The importance of competition

With Elizabeth May announcing her intention to run in the upcoming London North Centre byelection, there's been some suggestion that the NDP and the Libs should step aside to allow May to win the seat - whether based on the on-again, off-again practice of generally allowing leaders to win a seat in the House, or based on a general strategic argument of what that would mean to the Cons.

It's worth noting first that there's far from unanimous agreement that the practice of leaving leaders uncontested should be followed. When PMS ran in a Calgary Southwest byelection in 2002, the Libs and PCs didn't contest the seat, but the NDP did run a candidate against Harper. Likewise a couple of parties, but not all of them, stepped aside when Andre Boisclair recently won his provincial seat in Quebec.

In other words, it's far from clear that the practice is followed universally - and even more uncertain that it ought to be. After all, nothing about a candidate's nature as a party leader makes them inherently more effective as an MP. And the dubious merit of anointing a party leader is particularly obvious when the leader in question plans to pack up for a Nova Scotia riding within a few months, rather than sticking around to represent the riding in question.

As for the wider strategic issues, it's highly unlikely that the Cons will pick up the seat no matter who runs (or doesn't run) from the NDP or Libs. And in any event, there's no apparent reason why the two parties who are competing to be the effective national alternative to the Cons would simply let somebody else lay claim to part of that title.

It would be one thing if the question were one of an institutionalized practice where only the Greens were left out. But faced with a sketchy and inconsistent practice which seems to generally be more a strategic decision to avoid difficult ridings rather than a principled rule, there's no reason for the Dippers or Libs to simply concede London North Centre to the Greens. And if May manages to win the riding on merit rather than based on other parties holding their fire (which strikes me as at least a relatively plausible possibility if the Greens throw everything they can into the riding), then she'll be able to legitimately claim to represent the constituency - which would do far more for the Greens in the long run.

(Edit: typo.)