Ottawa

Tease the day: Will anyone talk about the Green Party?

The Greens’ momentum might go unnoticed, victim to bad timing

CP/Sean Kilpatrick

Elizabeth May’s had a pretty good week, and her Green Party may be nipping at the edges of sustained political success, but you’d hardly know it. It all started last week, when May won the Maclean’s award for Parliamentarian of the Year. That was no small feat, since the lone Green MP won support from all sides of the House of Commons on her way to winning. Last night, you might have noticed her team turning heads in two federal byelections. If you followed along on Twitter, you’d know that the Green candidate in Calgary Centre, Chris Turner, scored a strong third place and relegated the NDP to a distant fourth. You’d also know that Donald Galloway, the Greens’ man in Victoria, almost beat the NDP’s Murray Rankin—an outcome no one predicted. But short of an outright win, it was all almost inevitably for naught. This morning’s headlines were sewn up early yesterday, when Mark Carney announced his departure from the Bank of Canada and then Rob Ford was booted from the mayor’s office in Toronto. Combine that with late-night returns in Victoria that ran way past eastern print deadlines, and all that Green success fades into the night—save for the Victoria Times-Colonist, which fronted the close race.

The Times-Colonist made sure to note, by the way, what everyone in Ottawa would already have guessed: May, who was on the west coast last night, will be back at work in Ottawa today. She’ll likely be at her desk in the back corner of the House, mostly hidden from sight, where she usually spends her days. And so it goes.


What’s above the fold this morning?

The Globe and Mail leads with Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney’s eventual departure for a new job as Governor of the Bank of England. The National Post fronts the rise of Carney and fall of ousted Toronto mayor Rob Ford. The Toronto Star, not surprisingly, goes above the fold with Ford’s exit from the mayor’s office. The Ottawa Citizen leads with a hero shot of Carney at yesterday’s press conference. iPolitics fronts prominent Conservative Senator Doug Finley’s fight with cancer. National Newswatch showcases Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid‘s contention that Joan Crockatt’s win in the Calgary Centre byelection is a moral loss for the Conservatives.


Stories that will be (mostly) missed

1. Green gains. Thanks to late-night byelection returns and a lack of any victory for the Green Party, its significant gains and impressive showing in two contests goes unnoticed in newspapers. 2. Childcare investment. The TD Bank says federal and provincial governments should invest heavily in child care, because it helps kids immensely throughout their lives.
3. Cooperation. Vancouver MP Joyce Murray entered her party’s leadership race on a platform that borrows NDP MP Nathan Cullen’s call for cooperation among non-Conseratives. 4. Challenger cuts. The feds are cutting four of six airplanes that cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats have used to fly around on the public dime—often controversially.

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