Saturday, August 30, 2008

Greens finally in the House for the wrong reasons

I understand the Greens need to get in the House, but having a Member of Parliament do so for them by crossing the floor, or rather jumping the bench, from Independent to Green, after Blair Wilson of West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country's year long walk in the wilderness from the Liberal caucus he was originally elected to. In all likelihood, Leader Elizabeth May has pulled trigger on this in order to get a shot at speaking in the debates, which still may not happen if the Canadian media consortium decides he still has yet to sit in the House as a Green or he was never elected in his riding as a Green, then add upon this his tarnished reputation made when he was accused of not properly recording financial expenses during the 2006 federal election anonymously, something which has since been cleared of serious wrongdoing by Elections Canada despite some violations. It has been forgotten that Reform had their first MP elected in a byelection, not selected amongst Independents already in the House, so it shall be interesting to see what kind of a bounce the Greens can get from this development, though it should be noted a Social Credit-Reform-Alliancee turned Conservative John Reynolds got elected there in that riding, so anything is truly possible with such an openminded lot on the election of a Liberal turned Green. However, with less than a 1,000 votes separating both mainstream parties, a bitter fight, like the federal election itself, will likely be the outcome for all involved.