2020- 2022 Policy Process | Green Party of Canada

Where GPC membership collaborates to develop our policies

Show original text Warning: Content might be automatically translated and not be 100% accurate.

Back to list

G21-D006 Explore Collaborative Campaign Arrangements with the NDP

Official proposal

05/06/2021 13:43

Submitter Name

Réal Lavergne

This proposal was discussed in the workshop during Phase 2 of the VGM. However, there was not enough time for this proposal to be voted on in plenary by the members during Phase 2. Therefore, this proposal will not be included in the ratification vote.

Proposal

To direct the Federal Council to engage in negotiations with the NDP to explore the desirability and modalities for collaborative arrangements in the next federal election and/or the one after, based on shared platform priorities in the areas of electoral reform, climate action and social justice.

Objective

To enable the Green Party to increase its presence in the House of Commons and achieve significant advances in the areas of electoral reform, climate action and social justice. More immediately, to initiate negotiations to determine the potential for collaborative electoral arrangements with the NDP in the next one or two federal elections.

Benefit

The proposed alliance could produce a significantly higher seat count of the Green Party and the NDP in Parliament, allowing the two parties to more decisively hold the balance of power in the House to achieve shared objectives in the urgent areas of electoral reform, climate action and social justice.

Supporting Comments from Submitter

Vote splitting and strategic voting makes it harder for a small party to win seats under our first-past-the-post system. Green Party supporters are very aware that to win seats, a party has to reach a certain threshold of support. Indeed, the Green Party's current MP representation in the House of Commons and in the provinces has been achieved by focusing efforts in winnable ridings.

Running a candidate "in every riding" can handicap the negotiation of win-win arrangements with other parties. Recent simulations based on 2019 voting patterns suggest that such win-win arrangements involving the Greens and the NDP could considerably increase the combined number of seats of the two parties in Parliament.

Although we cannot predict whether the NDP will welcome our advances despite the win-win advantages for both parties, a show by the Green Party that it wishes to enter into negotiations in good faith would enhance the image of our party as one seeking cooperation over partisanship and demonstrate that we have done everything we can to overcome and eventually remove the barriers imposed on us by our country's first-past-the-post voting system.