It seems to me that most political parties are conservative by nature. Not because of their policies but by the way they run their own campiagns. The most common strategy seems to be to get and keep votes by preaching to the choir. Their's is a path of least resistance treaded mainly by avoiding offense. The federal issue of the environment is a case in point.
The Conservative Party cannot bring itself to offend the big corporate polluters lest it loses the support of their moneyed base. The NDP talks a good game but always backs away because it's afraid of offending the big industry unions like the Autoworkers even though these constituents create heavy rusting products that spew massive amounts of hazardous emissions. Meanwhile in the middle, the Liberal Party is content to appeal to everyone all at once and couldn't achieve anything of significance with regard to the environment even though they were given consecutive majority governments with which to work.
The Green Party seems to be the only party that takes this issue seriously enough beyond just using it as a vote-begging plank in their platform. They however have very little experience governing and some of their candidates may be too green (in a bad way) to step up and run an administration. I'm encouraged by Stephane Dion's posture on the environment and also his cooperation with Elizabeth May in not running opposing candidates in their respective ridings. The best case scenario could be a close cooperation between these two parties.
The New Democrats would have been the natural partner for the Green Party but they've let a great opportunity slip from their grasp. They are in danger of becoming irrelevant and altogether collapsing because they're still supported by an outdated ideological framework built on a rusty base.
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