In the last BC provincial election Andrew Weaver – master of doubtful climate models and UVic professor – managed to win the riding I was living in. He has turned out to be a reasonably competent MLA and had led the Green Party on a relatively moderate course. Yes, there is still a lot of looniness about “climate change” but that goes with the territory.
A few years later and for this election I am living in a riding where there is a real chance that the Green candidate can pick up the seat bringing the Greens to two in the Legislature assuming that Weaver keeps his seat. Vaughn Palmer writing in the Vancouver Sun goes into the details of the three way fight in Saanich North here.
I have not voted yet and am weighing the options. I have no particular animus towards Christy Clark and the BC Liberals – other than the fact the silly woman put in a knee jerk carbon tax – but I don’t see any reason to vote for them other than to keep the NDP out of government. As a general rule I never vote for the NDP, especially at the provincial level, simply because BC has enough economic problems without putting a bunch of agenda driven, public service union beholden, socialists in charge.
Normally, that calculus means that I would hold my nose and vote Liberal; but in this election, in this riding, voting Green is very tempting. Not because I agree with much of what the Greens stand for, rather because voting Green is a safe way of registering dissatisfaction with the BC Liberals. (This, by the way, is driving the NDP crazy as illustrated in this interview with eco-warrioress Tzeporah Berman in The Tyee. There is nothing like a good faction fight on the eco loon left to warm the cockles of my heart.)
An ideal election outcome from my perspective is a BC Liberal victory by about one seat. Or a BC Liberal minority relying on the Greens to win confidence votes. The libertarian side of me wants to see government in all its forms rolled back; but if that is not going to happen then a weak, worried government is the next best thing. Voting Green in Saanich North takes a seat away from the NDP but avoids giving it to the BC Liberals. It is awfully tempting.
Jay Currie 
I hate BC politics. It is left, leftier, and stupidly leftier. Anyone who is considering change for the sake of change should only look east to Alberta to see what a stupid idea that is. The NDP are colon cancer, but the Liberals are Inflamed Bowel Disease. One will kill you, and one can be controlled, even if it causes pain from time to time. We won’t even discuss the Green Party as they are eco-communists without a firm grounding in reality. They would sacrifice humanity to save the earth. Canada produces less than 2% of global carbon emissions and these idiots would throttle our economy with an even higher regressive carbon tax and restrictive economic policies. Please, no, just no.
Well the good news in my riding is that voting Green denies the NDP the seat. -1
But I agree with your overall analysis. There is no party of the right in BC. Just left and leftier.
So how do you feel about the Green Party holding the cards on a minority? I believe that is how Canada go saddled with so many “progressive” programs in the 60s, by the NDP holding the Liberal Party by the crotch?
I am not thrilled about the Greens holding the cards; but the so-called BC Liberals are dumbly left without the help. Lucky us, we had the first carbon tax. Thanks Liberals. The only reason why we don’t have useless windmills is that there is a Hell of a lot of hydro in BC.
In actual fact the election turned on an urban/rural split with parts of the south Island going for ultra-urban. Greens are profoundly and regressively conservative in outlook. They are all about preserving a world in the face of rapid change. It is not the worst position to take when the change is almost certainly negative. At some point Greens will have to deal with issues like unnecessary immigration which the old NDP and old Liberals want to avoid for the sake of the “ethnic vote”. Then things will become interesting.