Greens come close to upset in Canada vote

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OTTAWA, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- The Green Party came close to winning another seat in the Canadian Parliament in a by-election this week in British Columbia.

More voters who went to the polls Monday in Victoria actually opted for the Green candidate, The Toronto Globe and Mail reported. But advance voting allowed the New Democratic Party to retain the seat by a 1,100-vote margin.

The Greens put a lot of effort into the final week of the campaign, the newspaper said, hoping to catch the NDP by surprise. The strategy increased the party's base considerably.

"The votes we got were from people who felt great about their vote," Elizabeth May, the party leader and its only member of Parliament, said Tuesday.

In another by-election in Calgary Center, the Green candidate, Chris Turner, got just over one-quarter of the vote. While he came in third, Turner called the outcome a "pretty major breakthrough."

Turner said some of his support came from disgruntled Conservatives.