[Marxism] Forwarded from Derrick O'Keefe (Canada Green Party)

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Derrick O’Keefe

The Green Party of Canada has been excluded from the national leaders’ 
debates slated for June 14 and 15. Jim Harris, the Greens’ leader, has 
been leading a vocal protest against his exclusion, citing a full slate 
of candidates and six per cent support in the polls. For the Greens, 
however, their credibility might be better served with Harris sitting 
out the big dance, lest the public become too familiar with their 
leader’s entirely unconvincing pose as an outsider rebelling against 
‘politics as usual’.

I’m sincerely reluctant to weigh in against Harris and Canada’s Greens, 
long a place for the disaffected to register a “protest vote”, a 
repository of resentment, however vague and undefined, against the 
ravages and injustices engendered by global capitalism. But even a 
summary look over the Greens’ new leader and their centrist political 
rhetoric makes clear that a vote for the Greens is anything but a 
“protest vote.”

Proudly boasting a platform that is neither “left” nor “right,” the 
Green platform isn’t likely to make the rich and powerful lose any sleep.

“The Green Party will put an end to hallway health care, we will lower 
taxes on income, profit and investment to promote increased productivity 
and job creation,” the party leader explains, sounding pretty similar to 
another Ontario politician named Harris.

While the Liberals and Tories are busy raiding Jack Layton’s platform 
and stretching the limits of our collective gullibility by campaigning 
left — see Paul Martin’s child care promises, recycled from 1993, and 
Stephen Harper’s new-found love for Québec, opposition to private health 
care, etc. — Jim Harris appears much more comfortable leaning right. 
Early in this campaign, Harris, who is running against the NDP leader in 
the Toronto-Danforth riding, joined the chorus of ‘respectable’ voices 
castigating Layton for asserting Paul Martin’s responsibility for the 
increase in homeless deaths that resulted from cuts to social housing.

Full: http://www.sevenoaksmag.com/commentary/16_jim_harris.html

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