Analysis of recent regional elections of British commonwealth nations
My fellow Greens over the past few days have been very pleased with the fact that our counterparts in Australia, the Australian Greens, have been able to advance in the special Western Australia Senate election of 5 April, which was held after the Australian High Court declared the original senate election there void in February this year. Our colleagues increased their vote share by 6%, largely at the expense of the Australian Labor Party-much of the swing from the Australian Liberals came to the Palmer United Party, which has some similarities both to the old British Liberal Party and a few similarities to UKIP.
As for state elections in South Australia and Tasmania, neither had a good outcome, with the Liberals making gains in both, especially in Tasmania (which uses STV not AV and therefore has a much fairer election) where our colleagues lost two seats, with Labor losing three and the Liberals gaining 5, and worryingly managing to gain 51% of the first preference votes cast in that state election.
My main focus here will be on the general election of the Francophone Canadian province of Quebec, which took place on 8 April (in GMT time, but 7 April in Quebecois time).
In this election, the then leading Parti Quebecois (the main nationalist party of Quebec, similar to the SNP on many fronts) managed to lose 24 of its 54 seats and their popular share of the vote went down from 31.9% to 25.4%, the lowest in their history. Their electoral defeat was bad enough that their leader, former Premier Pauline Marois, lost in her own constituency.
The Quebecois Liberal Party, which have always been notably strong in the absence of any significant long-term Conservative support in Quebec, managed to gain 21 seats and thus secure a majority with 70 seats in all, and with an increase in vote share from 31.2% to 41.5%-although they last performed that well in the election before this one, partly because of Liberal-inclined Montreal seats so safe (majorities in excess of 70%!) they make Bootle and Knowsley North in Britain look winnable for parties other than Labour.
The centre-right Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) actually lost some support, with their vote share decreasing from 27% to 23%, but in a clear exercise of why first past the post (which all Canadian provinces use for elections) is bad for democracy, they gained 4 seats nonetheless for a total of 23 in the new Quebec assembly.
I had high hopes for the left-wing Quebec Solidaire (QS) but they did not do as well as I hoped, who only increased their vote share from 6 to 7.6 percent, and with a gain of only one seat, that of Sainte Marie-Sainte Jacques in East Montreal, a notably left-wing and liberal part of Quebec. Their male spokesperson, Andre Fontacilla, also failed to capture the seat of Laurier-Dorion despite his best efforts- he could only manage to turn it into a three way marginal (between the Liberals, PQ, and QS) by doubling QS' share of the vote there from 12 to 24 percent. The rise of Quebec Solidaire was also probably responsible for damage to the Green Party of Quebec (PVQ, or Parti Verte de Quebec)'s vote in the 44 constituencies (ridings) it contested.
In light of this, I strongly believe given the necessity of green politics to be socialist that Quebec Solidaire and the Quebecois Greens should form an alliance- green socialism will be very useful in Canada, which has been suffering under pro-tar sands and neoconservative Stephen Harper's misrule for three years now.
Alan.
As for state elections in South Australia and Tasmania, neither had a good outcome, with the Liberals making gains in both, especially in Tasmania (which uses STV not AV and therefore has a much fairer election) where our colleagues lost two seats, with Labor losing three and the Liberals gaining 5, and worryingly managing to gain 51% of the first preference votes cast in that state election.
My main focus here will be on the general election of the Francophone Canadian province of Quebec, which took place on 8 April (in GMT time, but 7 April in Quebecois time).
In this election, the then leading Parti Quebecois (the main nationalist party of Quebec, similar to the SNP on many fronts) managed to lose 24 of its 54 seats and their popular share of the vote went down from 31.9% to 25.4%, the lowest in their history. Their electoral defeat was bad enough that their leader, former Premier Pauline Marois, lost in her own constituency.
The Quebecois Liberal Party, which have always been notably strong in the absence of any significant long-term Conservative support in Quebec, managed to gain 21 seats and thus secure a majority with 70 seats in all, and with an increase in vote share from 31.2% to 41.5%-although they last performed that well in the election before this one, partly because of Liberal-inclined Montreal seats so safe (majorities in excess of 70%!) they make Bootle and Knowsley North in Britain look winnable for parties other than Labour.
The centre-right Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) actually lost some support, with their vote share decreasing from 27% to 23%, but in a clear exercise of why first past the post (which all Canadian provinces use for elections) is bad for democracy, they gained 4 seats nonetheless for a total of 23 in the new Quebec assembly.
I had high hopes for the left-wing Quebec Solidaire (QS) but they did not do as well as I hoped, who only increased their vote share from 6 to 7.6 percent, and with a gain of only one seat, that of Sainte Marie-Sainte Jacques in East Montreal, a notably left-wing and liberal part of Quebec. Their male spokesperson, Andre Fontacilla, also failed to capture the seat of Laurier-Dorion despite his best efforts- he could only manage to turn it into a three way marginal (between the Liberals, PQ, and QS) by doubling QS' share of the vote there from 12 to 24 percent. The rise of Quebec Solidaire was also probably responsible for damage to the Green Party of Quebec (PVQ, or Parti Verte de Quebec)'s vote in the 44 constituencies (ridings) it contested.
In light of this, I strongly believe given the necessity of green politics to be socialist that Quebec Solidaire and the Quebecois Greens should form an alliance- green socialism will be very useful in Canada, which has been suffering under pro-tar sands and neoconservative Stephen Harper's misrule for three years now.
Alan.
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