No Green Here....and not likely anytime soon...

I think for the most part other Canadians see British Columbia as a "Green Province" with a lot of hot button environmental issues which goes way back to episodes of the Beachcombers when young environmentalists would always being popping up somewhere in a fight to save the forest... as a political "junkie" and a small time environmentalist I followed this election with interest as a referendum on the Single Transferable Vote (STV) electoral reform proposal was being voted on and since this system was narrowly defeated in the 2005 election I thought it might have some legs this time particularly if you had listened to CBC Vancouver or the BC Green Party during the election as they were predicting a major victory on this front... and that didn't materialize and in fact the results weren't as good as the 2005 results so I expect this will probably be an end to this referendum question for a while...this vote could have made B.C. the first Canadian jurisdiction to adopt STV, which would have allowed for more proportional representation than the first-past-the-post system and could have led to some "Green" members..... some people may say the "economy" out trumped the "environment" here but that is not how the vote was set up as Campbell pushed the "economy" and the Greens pushed the "environment" but as a voter you could vote for Campbell and also vote in favour of the Referendum but BC voters didn't and I doubt if it will happen in any other Province anytime soon...
Referendum on electoral reform fails
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
CBC News
British Columbians also voted not to change the way they elect future provincial governments to the legislative assembly in Victoria. Less than 40 per cent of voters supported the proposed BC-STV system in the referendum on electoral reform. The referendum required more than 60 per cent support for the proposed system to be adopted.
The campaign for B.C.'s 39th general election officially kicked off April 14, with Liberal Leader Campbell looking to form his third straight government since 2001 and NDP Leader James looking to form her first.
Along the campaign trail, both parties had their share of gaffes, but for the most part, it was a race with few surprises and no major policy shifts that struggled to gain the public's attention.
The B.C. Liberals' campaign focused heavily on the economy, which polls consistently ranked as the No. 1 issue for voters. The NDP ran a more diverse campaign that focused heavily on Campbell's record on hot-button issues such as the collapse of B.C.'s forestry industry, questions about the government sale of BC Rail and funding levels for education, health care and seniors care.
A key challenge for James was her decision to oppose the Campbell government's carbon tax, which led many prominent environmentalists, including David Suzuki, to speak out against her. On the other hand, many environmentalists supported her promise to put a moratorium on the many run-of-river private power projects begun under the Liberals.
For the most part, the two major parties dominated the election, but the Green Party of B.C. ran candidates in every riding, and the B.C. Conservative Party ran candidates in more than 20 ridings.