With the writ upon us and campaigns ramping up all over BC the slogans and jargon is being poured on with abandon. 'Watershed election', 'most important ever' 'this time'. Most of this is coming from well meaning self-titled 'progressive' voters and no where is this more prevalent than right here on Quadra Island.

But do the purveyors of this thinking really believe that the NDP offer salvation from Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals? How could they when they are at 11 percent behind in the polls and falling. A perceived leadership vacuum, populist policy statements that repeatedly contradict past NDP stances (ask, who brought IPPs, fishfarms to BC and presided over the collapse of the forest industry?) and an obvious lack of vision and depth of policy all position the NDP as inevitable runner ups on May 12.

The desperation of the NDP is crystallized in the endless stream of negative, contrary statements they issue and the tired attempts to scare Green supporters into propping up the flagging party instead of bringing substantive policy forward and allowing voters to decide for themselves on relative merit.

While the NDP like to imagine that they somehow 'own' Green Party votes and we are little more than a nuisance to them, the BC Greens know that our policies are years ahead of either the BC Liberals or the NDP and integrated together make the only viable path toward developing a true green economy and removing our reliance on oil and gas. The Greens' ideals of decentralization, regional and local self-sufficiency, steady-state economics, transparent democracy, preventative healthcare and a guaranteed liveable income appeal to a much broader range of British Columbians than either of the narrow agendas of the Libs and NDP.

When the good ship NDP hits the Liberal iceberg, as the polls clearly indicate it has, there's no point hanging on to the sinking wreck, singing its virtues, while the crew stands on the bridge blaming the iceberg as they slip beneath the waves. The wise will take to the Green life raft and leave the iceberg far behind to melt away in due course. As for the ship, it's best left respectfully at the bottom with lessons learned to build better ships with crew capable of avoiding icebergs in the future.

It is overdue for the North Island and BC as a whole to pull our collective heads out of the timewarp that the old parties have mired us in. Issues such as government corruption, climate change, peak oil, rampant river diversion developments, decimated wild salmon stocks and a nearly non-existent forest industry all require radical new thinking and strong, clearly articulated leadership which is not forthcoming from the NDP or the Liberals.

While STV may indeed offer a beacon of hope, neither of these self-interest driven parties have come out with full endorsements for the referendum and cannot be counted on to pass appropriate legislation. Why would we expect them to support proportionally elected governments when the first past the post system serves them well enough as is and well-meaning 'progressives prop up this flawed ideology with their 'strategic' voting nonsense?

It remains up to the voters of BC to demonstrate loud and clear that we deserve and expect better. This can be achieved by supporting and voting Yes to BC-STV, and voting in Green MLAs to prove to the legislature that we are serious about wanting electoral reform and a green economy that tackles climate change and reinvigorates new and traditional industries. Electing Greens is essential to electoral reform and economic renewal and with the opportunities possible and the critical issues we face here, the North Island is one of the best positioned ridings to send this dual message to Victoria.