About a week ago I was wondering why would Elizabeth May praise Dion. It looks like she wasn't doing that out of courtesy. As it was announced, the Liberals won't run a candidate against Elizabeth May in Central Nova. In return, Elizabeth May will endorse Dion for Prime Minister and, as a token gesture, the Green party won't be running a candidate against Dion.
Most likely, there are some other details to the deal, which will be unveiled later. So far the Green party made it their goal to run full slate. They believed it would contribute to their image as a national party - so the Green party leader would be allowed to participate in the leaders' debates. But if the Liberal support brings Elizabeth May into the televised debates then the Green party might as well sacrifice many other ridings, particularly those where the Liberals lost on a razor thin margin.
But will it help the Green party to elect its first MP? Not likely. Elizabeth May plans to run in Central Nova, where the race is mainly between the Conservatives and the NDP. The Liberal candidate came third in both 2004 and 2006 elections, so not only May needs to keep all the votes the Liberal candidate would otherwise get, but she also needs to attract at least half of the NDP votes to defeat MacKay. That's unlikely to happen.
At the same time, the alliance that May tries to strike with Dion can upset many in the Green party. Those who came to the Green party because they got disappointed with the Liberals in the first place, won't want their party to become nothing but a pro-Liberal environmentalist lobby group. Others may see the deal with the Liberals as a sign that the Green party is too weak to succeed on its own and, just like Briony Penn, a BC environmentalist and a former Green party candidate, they may choose to deal directly with the Liberals. Either way, despite its seeming advantages, the deal may eventually ruin what looked like a good momentum for the Green party.
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