I like BC NDP leader John Horgan ideas and strategy for dealing with the Green Party here
http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Vaughn+Palmer+Horgan+ponders+sharing+power+eyes/10865437/story.html"The New Democrats have lately toned down their attacks on the Greens, after that embarrassing exchange on social media in January when MLA Doug Routley and Horgan’s chief of staff John Heaney discussed slinging a “mudline” at Weaver. When Routley resumed sniping at Weaver on the floor of the legislature last week, NDP house leader Mike Farnworth personally intervened to put a stop to it.
Horgan, for his part, is promoting a more realistic view of the threat that the Greens pose to NDP support, suggesting it is confined to a handful of ridings, mostly in the capital region.
“When you get outside of the South Island, the Green vote is very, very flat,” he maintains. “Five, six, seven per cent at best in communities in the Lower Mainland. Virtually nothing when you get out into the hinterland where resource development is what keeps communities vibrant.”
Combine that perspective with his stance on proportional representation, MSP premiums and fracking and one glimpses the makings of a tacit pitch to potential green supporters in the next election: Vote Green, if you must, in the few ridings where the party might win; vote NDP everywhere else, lest you again end up with the Liberals."
I have long felt that in dealing with the so-called Green party - there are two things the NDP ought NOT to do:
1. Don't bother trying to "outgreen" the Greens on environmental issues. it will never work - it doesnt matter what you have in your platform - no party that lacks the word "green" in its name will EVER been seen as being "greener" than a party called "green". In any case a surprising number of people who vote Green don't even care that much about environmental issues - they just like the idea of a third party in BC full of wonky, supposedly non-partisan flakes
2. Don't attack the Greens head on - since it will only raise their profile and create a backlash.
Instead - Kill them with kindness - as Horgan is clearly doing
