Greens may have NDP shedding tears in their beers

It seems kind of a lame pun - which means it'll probably be everywhere - but when the results start pouring out tonight in the St. Patrick's Day by-elections, watch for the Greens.

Specifically, watch for any ridings where the Greens come in ahead of the New Democrats, notably in Ontario.

Late last year and early this year, Decima was tracking significant strength for the Greens in a perhaps surprising place - the so-called 905 suburban belt around Toronto.

It's also worth remembering that the Greens culled 8 per cent of the popular vote in the recent Ontario election and that Elizabeth May, the federal Greens leader, placed second in the London North Centre by-election in 2006.

If they do well in Ontario again tonight, what we have here is a trend, and given that the Greens tend to take support from every party, it makes them a bit of a wild card in any future general election. And the NDP should be worried.

The Green Party has been conducting its own polling in a few of the ridings holding by-elections tonight. These polls, conducted by phone from March 8-10, show that voters may be thinking of doing a little wearing of the Greens on St. Patrick's Day.

Here are the results of the Willowdale phone poll (761 voters):

36.8% Liberal Party
15.6% Conservative Party
12.0% Green Party
6.6% New Democratic Party
29.0% Undecided

And here are the results of the phone poll in Quadra (648 voters):

24.5% Liberal Party
18.8% Green Party
17.1% Conservative Party
13.3% New Democratic Party
26.2% undecided

Comments

[J peter]

Brilliant comments. Your commentary is nothing short of disgusting. Why are you always so quick to hug the Liberals? Seriously, they are the most emasculated party Ottawa has seen in decades and you write as if they are just about to fight the good fight against those mean Conservatives.

You are biased. What the star allows you to get away with is nothing short of scandalous.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

[Not-a-Harper-supporter]

J Peter what you are talking about? This column is about the Green Party and the NDP. Where did Liberals come in? In any case, the Green candidates ran strong, positive campaigns and were rewarded for it. The NDP ran negative campaigns and didn't fare as well. Perhaps there is some correlation there.