Ont. Green party scores 8 per cent of vote
No Green party candidates made it to the Ontario legislature in Wednesday’s election, but that defeat was sweetened by a swell in their share of the popular vote, which more than doubled.
Ontario Green Leader Frank de Jong was defeated in his own electoral district. Liberal Tony Ruprecht easily won the Toronto riding of Davenport, with de Jong still jockeying with Progressive Conservative candidate Antonio Garcia for third place behind NDP candidate Peter Ferreira at 12:30 a.m. ET Thursday.
The Green’s greatest hope for their first seat, Shane Jolley, was also defeated by Conservative incumbent Bill Murdoch, CBC News projects. Murdoch had taken 46 per cent of the popular vote by 12:30 a.m. ET, compared to Jolley’s 35 per cent in Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound.
October 11th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Full slate and eight. This was such an awesome campaign. It was amazingly positive and hard fought. Kudos to everyone who ran, supported and voted for the Greens.
Way to go Ontario!
October 12th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
It’s a great start to being taken somewhat seriously.
I looked at the numbers closely and it looks like 10-12 % in a lot of urban ridings, 5-8% rural, and there are some parts of the province where GPO was barely on the map.
But the two super-high performers - Shane Jolley (33% ) and Mr. Polley (?) in Guelph with almost 20% - that’s the people and the centers of excellence we’ve got to nurture. Who really cares if the average vote share is seven, eight, even ten percent…it won’t get the GPO anywhere, yet. But if a seat or two can actually be won, then we’re talking! And then the Greens can start gathering experience about what it’s like to participate in legislatures and be inside the political process, not outside the glass, “withour noses pressed against it”.
Well done!