B.C. Green Party leader Jane Sterk doesn't have much good to say about former interim Green leader Christopher Ian Bennett, who quit the Greens yesterday to join the BC Liberals.
Bennett was the controversial leader appointed by the Green Party after longtime leader Adriane Carr resigned to become federal Green deputy leader under Elizabeth May.
Sterk said she wasn't surprised by Bennett's defection.
"Some people fail to truly understand the Green Movement, especially those who play comfortably in the dysfuntional political system that characterizes British Columbia, as Christopher does," Sterk said.
"Throughout Christopher's brief term [May to October of 2007] as Interim Leader, many Greens thought his views and policy positions were more congruent with the B.C. Liberals than with the Green Party of B.C. So this should be a more comfortable home for Christopher."
Bennett replied in an email.
"I consider Jane Sterk to be an exceptional leader," Bennett wrote. "I haven't a negative thing to say about her or the provincial party."
"But alas," Bennett continued, "the Green tent was not big enough for me and my often centrist or even right wing ideals across some platforms. There didn't seem to be much room for anyone who navigated outside the very leftist and often activist agenda that has dominated the party for so long."
Bennett added, "I feel that those who consider the environment a top priority will find a new and emerging champion in Premier Campbell and his team. Without question he is the 'greenest' Premier we've had in B.C."
Sterk doesn't think anyone who is a true Green could ever vote for Campbell and his party.
"The goals of the two parties are so fundamentally different that no-one who understands Green Principles and Policy would vote for the B.C. Liberals," she said.
Bennett – who was once described as "Wonder Boy" in a public relations news release uncovered by Sean Holman of Public Eye Online – was at odds with many in the Green Party several times during his tenure as leader.
Bill Tieleman comments on B.C. politics for 24 Hours and CKNW.
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Fiat lux
3 years ago
A typical example of the
A typical example of the political mind.
Jumping from an outfit that claims to be friends of the ecology and environment, to another with the worst environmentally destructive record and policies.
But then, why should we be surprised about the harebrained actions of anybody in politics?
Ed Deak.
Tranche Demerde
3 years ago
are they all bad?
Greens should just shoot their leaders before they elect them, then the leaders couldn't shoot the party in the head.
Although the Greens polled as having more support for STV than any other identifiable group during the referendum, they allowed their leader, Adrianne Carr, to tell everyone in the province she didn't support it. "We want what's best for BC" she said at the time, and whatever other gibberish, it was no good for women, it was an inch when we need a mile, she knew some other system that was better we should all choose that, etc. The margin of defeat was so tiny it was Carr that is responsible.
So, after shooting the BC Greens in the head, Carr goes into the federal Greens.
After putting in ten years as leader or something like that, Stuart Parker was cast out as if he were some kind of criminal. He wanted to stay in, and he supported the STV referendum even after he was discarded by the Greens. See if you can get a quote for publication out of Carr, the next leader, about Stuart that says he did one good thing.
Bennett fills in, I don't know him, but what, they've got nothing good to say, how did they end up picking him, do they just reach into the barrel and pick out a name of someone who isn't Green and push them out on the stage?
Where are the grassroots they talk about? Did Bennett have any support at all? Was there anyone on his wavelength and how did it evolve into him leaving?
Are the Greens made out of Asto Turf? (no roots, just fake stuff that looks like its green)
laurentm
3 years ago
Voting system Change
It is becoming more and more obvious that to avoid this kind of flip-flopping, a new electoral system that is more proportional has to be implemented for good in BC, and in Canada at large. This way, the MLAs (MPs) distribution would reflect more closely people's choice. Party members, and leaders for that matter, would have less incentive to swap allegiance, having an avenue for their views to be expressed in the assembly.
The next opportunity to get a new electoral system in place is right here, in BC, when we'll vote in May 09. http://www.stv.ca is the best resource to find information on this and act up. At the federal level, http://www.fairvote.ca/ is the place.
DPL
3 years ago
I do wonder why so many
I do wonder why so many green folks leave the group? But the few left can live on with the 1.81 for each vote they got at the latest fed. election. So who will be the next person to go away ?
David Lewis
3 years ago
As of now I would vote Liberal
As a former elected Speaker for the BC Green party in the late 1980s, I studied the Green Party as much as possible. We were creating Green politics, I felt, and I spent time going to meetings and getting to know who Greens were, what they thought, and what they wanted.
What I was looking for was what I could say as one of the three spokespeople they had elected to speak in the public arena for them, and I took my job seriously. I wrote extensively and tried to put my writings in front of anyone who also was thinking of what Green politics was going to be and I took criticism very seriously. I also studied international Greens.
