So Much For The WinWin Strategy In Lotusland

WillWeReallyHaveToUniteTheLeft?
ToStopTheConsVille


OK - here comes one of those, half-a-mama-mea-culpa-type deals......

Awhile back I wrote a post based upon a very thoughtful commenter's lengthy suggestion that it might be possible for the Liberals and the NDP to both pick up seats in Lotusland if they would just get a little more selective in where they put their star/winnable candidates, not to mention their money and machines.

And, oh boy, did it lead to a great discussion.

A lot of folks liked the idea, but some hated it, especially our good friend Alison:

......how can you possibly justify a post calling for the NDP to prop up the Libs - not the least egregious of Lib legislation mind you but the actual Lib party - two posts down from one where you bewail both the income gap and the machinery that convinces people to vote against their own interests?

{snip}

.......Every single election the Libs say we have to vote "strategically" for them in order to keep the Cons out.

How's that working out for us so far?


Now, ever since then, which is less than two weeks ago, I've started at least 36 response posts wherein I try to argue that it Alison's point is moot because these particular HarperCons are so scary that, regardless, we have to work together (even if we don't actually unite) in order to stop them. And the linchpin of my argument has been Saanich and the Islands where the Dippers could, if they really went for it, unseat Gary Lunn. But to do so they would have to tacitly agree to leave the Libs alone in other South Van Isle ridings where they can't beat them, but could defeat them (ie. by leaving the spoils to the Cons).

Makes sense, right?

I mean even if you disagree with the strategy, it makes sense in terms of the mechanics of the thing.

Right?

Except now my whole argument, at least for the moment, is about to be thrown out the window into the street (and when it hits the pavement below Alison's point will no longer even have the faintest whiff of mootness about it. In fact, it will only grow in power, perhaps exponentially because, as she also said - reasons matter).

And here's why - via S.M. Holman:

A star candidate is about to descend into Saanich-Gulf Islands. In an interview with Public Eye, Land Conservancy of BC co-founder Briony Penn, former host of the environmental magazine show Enviro/Mental on CHUM TV, confirmed she'll be running for the federal Liberal nomination in that riding. "The rumour is correct. I'm turning in my nomination papers. They're not in yet. But that's my job today. It's kind of time."


Clearly, when I wrote my original piece I had forgotten who's actually running Mr. Dion's show out here in Lotusland.

Sheesh.

.