Good Sunday Morning! And oh what a difference a week makes!
Last Sunday I wrote you with nervousness. I did feel quite positive about our local chances. I was also optimistic that, despite the devastating impact of being kept out of the election debates, our results across Canada would be good. My victory on Monday night was indeed a relief and wonderful to celebrate with so many dear friends. Having poet Lorna Crozier and musician Bill Henderson share their immense talents was brilliant and it sure was fun to sing with my real musician and singer husband John Kidder. Oh, but I do love singing with him! But the evening was bittersweet. When I took the podium after a quick call with PM Mark Carney, I still thought that Mike Morrice was going to be re-elected. It was so close in Kitchener Centre. What so many do not realize across the country is how Mike’s hard work as MP had made a path for Green Party of Ontario Deputy leader Aislinn Clancy to win the November 2023 by-election in the same community! And then again in fall 2024, as both GPO leader Mike Schreiner and Asilinn were each re-elected with over 50% of the vote in Mike Schreiner’s riding of Guelph and Aislinn again in Kitchener Centre. No one working in the community and not one single poll showed Mike’s seat at risk. His loss to a Conservatives sent us reeling. Just as here in SGI the confused “strategic” voter had voted Liberal, abandoning Mike, and succeeding in electing a Conservative!
As the week wore on we had another blow as Jonathan Pedneault decided to step down as co-leader. I was unable to talk him out of it, nor to stop him from taking too much of the blame personally. After all, I pleaded with him, the NDP had millions of dollars more and far more staff than we had and Jagmeet was in those debates. And still they went from 25 seats to seven, and Jagmeet failed to win re-election in his own riding. The Bloc also lost ground as this election was treated as though its was a direct election for prime minister. It was as though voters had a binary choice – either Mark Carney or Pierre Poilievre. Poilievre’s loss of his own seat was an even larger surprise given that the Conservative popular vote actually went up. The Conservatives gained ground in many parts of Canada, making the Liberals’ success in forming a minority government even more astonishing. In the last 24 hours routine validation of results saw the Bloc hold on to Terrebonne and the Liberals lose that seat. But then the Liberal flipped a seat from the Conservatives in a new reconfigured riding in the Halton Hills area of Ontario. Damien Kurek, Conservative MP from Battle River–Crowfoot, Alberta will step down to give Poilievre a by-election to waltz back to a seat in the House. Damien won with over 80% of the vote so no chance of Poilievre losing this one! Our newly minted Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Mark Carney, confirmed in his first post-election press conference, Friday May 2, that he has already told Poilievre that if a Conservative MP stepped down to create a by-election opportunity for him, Carney would move quickly to call a by-election – “no games, straight”. It was a very impressive press conference. Clear, on point, no nonsense. We now know Carney will swear in his new Cabinet sometime during the week of May 12, Parliament will resume May 26, with the Speech from the Throne, with a capital T on May 27. That capital T is for King Charles III travelling to Ottawa to deliver it as our head of state. A constitutional monarchy is our system of government, and no matter how much the Bloc Québécois may complain, this is a good way to put Trump in his place.
Australia is another Commonwealth cousin that just experienced very similar headwinds to those Trump created in Canada’s election. The right-wing in Australia went down to solid defeat, and as in Canada, its leader lost his own seat as Labour leader Anthony Albanese secured a majority government. Tragically, as in Canada, the Green Party lost ground. As I write this, it is unclear if my friend Australian Green leader, the wonderful Adam Bandt, has held on to his seat in Melbourne. Australia’s voting system is a bit of PR and a bit of winner-take-all. The Upper House, an elected Senate, uses Single Transferable Vote – hence the success of so many Green Senators, starting with Bob Brown. Adam was the first MP elected in the Lower House of Representatives. It has a complicated system of ranked ballots and winner-take-all, quite like first past the post. Once Adam won in 2010, a few other Greens in the Lower House followed. In this Friday’s election, they all lost their seats. Fingers crossed Adam can hold on in Melbourne. As I write the votes are still being counted.
What follows is heavily plagiarized (by me!) from the note sent out by my volunteer team: This was a hard earned win. We knew that it would be a challenge but we were determined to give it our all.
