I'm interested in what you say about the American Green Party. I'm a former member of the Canadian Green Party at the federal level, and "establishing local infrastructure" (at the riding level) is exactly what the party can't seem to do. The same is true with provincial Green Parties. I don't know whether it's because there are too few …
I'm interested in what you say about the American Green Party. I'm a former member of the Canadian Green Party at the federal level, and "establishing local infrastructure" (at the riding level) is exactly what the party can't seem to do. The same is true with provincial Green Parties. I don't know whether it's because there are too few Greens in most ridings -- when I attempted to run a Green riding association, nobody was interested in putting in the hard, often boring but always necessary, work to build up local support. My experience is that many Greens are more interested in discussing policies than in learning what politics is all about at the party level and beyond.
I recall voting for exactly 1 Green Party candidate here in Brooklyn like 12 years ago. I don't even recall his name. He gave me a flyer on the way to the subway, and I was disgusted by the other options and thought, why not? That is the last time I recall seeing a Green Party candidate. I thought the Working Families Party could be that option but they've basically been cannibalized by Democrats except in a few cases. :/ I don't pretend that establishing a viable 3rd party in a system designed to quash that isn't difficult. But I just have an issue with the same one failed candidate popping up every 4 years having said nothing new or where she's been. Though the same could be said for many Democrats, fair enough. But between Stein and then the mess that was Cornel West, they are not exactly helping themselves or the cause be taken seriously. So now, here we all are.
If the candidates aren't there, it's because the grassroots support isn't there, which means there just aren't enough Americans who are prepared to work towards building a viable Green Party. I don't know how any third party is going to break through in your country. It took decades for the New Democratic Party in Canada to become established. It had its roots in the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, founded in 1932 by a coalition of Prairie farmers, labour and socialist organizations, which, under the auspices of the Canadian Labour Council, became the New Democratic Party in 1961. It was a workers movement birthed on the Prairies that spread to urban BC; in order to grow, it needed to establish strong local riding associations across the country, to challenge the two big parties established at Confederation in 1867. Its fortunes have varied; from 2011 to 2015, the NDP was the Official Opposition to the Harper Conservatives. Then Justin Trudeau revived the Liberal Party and swept to victory in 2015. The federal Green Party, established in 1983, has attempted to run candidates to all ridings but has not been able to build strong riding associations in all but a few ridings across the country.
This is really interesting. Thank you for sharing the perspective from Canada. Does the Liberal Party take as active a role in trying to suppress any viability of Green Party candidates as the parties do here (for example Democrats trying to get 3rd party candidates removed from ballots in certain states)?
No, nothing like that would be possible here. Our system is very different from yours -- much more simple, it seems to me -- and we don't have anything resembling your Electoral College. Our federal parties run candidates in all 338 ridings (electoral districts) across the country, with the exception of the Bloc Québecois, which only runs candidates in ridings in the province of Québec, recognized as a "distinct society". Currently, Canada has a minority Liberal government with 153 seats. The Opposition Conservatives have 119 seats. The Bloc has 33 seats, ahead of the New Democrats with 25. The Greens have 2 MPs. There are 4 Independent MPs, and 2 seats vacant at the present time. Canadians vote for a candidate running for a federal party in their riding. We are not able to vote for the Prime Minister (the leader of their party), unless we happen to live in the riding in which they are running as a candidate. It's quite common for a party to win the most seats in an election but not the popular vote; it's the number of seats that counts. Ours is a minority Liberal government, often dependent on other parties for support to pass legislation, particularly budgets. After the 2021 election, the NDP entered into a Supply and Confidence agreement with the Liberals to keep the government afloat; NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh, cancelled that agreement at the beginning of September, so the government may fall at any time, although only the Conservatives, and perhaps the Bloc, really want an election soon.
I'm interested in what you say about the American Green Party. I'm a former member of the Canadian Green Party at the federal level, and "establishing local infrastructure" (at the riding level) is exactly what the party can't seem to do. The same is true with provincial Green Parties. I don't know whether it's because there are too few Greens in most ridings -- when I attempted to run a Green riding association, nobody was interested in putting in the hard, often boring but always necessary, work to build up local support. My experience is that many Greens are more interested in discussing policies than in learning what politics is all about at the party level and beyond.
I recall voting for exactly 1 Green Party candidate here in Brooklyn like 12 years ago. I don't even recall his name. He gave me a flyer on the way to the subway, and I was disgusted by the other options and thought, why not? That is the last time I recall seeing a Green Party candidate. I thought the Working Families Party could be that option but they've basically been cannibalized by Democrats except in a few cases. :/ I don't pretend that establishing a viable 3rd party in a system designed to quash that isn't difficult. But I just have an issue with the same one failed candidate popping up every 4 years having said nothing new or where she's been. Though the same could be said for many Democrats, fair enough. But between Stein and then the mess that was Cornel West, they are not exactly helping themselves or the cause be taken seriously. So now, here we all are.
If the candidates aren't there, it's because the grassroots support isn't there, which means there just aren't enough Americans who are prepared to work towards building a viable Green Party. I don't know how any third party is going to break through in your country. It took decades for the New Democratic Party in Canada to become established. It had its roots in the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, founded in 1932 by a coalition of Prairie farmers, labour and socialist organizations, which, under the auspices of the Canadian Labour Council, became the New Democratic Party in 1961. It was a workers movement birthed on the Prairies that spread to urban BC; in order to grow, it needed to establish strong local riding associations across the country, to challenge the two big parties established at Confederation in 1867. Its fortunes have varied; from 2011 to 2015, the NDP was the Official Opposition to the Harper Conservatives. Then Justin Trudeau revived the Liberal Party and swept to victory in 2015. The federal Green Party, established in 1983, has attempted to run candidates to all ridings but has not been able to build strong riding associations in all but a few ridings across the country.
This is really interesting. Thank you for sharing the perspective from Canada. Does the Liberal Party take as active a role in trying to suppress any viability of Green Party candidates as the parties do here (for example Democrats trying to get 3rd party candidates removed from ballots in certain states)?
No, nothing like that would be possible here. Our system is very different from yours -- much more simple, it seems to me -- and we don't have anything resembling your Electoral College. Our federal parties run candidates in all 338 ridings (electoral districts) across the country, with the exception of the Bloc Québecois, which only runs candidates in ridings in the province of Québec, recognized as a "distinct society". Currently, Canada has a minority Liberal government with 153 seats. The Opposition Conservatives have 119 seats. The Bloc has 33 seats, ahead of the New Democrats with 25. The Greens have 2 MPs. There are 4 Independent MPs, and 2 seats vacant at the present time. Canadians vote for a candidate running for a federal party in their riding. We are not able to vote for the Prime Minister (the leader of their party), unless we happen to live in the riding in which they are running as a candidate. It's quite common for a party to win the most seats in an election but not the popular vote; it's the number of seats that counts. Ours is a minority Liberal government, often dependent on other parties for support to pass legislation, particularly budgets. After the 2021 election, the NDP entered into a Supply and Confidence agreement with the Liberals to keep the government afloat; NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh, cancelled that agreement at the beginning of September, so the government may fall at any time, although only the Conservatives, and perhaps the Bloc, really want an election soon.