i would imagine that a paul manly from vancouver island would probably be a lumberjack. i appear to have been wrong - he'd rather plant trees than cut them down. canada's changing.

this is a byelection, so turnout was probably low. nonetheless, it is clearly a very good result for the greens. i pointed out a while ago that the greens were going to replace the ndp in the spectrum, as deindustrialization (and the subsequent collapse of unionized workers) gives way to a fundamental shift on the left towards sustainability. this is certainly a step in that direction.

it's healthy to see a three-party system open up in bc, though. what that means, in bc, provincially, is that you have the liberals on the right, the ndp in the centre and the greens on the left. this ends up complicated federally by the conservatives. so, who gets squeezed in that system? the liberals or the ndp?

if the ndp are becoming the new immigrant party, and they are, they are going to end up on the center-right, as a replacement for the old progressive conservative party, and as a reflection of the values of new immigrants. i'm not scare mongering. i believe in democracy - they should be represented, and neither of the old parties can really do it. but, with their abandonment of socialism, the ndp of the future will try to give you a kind of traditional conservativism without the racism; this is an evolution of multiculturalism, in a way that neither of the old parties can articulate. that mix of inclusion and conservatism means it's going to end up something like the democratic party in the states. and, they may be more successful running to the right of the liberals in the long term, too, as they try to carve out a space between the old parties.

but, that means that the new left in canada is the environmental movement. there is some evidence that the greens may leapfrog the ndp this election, and that's long overdue.

now, if they could just get rid of tipsy lizzy. by 2023. they'll need to.....

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/nanaimo-ladysmith-byelection-1.5125549