The key message is: it isn't our fault.
Consider the number of voters who stayed home this election who voted in the last election less than a year ago:
Liberals
Voted in 2006 Election ...... 24,109
Voted in 2006 By Election ..13,287
Stayed home......................10,822
New Democrats
Voted in 2006 Election ..... 14,271
Voted in 2006 By Election ...5,388
Stayed home.......................8,883
Conservative
Voted in 2006 Election ..... 17,968
Voted in 2006 By Election ...9,309
Stayed home.......................8,659
Green Party
Voted in 2006 Election ........ 3,300
Voted in 2006 By Election ....9,864
Got off the Couch................6,564
My read is that it is an anamoly that the Greens were the only party to increase it's vote count over the federal election less than a year ago. My reasons for this are as follows:
a. We motivated Greens to vote Green through a more effective ITV/GOTV strategy.
b. We motivated Liberal/Conservative/NDP to park their votes with the Greens. Though we can't take full credit for this as many considered Dianne Haskett and Megan Walker as unelectable.
c. We motivated non-voters to vote Green through a strong campaign amongst traditional non voters: the 18-24 group on the UWO Campus.
You might note that the operative word is 'motivated' - something that the other parties can not stake a claim to due to the significant rollbacks in their votes from the last election.
