The is a . The Greens, as their name indicates, advocate
Green Politics and are the largest party in Canada to focus primarily on green politics, though other parties have included environmental stances in their platforms.
The party's support has ranged between 4.5% and 13% since the
2006 Federal Election and has not polled below 6% in any opinion poll in 2007.
Tories lead Grits by three points in Canada In the 2006 election, the Green Party of Canada received 4.5% of the total vote but did not win any seats.
Official voting results
Elizabeth May is the current leader of the party. She was elected on the first ballot by 65% of voting party members on
August 26 ,
2006 .
See Also: History of the Green Party of Canada
The Green Party of Canada was founded in 1983. In the
1984 Federal Election , the party ran 60 candidates (out of a possible 282 ridings).
Until it received federal funding in 2004, the Party had little capacity to organize itself between elections, and as late as 2000 the party had no persistent infrastructure, and was based out of the same office as the
Green Party Of Ontario .
A ,
Elizabeth May , and
Jim Fannon . May won the leadership with 65% of the vote on the first ballot.
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.
An emphasis on a
Green Tax Shift in the 2004 platform 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 from the application of a Green Tax Shift would be intentionally offset by changes in individual tax rates and categories as well as an 'eco-tax" refund for those who pay no tax.
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.Martin, Chip.
Left, right support Green ''London Free Press''
The ecumenical approach (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 has however not been discerned the degree to which this process has contributed to phenomena like the Liberal Party of Canada adopting several key items which also appear in 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. Neither have the relative degrees of influence been discerned which non-partisan environmental groups and the party's own Green wing have in developing the policies of the Green Party.
Under Elizabeth May's leadership, the Green Party has begun taking stances on issues not directly related to the environment - for example, supporting labour rights
and poppy legalization in Afghanistan .[http://www.elizabethmay.ca/news/Legalize-and-commercialize-the-Afghan-poppy-crop.php
.]]
Long-time environmental activist and lawyer Elizabeth May won the leadership of the federal Green party at a convention in Ottawa on
August 26 ,
2006 . She won with 2,145 votes, or 65.3 per cent of the valid ballots cast and the second-place finisher
David Chernushenko , an environmental consultant, collected 1,096 votes or 33.3 per cent of the total.Canadian Press, [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Page/document/v5/content/subscribe?user_URL=http://www.theglobeandmail.com%2Fservlet%2Fstory%2FRTGAM.20060826.wmay0greens0826%2FBNStory%2FNational%2Fhome&ord=10584270&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true May wins Green Party leadership]
On , who ran against
Elizabeth May for the party leadership, is currently the Senior Deputy to the Leader.
Previous leader
Jim Harris was first elected to the office with over 80% of the vote and the support of the leaders of all of the provincial level Green 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 the
Liberal Party Of Canada .
Source:
Elections Canada
The Green Party fielded candidates in all 308 of the nation's
Ridings in the last two federal elections. In the
2006 Federal Election , the Green Party received 4.5% of the popular vote, only slightly more than in 2004, despite having received public funding (over $1 million
CAD per year) for the first time and receiving more media coverage.
No Green Party candidate has yet been elected to the federal or provincial level of government in Canada. Members of the party have achieved municipal offices, though most were elected as individuals and not on Green Party slates or labels in local (at least officially) non-partisan municipal elections. However, some people have been elected with a Green Party affiliation identified directly on the ballot. The first two were elected in the 1999 municipal elections (20 November, 1999):
- Art Vanden Berg, elected as a City Councillor in Victoria, British Columbia, and
- Roslyn Cassells, elected to the Vancouver Parks Board on the same day.City of Vancouver, Election Summary Report November 20,1999
Current Greens in office include:
Andrea Reimer was elected as a trustee on the Vancouver School Board in 2002, and
Sonya Chandler was elected to the
Victoria, BC , council as a Green. Former Councillor
Elio Di Iorio was narrowly defeated in his 2006 reelection bid in
Richmond Hill, Ontario and former Councillor
Rob Strang did not run for reelection in
Orangeville, Ontario . The late
Richard Thomas served as reeve of
Armour Township, Ontario from 2003 until his death in 2006. There are about 16 other Greens elected to local governments in BC.
In the 2004 election, the consortium of Canadian television networks did not invite Jim Harris to the televised
Leaders Debate s. The primary reason given for this was the party's lack of representation in the House of Commons. There were unsuccessful legal actions by the party, a petition by its supporters to have it included, and statements by non-supporters such as
Ed Broadbent who believed it should be included.
The Green Party was also not included in the leaders' debates for the
2006 Election ."
Leaders' Debate, " Green Party of Canada press release, November 30, 2005. The same reason was given
CBC ombudsman's review , 2006, although some also believed the party's lack of visibility and meaningful input into Canadian federal budgets and bills was a factor.
The Green Party continues to campaign for these measures.
While the organizing and election planning was centralized, policy development was to be 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.
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.
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 that called upon the government to implement
Genuine Progress Indicator s (GPI). While the act was introduced into the
House Of Commons as a private members bill, it never became law. A small number of Greens who advocate the more cooperative approach to legislation object to the new rule not to hold cross-memberships, a tool they occasionally employed.
In 2005, some members of the Green Party of Canada who disagreed with what they considered to be the right-wing direction taken by leader
Jim Harris founded the Peace and Ecology Party of Canada. This left-wing political party was devoted to issues such as labour, the environment, and bioregionalism. The party was never registered with
Elections Canada , did not run candidates in the
2006 Federal Election , and no longer maintains a website.
Google cache of the PEP website.
With
Stéphane Dion winning the Liberal leadership on a largely environmentalist platform, and both the Liberals and Greens having a shared interested in both defeating the Conservatives, whose environmental policies have come under criticism from members of both parties, and in taking away left-wing votes from the
New Democratic Party , some political observers questioned if an alliance of some sort between the two parties might take place.
When May made the announcement that she would run in
Central Nova , currently held by
Peter MacKay , local Liberals would "neither confirm nor deny" that they had had discussions with May over ways to de-seat MacKay.
{Link without Title} . On March 21st, Dion said, "Madame May and I have conversations about how we may work together to be sure that this government will stop to do so much harm to our environment,". The speculation was confirmed when Dion and May agreed not to run candidates in each others ridings. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/04/12/dion-may.html
May earlier attempted to broker a deal with the NDP, by contacting
Stephen Lewis to set up a meeting with party leader
Jack Layton , who both rejected the notion outright. When the May-Dion deal was announced, it was criticized by the Conservatives and NDP.
1
2 Allan Woods,
"Green party strategist resigns over pact," ''Toronto Star'', April 17, 2007.
