Sunday, September 23, 2007

It's not easy being green...

The green party gets a lot of flack. Sometimes, it's even from themselves.

Martin Hyde is my riding's Green Party candidate and I already know that I'm not going to vote for him. Not because I think that he doesn't have a chance in hell of winning or that I don't like the Green Party, but because he's already convinced himself that he won't win.

"While I stand little chance of winning a seat in this election, that isn’t stopping me from running Green."

This defeatist mentality is not a very good way to inspire confidence in a population. Especially when you're trying to get them to like you.

When I first looked at his website, Hyde had written something to the extent of "I'm not a political person..." Why in the world would anyone then enter politics?

He might say that he's in it to support his party. More likely he'd say that he's in it to make the world a better place. But the real reason he's running for the Green Party is because, hell... someone's got to. Why not Martin Hyde?

This lame attitude of running a local campaign by promoting a federal party's entire platform is not the way things should work. If I vote for a Green representative, I don't want him to think of Kyoto. I want him to tell me what he will do to make my neighbourhood more green and what we as individual citizens can do to help out based on the party platform.

I want my representative to be involved in my community and not be just another hack.

I want a person who's ultimate reason for running is more than just a shrug and a sigh.

"[Martin Hyde] is running in this election so that those in his riding who are concerned about environmental issues have a Green candidate to vote for. Currently in Ontario, because we are not able to vote directly for a party but are only able to do so by voting for a local candidate, a party must run a candidate in every riding if all voters across the province are to be heard."

So please, just throw me whoever works for you, Green Party. It doesn't matter if they give a fuck or not. They stand little chance of winning anyway, right?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw Martin Hyde speak tonight at an all-candidates debate (hosted by Joe Banks I might add). And he was actually one of the best speakers I saw. He doesn’t think people should vote green because he is such a great guy, he thinks they should vote green because their platform speaks for itself.

Hyde doesn’t buy into the game of politics; he is just standing up for the party he believes makes the most sense. And frankly, I agree with him.

"The Green Party of Ontario Proposes a gradual, revenue-neutral shift in taxes away from income and onto energy…we will pay for what we burn, not what we earn.”

I used to think the Green Party put all their focus on the environment and none on the rest of the responsibilities of our government, I learned tonight that the party plans to cut tuition fees and raise minimum wage to $10 an hour.

“Our overall plan is designed to move our country gradually and viably in a direction of long-term sustainability. This will be good for us now and much, much better for our children and grandchildren.”

I have to admit, he won me over.

If you want to vote for the most enthusiastic candidate, vote Mike Patton. Nobody has ever been as proud to live in Nepean as this guy.

"If our dream with amalgamation was to have had one big Nepean instead of a great big Ottawa, we'd all be better off."

Uh-huh.

Or how about the Family Coalition Catholic, John Pacheco? He actually boasts this on his website:

“In May, 2006, John co-organized the Humanae Vitae 2006 - A New Beginning Conference which sought to highlight the root of Canada's (and the Western world's) social and cultural decay otherwise known as contraception.”

Against abortion AND homophobic? How is he not Prime Minister already?

Oh wait. He is. His name is Harper.

The rest of the world is going green – there’s no harm in Ottawa West-Nepean giving it a shot too.

Michael said...

Here's my problem with Hyde...

He's a spokesperson. He's not a leader. "OUR overall plan"... "OUR country"...

What he means is the Green Party's plan and the Green Party's country. There's no "MARTIN HYDE". There's nothing wrong with a little self-promotion here! He's trying to be the face of a community, he should be an individual!

I like the Green Party. I don't like lackeys.

Martin is running to be a leader of a community and he's perfectly content being a yes-man.

Patton can be as Nepean-Patriotic as he wants, but he's talking in the past. Unless Nepean wants to separate a-la Quebec, this argument has no real bearing on me.

And thanks, Miranda. I was trying to get through this election without mentioning Pacheco because he's an extreme, right-wing homophobe who doesn't really represent anything I find valuable to a community... but... shit, what was my point?

Whatever.

Hyde has it wrong. People should vote Green because Hyde IS a great guy who would do great things for Ottawa West/Nepean, not just do what's best for his party.