Post Election Letter

Post-Election Letter to Green Supporters in Halton

Amy Collard, Oakville Green Party Candidate, 2008 Federal Election

Dear Halton Green Supporters,

The dust has settled on last Tuesday's election, and we awaken to a new parliament that seems strangely familiar. After spending over $300 million on this election, the Conservatives, once again, have a minority government. It is not surprising to note that voter turn-out reached an all-time low of 60.2% in Halton, and 59.1% nationwide; a reflection of the fact that Canadians did not want this election in the first place.

At the end of the day, with all the votes counted, Conservative Lisa Raitt won Halton riding with a substantial margin over incumbent Liberal Garth Turner. The NDP candidate, Robert Wagner, held onto his party's share of the popular vote. I was pleased to see the Halton Green Party popular vote rise to 7.02 % (an increase from 5.55% in the 2006 election).

Despite our strongest showing ever, the Green Party emerges with no seats in the House of Commons. Even without electoral reform, I believe we will see Green candidates winning seats in the next election!
The Elections Canada results for

Halton

are as follows:

Candidate	# Votes	% of Popular Vote
Lisa Raitt (PC)	32,986	47.50
Garth Turner (Liberal)	25,136	36.19
Robert Wagner (NDP)	6,118	8.80
Amy Collard (Green)	4,872	7.02
Tony Rodrigues (CHP)	337	0.49

Strategic Voting

While we gained 1,029 votes, and increased our percentage of the popular vote, we did not achieve our goal, which was to attract at least 10% of the votes in Halton. If we had received 10% of the popular vote, the Halton Greens would have been reimbursed for 60% of our local campaign expenditures, giving us a good starting point for the next election campaign. Even into the final weekend, the polls were indicating that we would win 12% to 15% of the vote. But as the long weekend wore on, the Strategic Voting lobby built momentum and we saw our numbers slip.

I had dozens of passionate emails from Liberal supporters on that final weekend, asking me to withdraw from the election, so that Green supporters would vote Liberal and Mr Turner would be re-elected. I know that some Green supporters were swayed, and voted Liberal, because they felt that their first priority was to keep the Conservatives from winning in Halton. But, other Green supporters were swayed in the opposite direction, and voted Conservative. Unfortunately, strategic voting doesn't work, and it ended up hurting the Green Party. Even if every person who voted Green had voted Liberal instead, Ms Raitt would still have won the election.

Road-Side Signs

The Conservative candidate's team took full advantage of the long weekend prior to the election, and posted hundreds of road-side signs on public property (many of them contravening local by-laws). Bylaw enforcement officers were not able to start removing all the illegal signs until the next working day, which happened to be Election Day. Since Bylaw enforcement officers have limited resources, they were not even able to remove all illegal election signs by the end of Election Day. A significant increase in advertising through the use of illegal signs on the long weekend before Election Day undoubtedly swayed some voters.

Before this election campaign began, the Halton Greens had decided not to use road-side signs; we used lawn signs only. Our main reason for not using road-side signs was that, quite often, they get blown into the ditches or damaged by the elements. Lawn signs, on the other hand, are more likely to be cared for by the home owner, thus making them reusable. Lawn signs are also an indication of the home owner’s party loyalty, whereas road-side signs are on public property and do not demonstrate anyone’s allegiance. However, during the campaign, we received many complaints about lack of visibility. We will be re-visiting our road-side sign policy at our next meeting. Please let us know your thoughts on this issue.

Greens in Halton have many reasons to be optimistic. In particular,

•

we received 1,029 more votes than in 2006, an increase of 27% in just over 2 years

•

we increased our popular percentage of the vote to 7.02%, up from 5.55% in 2006 (despite strong appeals from the Liberals urging Greens to vote strategically)

•

we received very positive responses at every all-candidates meeting

•

our 12+ volunteers canvassed door-to-door, rode the Green Party bicycle trailer around Halton, and attended media events and debates

•

we had extensive media coverage, locally as well as nationally, including CBC, CPAC and CTV television interviews

•

we spent roughly $6,000, all of it donated since the last election. With that money we were able to print and distribute 25,000 flyers, prepare our lawn signs (we ordered stickers with "Amy Collard" printed on them, which enabled us to re-use the signs from the last election), purchase a bicycle trailer covered in Green Party signs, and cover incidentals!

•

we won Election Canada’s student vote in Halton, garnering 31% of the student vote and winning the seat. Greens won 44 seats nationally in the student vote! This outcome speaks to the passion of our youth. They want the best candidates elected now, so that their futures will be brighter! I thoroughly enjoyed attending school debates and speaking to students in Halton during the campaign.

•

the Green Party was the only party to significantly increase their share of the popular vote from the last election, taking 7% of the national popular vote (940,747 people voted Green!)

•

the Green Party came in a strong second in Central Nova and Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound

I have many people to thank, for their support during this election campaign. To my husband, Kevin, and our 2 sons, I'd like to express my deep gratitude for their ongoing love and support. To my extended family, thank you for being an encouraging influence throughout the campaign. I would also like to publicly convey my great appreciation and thanks to:

•

Official Agent:

K.C. Bateman

;

•

Campaign Manager:

Ushnish Sengupta

;

•

Sign Coordinator:

Doug Mohun

;

•

CEO of the Halton Greens & Campaign Aide:

Blair Flood

;

•

Campaign Aides:

Veronica Breadner

and

Deborah Wardell

;

•

Sign Assistants,

Stephanie Butchart, Enver Domingo, Dave Park

and

Gus Tsiapalis

;

•

Canvassers:

Laura Griffen, Jennifer Hlusko, Bruce Jones, Kurt Koster

and

René Preotu

An extra special thank you to all of the Green supporters in Halton who put an 'X' beside my name! Your support of my candidacy has been incredible! I am committed to running again, in the next federal election, and I know I can count on your continued support!

To those of you who were able to assist our campaign financially; thank you for your generosity. With "fixed election dates" now being somewhat unpredictable, we don't know how much time we will have to raise funds before the next federal election. Funding from our supporters enabled us to reach 25,000 voters in Halton. Thank you for helping us to spread the word!

We have our work cut out for us! I will continue to be involved in the issues that affect the residents of Halton and I will ensure that our voice is heard! Please remain engaged and involved. Come out to Halton Greens meetings and events, and show the rest of Halton that the Green wave has just started!

Sincerely,

Amy Collard