My sincere hope is that Eby keeps his head about him and does not go into an explicit arrangement with the Greens. I worried when, in his election night speech, he proclaimed a "clear majority for progressive values."
Anecdata, yes, but: I know plenty of people who definitely do not consider themselves progressives — people who will, with certainty, vote for the federal Conservatives — who voted NDP in this election based almost entirely on the housing file. They *only* felt comfortable doing so because they gave Eby credit for landing on a more moderate approach on a number of issues, including highly-salient public safety issues. On some of those issues, such as involuntary commitment and drug criminalization, the Greens explicitly oppose his approach. On housing, too, the Greens question upzoning and the profit motive in delivering housing.
Eby should embrace the notion that he ran as a centrist in this election, not as a progressive — and even then he nearly lost the entire thing (or actually did, pending full results!) to an upstart, relatively disorganized, "extremist" Conservative Party. I do not think victory in the next election lies in tacking to the left.
"I do not think victory in the next election lies in tacking to the left."
Thanks, Frank. I tend to agree. An exchange from Twitter:
Torrance Coste: "If I didn’t know better I’d be thinking 'well at least this will humble the NDP and send them a clear message that a hard shift to the center is terrible politics and people are hungry for populism' but, unfortunately, I know better."
@LLCBCer: "An incredibly superficial analysis. Look at the NDP results in Westside Vancouver, in the Okanagan, on the North Shore. They did fairly successful in areas which skew centre-right. Like the NDP did not blow it in Surrey because they weren’t perfect leftists, give me a break!"
Miles Lunn: "Absolutely. If more left would have lost. Although I would argue Conservatives being too right wing is what saved NDP in those areas. It was small number of traditionally BC Liberal voters crossing over that probably saved them."
@CaelemSG: "It's very difficult to look at the green party getting its worst pv vote in several cycles and go 'this is a sign we need to go left'"
Good rundown as always, Russil!
My sincere hope is that Eby keeps his head about him and does not go into an explicit arrangement with the Greens. I worried when, in his election night speech, he proclaimed a "clear majority for progressive values."
Anecdata, yes, but: I know plenty of people who definitely do not consider themselves progressives — people who will, with certainty, vote for the federal Conservatives — who voted NDP in this election based almost entirely on the housing file. They *only* felt comfortable doing so because they gave Eby credit for landing on a more moderate approach on a number of issues, including highly-salient public safety issues. On some of those issues, such as involuntary commitment and drug criminalization, the Greens explicitly oppose his approach. On housing, too, the Greens question upzoning and the profit motive in delivering housing.
Eby should embrace the notion that he ran as a centrist in this election, not as a progressive — and even then he nearly lost the entire thing (or actually did, pending full results!) to an upstart, relatively disorganized, "extremist" Conservative Party. I do not think victory in the next election lies in tacking to the left.
"I do not think victory in the next election lies in tacking to the left."
Thanks, Frank. I tend to agree. An exchange from Twitter:
Torrance Coste: "If I didn’t know better I’d be thinking 'well at least this will humble the NDP and send them a clear message that a hard shift to the center is terrible politics and people are hungry for populism' but, unfortunately, I know better."
@LLCBCer: "An incredibly superficial analysis. Look at the NDP results in Westside Vancouver, in the Okanagan, on the North Shore. They did fairly successful in areas which skew centre-right. Like the NDP did not blow it in Surrey because they weren’t perfect leftists, give me a break!"
Miles Lunn: "Absolutely. If more left would have lost. Although I would argue Conservatives being too right wing is what saved NDP in those areas. It was small number of traditionally BC Liberal voters crossing over that probably saved them."
@CaelemSG: "It's very difficult to look at the green party getting its worst pv vote in several cycles and go 'this is a sign we need to go left'"
https://x.com/LLCBCer/status/1848057491147628976