Canadians seemingly turned their backs on the environment in favour of protecting their pocketbooks in their federal election this week. Incumbent Conservative Steven Harper, who was campaigning mainly on the question of “who can lead in these troubling economic times” (he has training as an economist), won himself a strong minority government. Liberal opposition leader Stephane Dion, who’s main policy push had been for a “green shift” (increasing taxes against pollution and decreasing taxes against income), lost some ground as his party wound up with fewer seats than before. (See our story and editorial previewing the election ; and find full details on the vote results on CBC)

This was despite a big push for strategic voting in Canada to elect “anyone but conservatives” (otherwise known as the ‘ABC’ campaign).

Some sites supported strategic voting out of frustration, after many “broken promises” from Harper. But the bigger issue was one of environmental policies; Harper has very weak targets on emissions reductions and no immediate plans to put a price on carbon. Environmentalist site Avaaz.ca even made a rock video to support their campaign: “Vote smart so the environment wins” . Another site had area-by-area polls to help individuals target their votes most effectively against the Conservatives. And more than 120 Canadian scientists signed a petition for the cause, outlining their fears over Harper’s environmental policies (or lack of them).

This apparently didn’t work. (Though some say it might have been the thing that prevented Harper from winning a majority government; National Post)

Polls still show that Canadians care about the environment, but this didn’t translate into votes. Or at least not votes that count for Prime Minister. The Green party, for example, did get the largest boost in popular vote by any party (their votes were up 2%; Vancouver Sun), but they didn’t win a single seat. Conservatives were up only 1% in popular votes, but won 19 extra seats. Oddities such as this have led many Canadians to ask for a change to proportional representation in electing their Prime Minister. We’ll have to wait and see about that.

Meanwhile, it may be a while before the environment really makes a difference in Canadian elections (Globe and Mail).