Much of B.C. is abuzz with the news of a possible minority government, with the BC Greens newly-gained caucus holding the balance of power. Speculation about who might gain that support, whether it leads to a majority after all…
But there’s a largely overlooked story in this election: the narrative that a vote for the Green Party was akin to a vote for the Liberals - by splitting the left - proved to be false.
News outlet CKNW, in their May 10 article ‘Did the Greens split the vote with the NDP? Or did they cost the Liberals a majority? We crunched the numbers’, points out:
“In the campaign narrative, the Greens would cost the NDP tight races. It appears they didn’t, and the Liberals underperformed in virtually all of the battlegrounds where the Greens grew their vote share. It questions the idea that Green voters are just potential NDP supporters. They could be people looking for a third alternative.”
We saw that very thing here in Chilliwack electoral district. The BC NDP drew almost precisely the same percentage of votes: 32 per cent (compared to 31.2 per cent in 2013). Meanwhile the “right” vote, in 2013, drew 48 per cent (BC Liberals) and 12 per cent (BC Conservatives) for an aggregate of approx. 60 per cent of the votes cast. In 2017, in the absence of a Conservative candidate, instead of seeing the Liberal percentage grow accordingly we see there was only a one per cent uptick. In terms of the “right” vote, it shrank by nearly 11 per cent. And the BC Green vote grew by nearly nine per cent.
This reflects the analysis in district after district where shifts occurred. Anecdotally I’ve received comment after comment from voters advising they switched from Liberal to Green support (and more than a few voters advising they resisted the pressure to “vote strategically” and instead voted with their conscience).
Most voters in BC looked for change in this election, and the BC Greens proved that a third choice is healthy for our democracy.
Wayne Froese