While istening to a podcast from the National Post this morning about the upcoming leaders debates, I was curious about one of the comments from a political science professor Dr Brooke Jeffrey from Concordia University.
She stated that the Green Party is “not running candidates in, I think, over 50 seats.”
So, doing a bit of quick internet search, which the good Dr Jeffrey is obviously incapable of doing, reveals that the Green Party is in fact running in 303 of the 308 ridings in the country. It then took me about 5 minutes to get confirmation from the party.
Further, I found out that no party has a full slate, and I am referencing the CBC for that.
OK, technically the NDP have 308 but one resigned after the registration deadline over the controversy of skinny dipping with someone he shouldn’t. The Liberals have 307, deciding not to run against Elizabeth May in Central Nova and the Conservatives have 307, deciding not to run against André Arthur, an independent who is seeking re-election Quebec’s Portneuf-Jacques Cartier riding.
Interesting stuff. But my point here is that if this is the state of knowledge by a political science professor, a person expected to have in depth knowledge about the political choices available to Canadians, it is small wonder that explaining the necessarily complex policy to address an extremely complex issue like Climate Change, with it’s far reaching economic implications, is difficult. Especially so in the forced 30 second sound bytes demanded by our mainstream media.
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Did you send an email to the National Post? Or at least the PoliSci prof? How embarassing.
But, on a similar note, one of my clients this morning said the same thing – that she thought the GPC was not running in the majority of Districts. I wonder how that rumour got started?
This is exactly how propaganda B-s**t gets circulated…and too many people simply accept the info at face value, or “gospel” truth.
I just hope it manages to come up in the National Debates, thus giving Elizabeth May the opportunity to correct the misinformation.
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