For the past several weeks, over two hundred volunteers worked their hearts out, helping day after day. Thanks to my dear friend and campaign manager Tim Maloney, and to his brilliance in getting the former communications director for the BC Green Caucus, JoJo Beattie to work on the SGI campaign! Kudos to the experienced volunteer team who have organized and carried the campaigns year after year. With too many to thank, but I must share that any Green win on southern Vancouver Island does not happen without the extraordinary work of Marilyn Redivo, Linda Brown, Robyn Ross, Sue Ross, Rani Earnhart, Shelagh Levey, Susan Watt, Richard Kendon, Karen Lindsay and so many more. Great to have Sonia Furstenau’s son Peter Salmon organizing canvassing on the southern end of the riding, Christa Grace-Warrick getting Pender organized and the terrific SSI crew of Bob Mackie, Tom Mitchell, Brian Smallshaw, Therin Gower, Anne McKague, Ryder Bergerud, Sue Sheane and so many more…. the Mayne Island Galiano and Saturna teams…our sign crew, Dan Kells, Gary Searing, Tom Niemann and Jim Deas. My own support team, Stuart MacKinnon and Aysha Emmerson who got me from A to B and back again every day! By category of what 250 volunteers did!
- Foot canvassers who knocked on thousands of doors;
- Phone callers who made hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of calls;
- Sign team members who installed 1500 lawn signs and 200 road signs throughout the riding, and then collected all of them after the election;
- Volunteers who dropped thousands of letters at voters’ doorsteps;
- Dozens of sign wavers who brought their energy and enthusiasm to sign waves;
- A data entry team who processed data from reams and reams of walk sheets, entered over 37,000 entries during advance voting, and over 25,000 more on Election Day!;
- Drivers who drove voters and canvassers, as well as those who picked up polling sheets each hour on e-day;
- Helpful and cheerful office staff who folded thousands of letters, packed hundreds of canvass bags, and who patiently responded to hundreds of calls and drop-ins from voters;
- Volunteers who produced thousands of buttons for supporters to proudly wear;
- Volunteers who helped spread our message on social media;
- Scrutineers who stayed late into the final evening, scrutinizing the ballot count;
- Volunteers who helped clean up the office, and take care of all of those pesky miscellaneous tasks that are required to close out the campaign.
We also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the important role that the families and friends of volunteers played. Because of your support, the volunteers were able to invest their time, energy and attention into this important campaign.
We would also like to thank our generous donors. Without them, we would not have had the resources to mount a successful campaign.
And a tip of our hat to all of those supporters who chatted and sent emails to friends to convince them to vote Green!
Special mention goes to a group that helped behind the scenes.
- Michelle Watt for some of the fabulous photos on Election Night.
- The BC Greens for their amazing support and help, with a special shout-out to Alex and Natalie!
- Monk Office who provided the campaign with unparalleled customer service, coming to our rescue after hours when our printer failed the weekend before Election Day!
- Holy Cow who produced eye-catching designs for our campaign materials.
- Speed-Pro for living up to their name when they speedily processed a rush order of road signs after a surge in demand exceeded our supply.
- And MetroPol, Island Blue Print, and Fastrac for their timely efficiency in fulfilling our requests.
And we would be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge the contribution of Saanich-Gulf Islands voters, without whom a different outcome would have resulted.
All of this resulted in a successful campaign. All of You made a difference!
Words cannot adequately express our gratitude and appreciation for the support you gave to my re-election campaign.
And from my vantage point trying to get Greens elected across Canada, I can never adequately thank nor acknowledge the sacrifices of Paul Manly, Laurie MacMillan, Marlene Wells, Robin Marty and Audrey-Anne Turcot Branchu, Debra Eindiguer, Nancy Simbi and all the national team. I never shared with my Good Sunday Morning readers that right before the election a very dedicated member of our team, Jon Irwin, Finance Director for the party had a freak accident that has left him with a broken back. He is now in physio and out of the intensive care in hospital. To Jon, not a day went by that I was not thinking of you and praying for you. So grateful to all who increased their own workloads to keep us afloat. Personally, I am so grateful to the volunteers elected to federal council and GPC Fund. It made a world of difference to have such dedicated Greens supporting the work of JP and me and the whole team.
For now, from the bottom of my heart thanks to you all – and especially to John Kidder who did a ton of work on the GPC budget and whom I really love a lot!! And to Cate and baby Lily for keeping me sane.
Much love to all! We will rebuild! And that process starts with seeds of love and gratitude!
Elizabeth
P.S. Please attend if you can:
Public lecture from my old friend, Dr. Meg Sears, founder of Prevent Cancer Now!
Here is the synopsis of her talk:
”Today’s youngsters tend to be larger, and are maturing earlier and differently. It is called a “cancer phenotype.” They are more likely to develop cancers at younger ages.
What causes the “cancer phenotype”? How did it get this far without you knowing about it earlier, and what can we do?
How have scientists unravelled ways that everyday exposures mimic hormones, affect gene expression, and impact stages of development?
Find out how endocrine disruptors and other harmful exposures are causing marked increases in early onset cancers, and what Canada can do”
SALT SPRING ISLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY
129 McPhillips Ave Ganges
Friday, May 9, 2025 from 7:00 PM-8:30 PM
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Saanich-Gulf Islands Greens
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