Lib-Green election pact 
I'm wondering what you all think of it?
I can see why some, such as the G+M editorial board, see it as bizarre. May gave up nothing real in exchange for the assistance with her own seat. Dion needs no help to win in his district. Nevertheless, if May has a better chance than the Liberals of knocking off Peter Mackay, then the Liberals need nothing in exchange to make this deal worthwhile. Even though the Liberals finished ahead of the Greens last time, it's a reasonable assessment. When the Liberals could do no better than third (albeit a respectable third) last time, there's no reason to expect they'll rocket to first in Central Nova. On the other hand, Elizabeth May is a star candidate for a party getting more exposure every time; she could conceivably make a breakthrough.
I think Dion would have done better to get Green support in a genuine swing riding, rather than his own, safe seat. But that doesn't mean withdrawing from Central Nova, in itself, wasn't a good move.
My other concern is about the top-down decision about a local candidacy. One of the things I hated about Paul Martin was his willingness to parachute candidates in opposition to local riding associations. I could never trust someone whose modus operandi was so anti-democratic. I don't know whether Dion consulted the Central Nova Liberal leadership about this; I hope he did.
The choice is a little more obvious for May. A minor party gets no mileage out of its votes if they're spread too wide. While the Greens have made a point about running in every riding in the past couple of elections, to show that they're one of only four real national parties, they still need to focus their resources on a few seats they might actually win.
As a New Democrat, I'm a little disappointed in my leader. The aforementioned article reports that May sought a similar arrangement with Jack Layton, but he wouldn't return her calls. Maybe it's too much to expect the NDP to walk away from Central Nova (where it ran a strong second), but maybe a more conservative riding. Somewhere like Muskoka or the Rocky Mountains, where the local economy depends on the environment. That kind of district always has a lot of small businesspeople who find socialism anathema but might vote for a strong environment if it can be wrapped in a more fiscally conservative and small-business oriented approach. People who are green enough but not red enough to vote NDP. In exchange, the Greens could keep out of some BC ridings that are close NDP-Conservative fights.
This kind of horse-trading is novel in Canada, but well-known in some other countries with Westminster-style systems (India and Malaysia come to mind). If we're going to have a healthy multiparty system without adopting PR, I think Canadians need to discover it.