The one I felt I was in some ways similar to was Bahro in Germany. One hint as to what he thought like is "the fact that the system is falling apart is the best thing about it". He saw the development of Germany, if extended to the rest of the world could not possibly fail to fatally undermine the planetary life support system. He wasn't sure what could be done. But he was clear that it was time to get the whole message out, he meant not pretend you have an answer I think, but to say this is the greatest problem to face Western Civilization since it evolved out of ancient Greece, we've been coming here for a long time and there isn't much time to find a solution. He left the Green party saying he didn't want to be a voice they brought out for rallies while they all figured out how to put "filters on smokestacks" to ensure another gigantic new round of growth was possible so the civlization's fall would be that much more catastrophic when it came.
years pass.... now its earlier this year
I wondered when I heard the voice of James Hansen on radio talking calmly that he expected to testify at the trials for crimes against humanity of some CEOs of fossil fuel corporations. It seemed to set something off inside me, I felt it more than logically thought it out, but I knew that some change must have occurred in the scientific assessment since I had last been active. I started feverishly researching.
It appears that the accepted view, as stated in the Joint Science Academies statement handed to each head of state who attended the G8 recently in Japan is we're about to commit the planetary life support system to the abyss.
James Hansen has done the more recent research and says he was "stunned" to have to be the one to say this but the planet has already passed the threshold level of greenhouse gas accumulation that can in any way be called "safe", so we can be said to be committed already to the abyss, but if we were to turn civilization around on a dime, because of the long lags in the system before change in the driving force i.e. greenhouse gas, can make its inevitable changes felt in the entire planetary system, we could pull ourselves out.
The two positions are one, what thousands of contributors can arrive at after hammering out what they can all agree to after working on it for years, and two what one team led by the best climatologist on the planet says as he ponders his most recent discoveries. Either way its toast for Western Civilization given the very wide gap between what the science is and what the public understands.
Citizens in the UK have attacked a coal plant being constructed and were charged with a criminal offence, Hansen appeared to testify in court, and "the jury found that the six campaigners had lawful excuse because they were acting to safeguard property elsewhere around the world in immediate need of protection from the impacts of climate change driven in part by emissions from coal burning.".
I examined the federal Green Party climate policy before the election and found Hansen would call it "a recipe for global disaster". It went a bit further than the Obama policy in the US. The most practical thing to say I supported something that might possibly get done was to vote Liberal federally. The traditional reason I might have for voting Green even if I accepted there was not the slightest chance of winning a seat was that when I was a Speaker we stood for a solution, not policy that was better than the next guy. So that reason was gone, so I voted Liberal.
I was thrown out of the BC Green Party at the last AGM before the STV referendum. I had made the mistake of letting Carr know I was rejoining and coming down to Victoria to debate her on her opposition to STV, which I saw as a historic mistake she was making. It proved to be just that way. STV was defeated. The Greens federally are whining they didn't win anything, when is the system going to be changed to a PR system. They will be whining here the same way even though they defeated STV last time. When I showed up at the AGM ready to debate Carr as an ordinary member of the party I was barred at the door, refused status, there was no record of my membership they said, but it took a provincial council meeting later that day to decide to refund my membership money the people barring the door had said there was no record of. The provincial council said I was not wanted in their party.
So, for supporting STV then, when the leaders were opposed, I was thrown out. Now the leaders say the party is 100% in favour of the upcoming STV referendum. You've got to be in the right place at the right time. Serious questions came to my mind as to the commitment to democracy the Greens have evolved, and I question how much anyone in there knows about politics as I see such erratic behaviour.
So there isn't much reason for me to support BC Greens now. They won't win any seats in the Legislature until we get PR, and it may be that the last chance for a long while will be the next election when another STV referendum comes up. They should concentrate on winning STV here not on getting elected as MLAs. The entire resources they had last time were thrown into electing one MLA except for a bit into opposing STV and they didn't elect anyone.
I can't vote NDP after seeing what they've done to the carbon tax.
Anyway, if Sterk thinks that anyone who says they were a Green says they are going to vote Liberal couldn't possibly know anything about Green politics I'd say this: if you say so.
Tranche Demerde
3 years ago
I'm voting Brown
Brown is better. Green is bad. Greens don't want hydro power. They don't even want porydroble ernewpo smf tigjtujpr sf psff bmed dtifv rplfgslkd fuid otibskfby fo idljf so there.
S.YEE
3 years ago
Gordan Campbell....?
Go to http://www.saveourrivers.ca/ and after reading it, tell me you still support Gordan Campbell!
The Greens can't stop te BC Liberals, only the NDP can!
If we had a preferential ballot, I would vote Green 1st, then NDP.
Most of us agree we need a new electoral system. We just don't agree on what type of a system!