An Introduction to the Green Party

The Green Party in Canada was established in 1980. It has contested every federal election since 1983 with the most recent result being 4.48% of the vote in the 2006 federal election when the party ran 308 candidates across the nation. It now operates in eight of the ten provinces and is part of a world-wide political movement. In 2001, the Global greens were organized as an international political movement and adopted the six guiding principles of the Global Greens Charter:

• Ecological wisdom
• Social justice
• Participatory democracy
• Nonviolence
• Sustainability
• Respect for diversity

I first became aware of the Green Party during the 1993 Canadian General Election. They were participating in a televised small parties debate. Witnessing that here were people standing for principles and knew that they had little chance of attaining any real power, I was inspired. It left an impression on me that I too would eventually get involved in politics.

In 1995, I researched all of the political parties including the smaller parties and decided to join the Greens. I found that I agreed with their values the most, particularly that everything is interconnected and that you cannot have a healthy economy without having a healthy ecology. I liked their position on Proportional Representation which became one of the main reasons behind my involvement in that movement. The philosophical and political cohesiveness energized me enough that I threw myself into helping get the Green Party established in Manitoba by:

• Helping form the provincial chapter of the Green Party of Canada in the spring of 1997.
• Helping host the 1st ever Manitoba based Green Party of Canada conference called ‘The Greens on the Red’ in the summer of 1998.
• Accepting the responsibility as founding President of the Green Party of Manitoba between November 1998 and summer 2002.
• Running as a one of six candidates in the Greens’ 1st Provincial Election in 1999.
• Assisting with the 2001 Federal and the 2003 Provincial Elections.

No single person can ever take credit for organizational creation or success. I was blessed to work with a multitude of dedicated and earnest people. During those early years, we practiced camaraderie and had fun despite our perception about the seriousness of our purpose. I remember thinking out loud that even with the environment being destroyed, us being angry and upset is not going to change anybody’s mind about the matter. We needed to use reasoning sugar-coated with humor to get our message across.

Yet despite the national rise of the Greens and the momentum that was taking place locally under the inspired leadership of Markus Buchart, I found myself becoming disenchanted with politics. In 2002 I stepped down as President and did not run again for a Council seat despite encouragement to do so. In hindsight, I had sensed that something malignant has infested the party and I did not have the energy to fight the battles that would soon take place…

Keep tuned for a future blog on what is happened to the Greens and what is happening now.

Popularity: unranked [?]