Why doesn't the US have any equivalent to Alberta?

[Hatman 🍁]

Part of the problem is that in Canada the left is split into three parties

Incorrect.

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"Astounding candidate" and "Elizabeth May" should never be in the same sentence.


Other than those two points, you analysis is very good

I realize you disregard the Green Party, but they do take up a sizable portion of the leftist vote and I didn't count BQ because they don't apply in Alberta.

Now, maybe she wasn't astounding to you, but it is true that if it were not her running the Green Party would not have had so many votes. But anyways, my point is that in general Canadians vote for the party, not the person.

Even Hashemite agrees she is a failure. It's easy to think she is great from not knowing much about her, but we Canadians know a little bit too much about that pro-life right wing environmental nut job wind bag.

[Linus Van Pelt]

If "good leader" means "benefitted his/her party" rather than "I like this person", then the picture is more nuanced. As far as the 2008 election is concerned, I think Ottermax is clearly right; she got the party more votes than anyone else would have. The alternative to her was picking someone from within the party nobody had ever heard of who wouldn't have received any media attention. On the other hand, taking a more long-term perspective I think she'll probably be seen as not the greatest for the Greens. It would have been better to have someone who focussed on building a party infrastructure rather than getting her face on TV all the time and making deals with Stephane Dion. Once she's gone, it's not clear how much of a party she'll have left behind, and now that she didn't even get a seat when she was the darling of the chattering class and got her way into the debate, the party's sort of jumped the shark and I imagine it will be treated more as a fringe party again next time. (Which isn't to say its vote won't continue its gradual increase, but this would be more due just to general disillusionment with the mainline parties).

[ottermax]

I guess I shouldn't have called her an astounding candidate, but that's my personal opinion. And I do happen to be a Canadian citizen.

Anyways I do believe that the Green Party is not doing well and I don't know if blaming May should be the main reason. I disagree with the whole deal thing with the Liberals, but how is any Green Party leader supposed to succeed with FPTP?

[Stranger in a strange land]

Now, if Alberta were in the U.S. and had 7 house seats, 2-4 would probably be held by Democrats right now, largely since the Democrats did well the last two cycles. However, I'm pretty sure both Alberta's senators would be Republicans. A significant portion of Canadian Conservatives would be Democrats in the U.S., though not as many as is commonly believed: the Conservatives and Liberals aren't that much to the left of their U.S. equivalents, and Stephen Harper, for instance, would pretty clearly be a Republican in the U.S. The comparison breaks down because Canada has multiple parties, and many options for left or center-left voters, whereas the Right is unified.