I get a lot of people wondering about
seeing Greens at 4%, or lower. It
is hard for Canadians to know that those numbers are from polling
companies that sometimes don't ask voters if they plan to vote for the
Greens. In other words, these
numbers are the same as pre-writ.
It is only 4-5% of people who will say when asked “do you plan to vote
Conservative, Liberal, or NDP?” --
“I plan to vote Green!”
So where are we in those polls that
actually ask about Greens? The last one was EKOS for the week of April 21. We are down a bit over the pre-writ
levels of 10%+ at 7.8%. No
surprise given that the mainstream national media has not provided anything
approaching equitable coverage.
Not only did the TV media executives, “The Consortium,” decide Greens
did not belong in the Leaders’ Debate, they decided to keep our platform launch
off the news, ignore the national leader’s tour (inconvenient to mention it
once they announced we had no national tour), and neglect to mention our
existence 90% of the time.
What is impressive is that those numbers –
7.8% -- reflect a higher level of support than in 2008. And higher than the Bloc.
Now is the time to get the word out, anyway
you can, that the Greens are holding on to 2008 support and building. The constant repetition of low
(irrelevant) poll numbers could lead Green voters to be discouraged.
Meanwhile, the news is good to encourage
Green voters. The EKOS seat count
projections show the Conservatives losing seats. There is no longer ANY prospect of a Conservative
majority. EKOS sees Conservatives
dropping from 143 seats to 134.
Liberals and NDP seat count goes up. And we are in striking distance of several seats
(acknowledged by EKOS text, but not included in their seat count). The closest
riding is here in Saanich-Gulf Islands, where Gary Lunn and I are in a race
that is too close to call.
Please use Facebook, Twitter, and email to alert your friends that polling companies' methods often skew results away from the Greens.
Encourage friends to check out our policies on our website. The Young Greens are mobilizing outside
mainstream media and we have to do the same thing. We are TEN days from E-Day. May 2 can be a real “May Day” with your help.