Green Party leader telling supporters not to fall for ‘fear’ tactics

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COWICHAN (NEWS 1130) – While NDP leader John Horgan pleads with undecided voters to consider the consequences of vote-splitting, Green Party leader Andrew Weaver says strategic voting doesn’t work.

Both men are campaigning on Vancouver Island today where the Greens might pick up at least one more seat in Tuesday’s election.

Weaver says Horgan can’t be trusted to bring in electoral reform any more than Liberal leader Christy Clark can.

“Mr. Horgan has committed to a referendum on proportional representation and makes the kind of lame argument, you know, if you vote for us, you can vote Green next time. This is the kind of arguments that essentially boil down to trust us.”

Weaver says British Columbians shouldn’t be bullied into voting against their favourite candidate.

“The way that change happens is to actually vote — number one– and vote for what you want — number two.”

Weaver also says strategic voting is a farce because if that were true, “both Liberals and NDP should all vote Green because we know that there’s as many people voting Liberal because they don’t want the NDP in, as voting NDP because they don’t want the Liberals in. Voters are smarter than that. If people continue to vote for the lesser of two evils, they’ll get the lesser of two evils, but the lesser of two evils, is still not very good.”

He insists the ultimate goal is to boost turnout.

“As soon as a party resorts to discussions of vote-splitting, it’s a party that failed to inspire British Columbians to vote for them. You know, we know that 45 per cent of British Columbians didn’t even bother to vote last election.”

Recent polls continue to show support for the Greens is strongest on Vancouver Island, but it could be a spoiler in some Lower Mainland ridings  including Vancouver-Fraserview.

The Green candidate in the 2013 race, Stuart MacKinnon, is now endorsing the NDP’s George Chow in a tight race against Liberal incumbent Suzanne Anton.

The Party Park Board Commissioner says he’s voting for the candidate who best reflects his values and “We can’t afford another 4 years of Christy Clark and the BC Liberals.”

 

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