The
Green Party Of Canada is a federal
Political Party in
Canada . The party was first formed in
1980 . It is led by
Jim Harris until a new leader is chosen at the party's convention in August. Harris announced on
April 24 2006 that he will not stand for re-election as party leader.
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The Greens are currently the largest federal political party not represented in Parliament. The party has registered between 1% and 7% in various public opinion polls since 2000. In the
2006 Federal Election the party received 4.5% and did not win any seats. The party has lobbied the consortium of Canadian television networks to be included in the televised leaders debate without success.
In the
2006 Federal Election , the Green Party received about 4.5% of the popular vote, only slightly more than in 2004, despite having received public funding (over 1 million per year) for the first time and receiving more media coverage than ever before.
In the
2004 Federal Election , the Green Party fielded candidates in all 308 of the nation's
Riding s and received 4.3% of the popular vote. In the
2000 Election , it fielded candidates in 111 of 301 ridings.
Under Canada's
First Past The Post electoral system, no Green Party candidate has ever been elected to the federal or provincial level in Canada.
The current leader of the Green Party of Canada (GPC) is
Jim Harris . He was first elected to the office with over 80% of the vote and the support of the leaders of all of the provincial parties. He was re-elected on the first ballot by 56% of the membership in a leadership challenge vote in August 2004.
Tom Manley placed second with over 30% of the vote. A few months after the 2004 convention, Tom Manley was appointed Deputy Leader. (On September 23, 2005, Manley left the party to join to the
Liberal Party Of Canada .)
In the fall of 2005
Sonya Chandler was elected to the
Victoria, BC council as a Green. A number of other elected municipal officials are Green Party members, although they were elected as individuals and not on Green Party slates or labels. They include Councilor
Jane Sterk who topped the polls in
Esquimalt BC , Councillor
Elio Di Iorio in
Richmond Hill, Ontario ; Councillor
Rob Strang in
Orangeville, Ontario ; and the late
Richard Thomas , reeve of
Armour Township, Ontario .
In the 2004 election, the consortium of Canadian television networks did not invite Jim Harris to the televised
Leaders Debate s. This sparked unsuccessful legal actions by the Green Party, a petition by its supporters to have it included, and statements by non-supporters who believed it should be included.
The party secured enough votes in the 2004 election to qualify for the new federal funding, available to parties that received over 2% of the vote. The Green Party received $1.75 per vote it won in the 2004 election for each year leading up to the 2006 election. There was some internal controversy over the distribution and allocation of these funds between central administration and local EDA's and a membership vote was held to resolve the issue. A group of former party activists (two of whom were on the party's federal council), as well as some former NDP members, are working to create a new party, "the Peace and Ecology Party", which they say will have no leader, and adopt a more activist stance, essentially replicating the way the party was organized from 1988-96.
The Green Party was also not included in the leaders' debates for the
2006 Election .
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See Also: History of the Green Party of Canada
The Green Party was the first Canadian political party on the Internet, with almost full party contacts across Canada for provincial and federal through e-mail and
FidoNet back in the late 1980s.
While the organizing and election planning was centralized, policy development was decentralized. In February 2004, the
Green Party Of Canada Living Platform was initiated by the Party's former Head of Platform and Research,
Michael Pilling , to open the party's
Participatory Democracy to the public to help validate its policies against broad public input. It also made it easy for candidates to share their answers to public interest group questionnaires, find the best answers to policy questions, and for even rural and remote users, and Canadians abroad, to contribute to Party policy intelligence. Its innovative
Rank A Plank system let net users "rank planks" in the 2004 platform, and this gathered some 60,000 online votes (on which planks were key) by election day.
The direction of the 2004 platform, while retaining similar ecological themes as before, was perceived as shifting from a centre-left to a centrist stance or even centre-right position. An emphasis on a
Green Tax Shift which favoured partially reducing income and corporate taxes (while increasing taxes on polluters and energy consumers) created questions as to whether the Green Party was still
On The Left of the political spectrum, or was taking a more
Eco-capitalist approach by reducing
Progressive Taxation in favour of
Regressive Taxation . Green Party policy writers have challenged this interpretation by claiming that any unintended regressive tax consequences would be fully offset by changes in tax rates and categories as well as an 'eco-tax" refund for those who pay no tax. These adjustments are currently published 2006 policy and part of the Green Tax Shift concept.
As early as 2000, the party had published platform comparisons indicating the reasons why supporters of any of the five other Canadian federal political parties should consider voting Green. The Greens have always had right-wing, leftist and centrist factions that have been ascendant at different times in the party's history. Many Greens also claim that this traditional Left-Right political spectrum analysis does not accurately capture the pragmatic ecological orientation of an evolving Green Party.
