garth Turner's riding. Thanks to Garth for pointing that out and calling me an idiot.
So what about it Garth? Are you going to take one for your new friends in the Liberal Party?
