I've been struck by how much attention that deal between Stéphane Dion and Elizabeth May provoked, and how long the discussion has continued. It's clear many politically-minded people are seriously perplexed by it.
Seems to me we need to understand it as post-Proportional Representation politics. The Greens' whole future prospect lies with PR. As far as we know, there still is not a single constituency where Canadian voters would chose a Green candidate in preference to the alternatives. Without PR, the Greens may well remain tourists on Parliament Hill. But PR advocates tend to be like Péquistes circa 1978: absolutely impervious to contrary arguments, and convinced the future belongs to them. So it makes sense on several levels that the Greens should operate as if PR already operated. And that Liberal planners should want to make contingency plans.
The deal Ms. May made with M. Dion fits the model that Canadian politics would adopt in a PR electoral system. In a PR world, we would often have a centrist party (the Liberals) securing and retaining power by brokering deals with leaders of small parties. In a PR world, PR politics is always rooted in backroom deals based on votes-for-offices, because once the votes are counted, all that matters is the party bosses and what proportion each controls.
Today it is reported that as part of the May-Dion deal, the Liberals promised to consider electoral reform.
I don't mean there is anything nefarious here. The Greens are simply getting down to the only kind of political business that offers them a future. This may what the future smells like.
