Skaana's special Canadian election edition
A Q&A episode on our election (also orca names) and election commentaries from me & Skaana creator/exec-producer, Rayne Benu
Arg! So I just logged into the Skaana substack to work on our month-end round-up and I was soooo proud of myself for getting an early jump on that when I discovered that the post plugging our latest episode… a Q&A where I talk Canadian politics, Trump (which = Canadian politics in 2025), orca baby names and the Moby Doll movie and even tossed in a comedy tune by my musical comedy act Local Anxiety… never went live. I repeat… Arg!
If you haven’t heard it yet, please listen for at least the first few minutes so you can hear our fantastic longtime producer, Bug Lewis, in their podcast debut!
And if you’re one of our listeners from outside of Canada - and last we looked, at least half our listeners are outside of Canada… for Americans… I think this episode may shock you and/or make you really sad. For people from everywhere else… Canada’s the canary in the global coal mine right now. You may want to get a sneak peak at your future.
Meanwhile, over on my Substack, I wrote a piece about the election and the Canadian federal Green party that has made a bit of noise. I wrote a “note” about it- responding to the response so far - that I’ve also shared on Facebook. I’m gonna just plug that in here ‘cause I think/hope it explains where the story came from other than… what finally sparked me to write/publish it was the debate debacle and the Green response to it so…
It has been a long time since I’ve agonized this much over writing something and the response has been… fascinating. So far most of the people upset with me and most of the people thanking me are from the exact same group - longtime Greens.
To me deciding whether to keep voting for Elizabeth May is the political equivalent of the trolley problem.
How many climate-denying, plastic-hugging, electric-car hating, drill-baby-drill Tories is it okay to elect in the rest of Canada so that Saanich-Gulf Islands gets to be repped by Elizabeth May?
The number I’ve heard (from inside the tent) is usually seven.
To bring this very close to home… those wildly unclear calculations from 338 that Greens claim show Elizabeth as the best anti-Tory hope in SG-I also show a first-year UVic student likely to pull enough votes in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke to stop either the NDP candidate or the former Alberta NDP cabinet minister turned Liberal candidate - who the Greens tried to recruit to run for them (then us) in 2019 from taking the seat.
Leaving aside that this election is different because of Trump…
Pierre Pollution wanted this election to be about “climate policies” and whether there should be any. He was and still is running on a policy of, “f*** the planet.”
The Greens have always wanted climate to be the big-ticket issue. Congrats! So does Pierre!
So for a climate voter - even if Trudeau was still running… this should have been a binary choice and the party should have done what Jonathan Pedneault pretended they did and stood down anywhere they might help a Tory win. They didn’t. So how is this not “politics as usual.”
Also… here’s a question that felt like overkill for the article, but it goes to Elizabeth’s leadership and her skills at team-building and it goes to the public face of the party.
How many of the party’s most successful (but unelected) candidates have run twice?
Some of the party’s best numbers have been in the two ridings next door to Elizabeth’s — Victoria and Esquimalt Saanich-Sooke. There are also other ridings out there where the Greens have had candidates who made credible runs.
Which of those candidates - several of who placed second or a very high third - and who would likely have upped their numbers and possibly won in a second or third race - like NDPers often do - decided to run for the party again?
Which Green “star” candidates from across Canada - and there have been some truly amazing ones - have run twice?
Not asking rhetorically here… this has been “my team” for a decade now and I can only think of one Green star who made a second run - Jo-Ann Roberts - and unfortunately she had to change from Victoria (a riding I absolutely believe she would have won) to a riding she couldn’t.
Meanwhile, Skaana creator and exec producer, Rayne Benu wrote about their adventures in Green-land. If you’re a Canadian voter, take a few minutes before you go to the polls to check this out.
Apologies for any glitches here - and the total lack of hyperlinks - but since our Substack evolved out of our Skaana e-mail list - which is how we reach our listeners around the world and it blows my mind how many listeners we have in countries I’ve only dreamed of visiting - I can’t believe this didn’t go live last week.
And coming in a few days… a round-up of some very cool ocean news including that new J-Pod baby but, sadly, no more sharktopus sightings…