The Green Party of Ontario had a phenomenal election result last night -- the party's best ever -– tripling our vote and almost winning our first seat.

The GPO's stunning election result tripled the 2003 vote: in 2003 the party won 2.7% of the vote and in this election we won more than 8%. No other political party in Ontario has tripled its' vote since 2003.

The Green Party won 355,000 votes -- and saw an increase of more than 225,000 votes. No other party gained as many votes in this election. No other party gained 5% since 2003.

In fact the Liberal's share of the popular vote fell 4.2%; the Conservative's fell 3%; the Green Party’s vote increased 5.3% -- while the NDP increased only 2.1%.

The election result bodes very well for the federal Green Party –- as Ontario is the largest province in Canada and support in Ontario determines support for the party federally. So I predict the Green Party of Canada will win more than 8% in the upcoming federal election.

In Bruce Gray Owen Sound, GPO candidate Shane Jolley won 33.1% of the vote – more than 15,000 – the most votes ever won by a Green in Canada – and the highest percentage. With another week or two in the campaign we could have won this. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who responded to the blogs calling friends in the riding urging them to vote for Shane. Thank you to everyone who donated – and Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who moved up to the riding to canvass, campaign. Do you know that we were the only party in Bruce Grey Owen Sound that had scrutineers for every poll??!!

In Guelph, Ben Polley did the whole party proud winning 19.5% and a fantastic result -- showing that this riding is one of the Greenest in Ontario. Congratluations to Ben and the entire team in Guelph -- you are real leaders.

Some Highlights from this Election:
• The Green Party tripled our support, despite being excluded from the televised leaders debate!! In other words, the media haven’t treated us equitably in our coverage – and we still tripled our support!
• This was the best election ever for the Green Party of Ontario
• A staggering 17% of voters in Ontario told pollsters we were their second choice – in other words, if they changed they’re mind they’d be voting Green.
• We had 107 absolutely fantastic candidates
• We had the best website ever – better than that of any other political party in Canada
• We reached our highest support ever: 8% in Ontario
• We talked about issues Ontario voters cared about
• Opposing building $40 billion of new nuclear power plants
• Having a single publicly funded school system saving $500 million which we’d invest in children’s education
• On climate change we’re the only party seriously addressing it
• Only party with momentum – no other party attract 250,000 new voters
• We had absolutely fantastic videos on our web site and YouTube
• We were the only campaign with a web 2.0 – including blogs on our home page
• We had the best ever slogan: Real Issues, real answer, Be Real. Vote Green.

Mahatma Gandhi said: “first they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you then you win.”

In nature green is the colour of life. And so it is in politics. The Green Party is the party of life. We are the party that is dedicated to preserving, protecting life itself on earth. We are the party of the future and for the future.

All the other parties are committed to an industrial economy that is bent on destroying life on the planet. Example: the three old-line, traditional parties all supported giving $1 billion of our hard earned taxed dollars in Ontario to GM, Ford and Chrysler – both federally and provincially. These car companies are completely opposed to dramatically improving the fuel efficiency of their vehicles. Our federal and provincial governments are subsidizing climate change. Do you know if every car in Ontario got the same mileage as my Toyota Prius we’d more than halve the amount of gas we use in cars.

Voters are sick and tired of the old line parties and are worried about the future of the planet.

MMP Referendum
While the referendum on electoral reform did not pass 50%, I was staggered at the basically lies that were being spread by the no side about MMP and I was staggered by some “pundits” who came out against it. I was particularly disappointed by the coverage from the editorial slant of some of our most respected papers.

Looking at people aged 18 and 34, support for changing the electoral system was 67 per cent in favour, by contrast, those over 50 are most opposed at 67 per cent. So it’s not a question of whether we’ll see democratic reform it’s when.

Some of those very same pundits wonder why young people feel alienated by our electoral system – well maybe’s its because the Green Party is excluded from the televised leaders debates (duuuuhh) maybe its because in four televised leaders debates (6 hours of TV) in the last federal election the old-line traditional leaders didn’t once debate climate change (why? Because we were excluded).

The Green Party has a higher proportion of support among young people – as a percentage of our overall support of any political party in Canada. So when TV broadcasters exclude the Green Party they are dissing young people.

I will add to this blog every day for the next week – so keep reading it every day.

I know a mechanic who has a saying – “you can pay me now or you can pay me later” – meaning – you can either service your car – change the oil every 8,000 kms and pay me a little – or try not changing the oil, drive 30,000 – and you’ll have to pay me to put in a new engine.

Sir Nicholas Stern said the same thing – if we don’t immediately and urgently address climate change it’s going to cost 20% of global GDP – if however we decide to act preventatively it will only cost 1% -- we’ll pay for climate change now or later – but we will pay. That’s why the Green Party’s continued rise is inevitable.

It’s 5 am and I have to go to bed. More blogging tomorrow.

You know, scientists during this election noted that the ice in the Canadian Arctic has shrunk to the lowest amount ever – a million square kilometers less than the lowest ever recorded. That’s a fact that Mr. Harper can’t deny and Mr. Dion wearing a green scarf won’t change.

Tonight I was very, very proud to be a member of the Green Party!!

Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations to everyone on the campaign -- and to :

• our 107 wonderful candidates;
• our tireless leader, Frank de Jong, who is the energizer bunny of Green politics;
• the head office team who toiled so tirelessly;
• the web team that so rocked;
• the media team that did such an amazing job;
• James O’Grady for leading the communications team;
• Jeff Brownridge our campaign manager;
• the Campaign Managers of our candidates;
• the spouses/significant others of our candidates;
• our financial supporters – thank you, thank you, thank you for your generous donations! It’s your donations that made all this possible.

The GPO’s member is at the highest level ever.
And when all the dust settles I’ll calculate our spending relative to each vote we receive and I can guarantee you we’re the most financially efficient party in Ontario.

There is so, so much to celebrate I don’t want to stop writing.

This is one of the proudest moments ever in my years of being a Green!! The Green Party experienced a quantum leap.

I finish on this hopeful note: the only way to solve an exponentially growing problem is with an exponentially growing solution. The bad news is that climate change is a growing threat -- the great news is that the Green Party is the exponentially growing solution.