Green party rises from obscurity to legitimate political force in B.C.
UVic professor thinks official status in legislature could be within reach
In just four years, the B.C. Greens have emerged from relative obscurity and nagging criticism as a oneissue party to become a legitimate political force with a comprehensive election platform.
They have the party’s smart, likable and hard-working leader (Andrew Weaver, MLA for Victoria-Gordon Head) to thank for that, as evidenced by his credible performance in Wednesday’s televised leaders’ debate.
He scored second in an instant poll, behind the NDP’s John Horgan and just ahead of Liberal Christy Clark.
The Greens are brashly putting themselves forward as a party to govern, adopting the slogan “Change you can count on” — a virtual knock-off of Barack Obama’s “Change we can believe in,” which was used successfully during the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
Political observers suggest the Green party should set its sights on a modest increase in legislative seats.
Norman Ruff, associate professor emeritus of political science at the University of Victoria, says the Greens have grown from a “grassroots ecological movement toward a more fully fledged political party with all its trappings of a leadership-driven organization with a broad provincial policy agenda.
“This is very much Andrew Weaver’s Green party.”
But Ruff sees little indication that B.C. is ready for a “critical re-alignment of voters toward a third alternative,” despite all the “potential vulnerabilities of the governing B.C. Liberals and the public’s alarm about affordability in their everyday lives.” A widespread sense that voting won’t change things that much could make efforts to get out the vote all the more important this time around, he noted.
Ruff also predicts that if the Greens “locate and focus their energies on communities where they are demonstrably seen as local contenders,” such as southern Vancouver Island, they might add a seat or two, or even achieve official party status with four MLAs.
A Mainstreet/Postmedia poll released April 25 found that despite general voter migration to the NDP, the Greens are “just barely hanging on to a lead on Vancouver Island where they are now essentially tied.”
Weaver argues the Greens are capable of drawing from both established parties, as well as “from our key demographic: the non-voter.” He won the only Green seat in the 2013 provincial election, when the party took 8.15 per cent of the popular vote, compared with 44.13 per cent for the Liberals and 39.72 per cent for the NDP.
Weaver observes that his own riding had been held by a Liberal for 17 years, a reference to his victory over former Saanich councillor and Liberal MLA Ida Chong.
“I don’t believe parties own votes. People own votes,” he said in an interview.
“The lion’s share of people are just looking for someone to vote for instead of against, and that’s the opportunity we offer them.”
This election campaign, the Greens are fielding candidates in 83 of 87 electoral ridings.
Some have made the news for all the wrong reasons.
Don Barthel, the candidate in Port Moody-Coquitlam, did a lot of backpedalling after telling a friend on Facebook that he was “just a ‘paper candidate’ ” and “not expected to actively campaign.” The software consultant lives in Vancouver.
The Green candidate in Richmond South Centre is Greg Powell, a United Church minister from Castlegar. Weaver said in his defence that Powell “wanted to be part of our team,” but the only slots available were Richmond or Peace River North. “He’s a very credible person. He’s not a paper candidate.”
Weaver argued that Liberal Leader Christy Clark lives in Vancouver but represents Kelowna, and the NDP candidate in his own riding (Bryce Casavant, a former conservation officer suspended for saving two cubs on the north island) is from Port McNeill.
Clark was defeated by the NDP’s David Eby in the riding of Vancouver-Point Grey in the 2013 provincial election that her party won. Later that year, she ran successfully in a byelection in Westside Kelowna.
Casavant, who is currently renting a condo in Victoria, argues that he turned down a request to run for the Greens because he figured the NDP was the only realistic option for defeating the Liberals. Weaver also noted that Green candidate Jacquie Miller is running in Delta North, where “she spent her whole life,” although she currently lives in Vancouver.
Chris Maxwell is a cancer researcher at B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver, but is running in the NDP riding of Victoria-Swan Lake. He was born, raised, and educated in Victoria.
Weaver argues the Greens have fielded a broad-based and capable team of candidates.
“We have six PhD scientists, three CEOs of tech companies, I don’t know how many teachers ... I’ve lost count. It’s quite a diverse range.”
The party’s youth movement is reflected in 18-year-old beekeeper Samson Boyer, running in Columbia-Revelstoke.
Based on the 2013 provincial election results, one of the Greens’ best hopes for another seat this time is Saanich North and the Islands. (Green MP Elizabeth May was first elected in Saanich-Gulf Islands in 2011.)
The NDP’s Gary Holman scored 33.27 per cent of the vote, compared with 32.76 per cent for Liberal Stephen Roberts and 32.07 per cent for the Green’s Adam Olsen. All are running again this time around.
In 2013, the Greens also did well in Victoria-Beacon Hill — a riding that includes the B.C. legislature — when then-party leader Jane Sterk placed second with 33.82 per cent, behind NDP veteran and former leader Carole James at 48.82 per cent. (The NDP easily defeated the Greens in Victoria in the 2015 federal election.)
This time around, the Green candidate is the lower-profile Kalen Harris, a University of Victoria political science graduate and owner of the Shatterbox Coffee Bar on Pandora Avenue.
Farther up the island, the Greens’ Sonia Furstenau, a director of the Cowichan Valley Region District, could make it a close race in the Cowichan Valley riding, where NDP incumbent Bill Routley is not seeking re-election.
In the Interior, the Greens are putting up a brave fight in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, where the party scored barely five per cent of the vote in 2013.
Excessive logging is a key political issue.
Rita Giesbrecht says she has walked the sprawling clearcuts, and witnessed the tragic decline in moose populations. She has heard from the residents, be they ranchers, trappers, or ecotourism operators, and they are all saying enough is enough.
“We’re done,” asserts Giesbrecht, a 105 Mile resident.
“It has galvanized the community.”
She argues that B.C. has suffered from excessive logging in the name of the pine beetle, increased exports of raw logs, the closing of mills, and greater timber industry oversight of its own affairs — all at the expense of local communities.
“What I’ve seen happen in my lifetime out there is nothing short of criminal,” she says of Liberal policies.
“They come in and do what they want. They throw us a few token jobs and then they leave with the mess to clean up.”
As for the NDP: “They’ve been missing in action on this topic for the last 20 years. There has been a thundering silence from that side of the legislature on this topic.”
Giesbrecht has a long history of community participation based on 27 years’ residency in the region, including in areas of tourism, sustainable agriculture and food security, anti-poverty, family social services, tourism, and the arts.