Getting May Into The Leadership Debate

Jeff has already mentioned one interesting consequence of the Liberal/Green alliance.

And I have argued in several places that the best thing Dion could do for the Green Party would be to support Elizabeth May's attempts to get into the leadership debates. Well, this morning the "blogging editor" of Halifax Live has suggested a "sure-fire" means of achieving this result. Dion could "entice" one of his retiring members to join the Greens!

Honestly, I don't know how practical something like this would be, but it is vastly encouraging to see Greens and Libs trying to think their way into a genuinely new kind of politics (whereas the NDP seems to have become the party of the old days and the old ways).

Tory Lead Shrinks To Three Points

From CTV:

OTTAWA -- A new poll suggests the gap between the Conservatives and Liberals has narrowed to three percentage points, another signal that a spring federal election may be on hold afterall.

The survey by Decima Research, provided exclusively to The Canadian Press, put Tory support at 34 per cent nationally.

[...]

The Liberals polled 31 per cent nationally, while the NDP got 15 per cent, the Green party 11, and the Bloc Quebecois, seven.

Two things. One, I will try and find the other breakdowns, but here are the Quebec numbers:

The situation is especially intriguing in Quebec, where the Bloc hit a new low of 29 per cent, and the upstart Greens tracked 13 per cent.

The Liberals led the Tories 23-20 in the province, while the NDP trailed with 10 per cent support.

And these seem bizarre, quite at odds with the SES poll results published today that suggest any decline in BQ support would likely move move towards the Tories and NDP.

Secondly, the poll was taken between Thursday the 12th and Sunday the 15th of April--that is, mostly after the announcement of the Green/Liberal alliance in Nova. So while you can't attribute any Liberal upward momentum to the deal, it certainly doesn't seem to have done them any harm either. Ted, Antonio, it's not "kissy my assy" time yet, but its getting close.