Cost to lead Greens has some seeing red
Party’s $50,000 entry fee questioned by contenders looking to replace May
He won’t plead for your money. But he’s down to crash on your couch.
That’s how Alex Tyrrell plans to campaign for the leadership of the Green Party of Canada. The declared candidate’s antifundraising stand comes as some would-be contenders for the top job are raising questions about the party’s $50,000 entry fee for the leadership race.
The price tag has already prompted Toronto’s Constantine Kritsonis to abandon his nascent bid. Tyrrell said he toyed with dropping out, too, but intends to stay in the race for now. He just won’t “twist people’s arms” for donations and is willing to forgo hotels to sleep in supporters’ living rooms or camp out in highway rest areas. For the 31-year-old “eco-socialist” from Montreal — and Quebec Green leader since 2013 — the non-refundable payment smells like bigmoney politics with no place in the Greens’ self-styled grassroots movement.
“I’m going to try the best that I can to stay in the race,” Tyrrell told the Star. “If the party is for sale, then maybe we have to buy it.”
The Greens announced the entry fee last week in Charlottetown, where party members will choose their next federal leader at a policy convention in October. Candidates who pass the party’s vetting process will get access to the list of 23,000 Green members after they pay $10,000, and must submit the full $50,000 fee by July 31 to get on the final ballot in October.
The fee is much higher than the $1,000 payment in 2006, the last time the federal Greens chose a new leader and years before they elected their first MPs to the House of Commons. It is also higher than the $30,000 entry payment for the 2017 New Democratic Party race, and matches the 2017 Conservative leadership fee (although that party is now asking contenders for $300,000 to enter its race this year).
Jo-Ann Roberts, the Greens’ interim leader, said the payment comes after significant deliberation at the party’s federal council, a committee of representatives elected by the membership. With a minority government in Ottawa, the council wanted to ensure the leadership contest didn’t drain resources needed for an unexpected general election. The $50,000 fee means the party only expects to lose about $30,000 to $40,000 by holding the leadership contest, she said.
Roberts also said the rules allow for an array of candidates to campaign until the end of July by submitting the first $10,000 instalment, even if they can’t muster the remaining $40,000 to stay in the race.
“We want to see that those who seriously enter this race have the ability to inspire. I don’t think that’s asking too much,” she said.
Other declared candidates are begrudgingly accepting they will have to focus on fundraising to win the leadership. David Merner, a former Green candidate on Vancouver Island and first to declare his intention to run, said he would have preferred rules requiring more member signatures than donations, but understands why the party chose a high entry fee.
“Asking people for money is not fun,” he said, “but it’s a key part of politics. Everyone has to do it. And if you can’t do it, you’re not going to be an effective leader.”
Quebec businesswoman Julie Tremblay-Cloutier and Nova Scotia’s Judy Green are also trying to stage leadership bids. Both said they will try their best but acknowledged the fee may be too high a barrier to overcome.
“If the other people can do it then we certainly can, but I ask the question: what if nobody would raise the $50,000?” Tremblay-Cloutier said. “I think it’s a risk for the party to some extent.”
A fifth declared candidate, Toronto lawyer and refugee advocate Annamie Paul, said she doesn’t believe concerns about the entry fee should be aired in the media, but that she is confident her campaign can raise enough money by reaching out to existing members and signing up new ones.