Jim Harris, leader of the Green Party, was on CBC’s The National last night in one of their interactive Your Turn segments. Before I watched all I really knew was that the Greens are focused on the environment… and afterwards, that’s still all I know about their platform. I’ll give this to Harris, though: he’s an expert at spinning any question back to his issue. The discussion went something like this:
“Mr. Harris, what does the Green Party have to say about the Gomery inquiry?” “There’s a much bigger scandal in Canada, and that’s the government’s policy on the environment.”
“Mr. Harris, what are you going to do about high income taxes?” “We’re going to put a tax on gas, but it’s not a gas tax, it’s a save-the-environment tax.”
“Mr. Harris, what is the Green Party’s policy on national child care?” “Our children won’t have a future if we don’t fix the environment for them today.”
“Mr. Harris, what about unemployment?” “Canada’s got a good profile for wind power, and we’re going to be creating green-collar jobs in that industry.”
About the only answer Harris gave that he didn’t reroute to the environment was to complain that his party doesn’t get covered by the media… apparently oblivious to the fact that he was doing so on national television. (Host Peter Mansbridge was quite pointed in reminding Harris of that, not once but twice.)
I’m not sure whether the purpose of Harris’s appearance was to show Canadians that the Greens aren’t just a single-issue party or if it was to show that they are. I do know that by refusing to provide substantial answers to numerous legitimate questions, particularly those on which any party serious about governing should have well-defined stances, he made it much less likely that I’ll consider a Green vote.