The ecumenical approach of expressing affinities with all Canadian political tendencies and making cases to voters on all parts of the left-right spectrum has been advocated by those who believe their success can be measured by the degree to which other parties adopt Green Party policies. It is however difficult to discern the degree to which this process has contributed to phenomena like the Liberal Party of Canada adopting several key items of the Green program, such as accelerated
Capital Cost Allowance deductions restricted to
Sustainable Technology only, and the adoption of the
Ecological And Social Indicator s and
Green Procurement rules Greens have long advocated. The relative degree of influence in developing these policies of Greens, non-partisan environmental groups and the party's own Green wing is difficult to discern.
Still, the party was somewhat embarrassed in 2004 to find
Greenpeace and the
Sierra Club Of Canada ranking its environmental platform slightly below that of the NDP (a fact the NDP made much of in some closely-contested ridings in an attempt to encourage Greens and other environmentalists to
Vote For Them Strategically ). The 2005/06 Green Party platform once again received the highest environmental marks of any federal party.
The GPC had originally adopted a form of the
Ten Key Values originally authored by the
United States Green Party .
The August 2002 Convention adopted the
Six Principles of the
Charter of the
Global Greens , as stated by the Global Greens Conference held in Canberra, Australia in 2001. These principles are the only ones included in the GPC constitution.
In 1998, the party adopted a rule that forbids membership in any other federal political party. This was intended to prevent the party from being taken over. This change to the constitution was discussed at a duly constituted GPC General Meeting and was passed by a very large majority. This rule does not apply to staffers or advisors.
In the past, some Green Party members have been comfortable openly working with members of other political parties. For instance, GPC members
Peter Bevan-Baker and
Mike Nickerson worked with Liberal MP
Joe Jordan to develop the
Canada Well-Being Measurement Act which calls upon the government to implement
Genuine Progress Indicator s (GPI). This motion passed in the
37th Canadian Parliament .
A small number of Greens who advocate this approach object to the new rule not to hold cross-memberships, a tool they sometimes employed.
The policy platform for the
2006 Federal Election can be found on the internet on
the platform website .
- Percentage nationally: 4.5%
- Number of votes: 665,940
- Best province: Alberta, 6.6%
- Best riding (percentage): Bruce--Grey--Owen Sound , 12.9%
- Best riding (number of votes): Ottawa Centre, 6,766 votes
- Best riding (ranking): Wild Rose, 2nd behind Conservative
- Notable mentions, 3rd place finish ahead of the NDP: Calgary West & Bruce--Grey--Owen Sound
Best riding percentage-wise in:
- Newfoundland and Labrador: Random--Burin--St. George's, 1.4%
- Prince Edward Island: Egmont, 5.2%
- Nova Scotia: Halifax, 5.2%
- New Brunswick: Madawaska--Restigouche, 3.3%
- Quebec: Westmount--Ville-Marie, 8.3%
- Ontario: Bruce--Grey--Owen Sound, 12.9%
- Manitoba: Winnipeg Centre, 7.0%
- Saskatchewan: Souris--Moose Mountain, 5.2%
- Alberta: Calgary Centre-North, 11.8%
- British Columbia: British Columbia Southern Interior, 11.3%
- Territories: Nunavut, 5.9%
Although the party did not win a seat in the 2004 election, 4.31% of the vote was a significant improvement. Starting in 2004, canadian political parties who receive 2% of the vote in the last election are eligible for a subsidy ($1.75 per vote in 2004) from the federal government. The 2004 election results earned the Greens around $1 million CAD per year.
Based on the 2006 vote, the Greens will receive $1.2 million CAD in federal funding each year until the next federal election.
There will be an automatic
Leadership Vote at the party's August 2006 convention. On April 24, Jim Harris announced he will not be standing for re-election as party leader
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David Chernushenko , who ran in the 2006 election in
Ottawa Centre and the highest vote count of any Green Party candidate in the 2006 election with 10% of the vote, has declared his candidacy for the leadership.
Elizabeth May , who whose 17 year tenure as executive director of the
Sierra Club Of Canada ended in April, is reportedly considering entering the race. Broadcaster
David Suzuki , who was rumoured as a candidate, has indicated he is not interested in the job and is encouraging May to run.
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''See also
Green Party Of Canada Leadership Convention, 2006 ''
The GPC is a member of the
Federation Of Green Parties Of The Americas and recognized by the
Global Greens as representing Canadian Greens federally.
