VICTORIA - Despite taking a beating at the polls in the May 12 provincial election, participants at the British Columbia Green Party's Annual General Meeting set a positive tone.
"Some of us have gone through a roller coaster of emotions over the last 10 days," said party chair Walter Meyer zu Erpen in his opening speech.
Those emotions didn't show as the party celebrated campaign successes and discussed tactics for the next four years.
"Those who suggest the Green Party is just going to fade away are living in some sort of political fantasy land," said Meyer zu Erpen. He congratulated Green candidates on doing well at the polls despite limited funding and shaky media coverage.
"I think we all had hopes of a breakthrough in this election," said party leader Jane Sterk.
Green Party candidates received eight percent of the popular vote in the recent election, down from results in 2005 and 2001. No Greens were elected to the Legislature.
Sterk's lunchtime speech touched on many of the issues discussed throughout the day.
Activity in the four years between elections is key, Sterk said. She laid partial responsibility for the Greens' lack of success on party disorganization.
"If we're at the same stage as we were at eight weeks ago in 2013, we're not doing that again," she said.
Also, the party should broaden its messages, she said. "I don't think we even need to talk about the environment anymore," she said. "Everybody knows we have the best environmental policy."
Instead, Sterk called for a stronger public relations focus. Greens need to be more assertive about going after votes and maintaining party visibility between elections, she said.
"I think we need to recognize that we can't just be nice people with good policy," she said.
The party came under fire in March after releasing the "Green Book," their platform, which stated support for ending the drug prohibition and bringing back a provincial police force. Sterk called the current version of the Green Book "version 1.0", saying revisions were necessary and the party needs to improve on seniors, childcare, and arts and heritage policy.
More aggressive fund raising is also essential for the Greens to gain political force, Sterk said.
Ideas flew thick and fast at the AGM. However, Sterk and other party members cautioned, party change needs to be tempered by evidence and research.
Sterk said the process will start for her when she returns in early August. After what she described as "a hard campaign," the party leader is headed for a vacation.
Kat Eschner reports from Victoria.
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seth
2 years ago
sign up
Every progressive in the province should be signing up the Green Party in an all out to effort to stop these morons from ever running again. The parties constitution must be changed so the Green party is an advocacy organization only.
In a province run by Neocon fascists, where the voter has less sense than a George Bush supporter, and the mainstream media is fascist controlled, we cannot afford to split the progressive vote.
guru
2 years ago
Greens not facing reality
The Green Party has neither the resources or the leadership capabilities to win seats in any election. Their only hope was for the STV to pass. The Greens have become a party of delusional people who are doing more harm than good. Thanks to the Greens the BC NDP lost in 13 ridings by splitting the vote. But I will give the Greens credit for at least trying to talk with the NDP, which rebuffed any deal making. This was the second serious error by BC NDP management. The first being their election messaging strategy - a complete failure.
Sgreengoblin
2 years ago
moron
You are utterly out of touch with reality to imagine A) the NDP are 'progressive B) Greens 'split' the NDP vote.
Get real - the Greens own that vote as shown by its stability in the face of the petty 'strategic' 'vote splitting' rhetoric that spews out of political.
If NDP supporters want to improve their chances of unseating Campbell then they have to stop kissing the Liberals ass on Gateway and suicidal growth economics. The only thing 'green' about the NDP is the envy they have for the BC Greens truly progressive platform.
Skywalker
2 years ago
Well Sgreengoblin
Just remember you can take credit for every devastating blow the environment gets from Gordon Campbell in the next four years. If that isn't ass kissing before an after the election I don't know what is. You can take comfort that your principles, whatever they are, will be intact.
You expect us to vote for college students with little experience or thought given to the policies they parrot. Talk about being out of touch.
Kevin Dale McKeown
2 years ago
Dissing 125,000 Voters
Full disclosure: I was the media relations director for the Green Party during the provincial election.
That said: Comment posters should bear in mind that in dismissing Greens as "delusional" and "morons" they are dissing 125,000 fellow British Columbians who voted Green. That's a lot of dissing.
And, I keep asking, from whence comes the notion that Green votes are somehow "stolen" from the NDP? Votes don't "belong" to any party. They belong to the voters. How presumptuous of you to assume that without a Green Party to vote for we would all march lock-step to the NDP drummer.
Luke Skywalker
2 years ago
guru...
That's akin to saying that thanks to the federal NDP as well as the federal Greens, the federal Liberals lost the last election by splitting the vote in ridings across Canada.
And as a result we have Stephen Harper.
KevinC
2 years ago
Thanks Kevin
Thanks for your hard work in the election. Better luck next time round.
And yes, presumptuous, not to mention arrogant, just about sums it up. Traits which are not monopolised by either the right or the left, it would seem.
It amazes me that people who would style themselves "progressive" see the preservation of the status quo, a USA-style two-party state, as desirable. How reactionary.
Frank
2 years ago
Luke
Although I agree with you about the vote thing I want to know what you have against Stephen Harper? What will Ignatieff do differently?
Rod Smelser
2 years ago
Too many purges!
The Canadian Greens, nowhere more than in B.C., have suffered as a genuine political party from too many purges over the years. The aggressive upending of former provincial leader Stuart Parker by the Adrienne Carr forces is but one example. A party engaged in personal backstabbing is not going to be having thoughtful policy discussions.
It's interesting that the emphasis in the article is on elections, organization, and communications. Yes, the policy booklet is mentioned, but only to say it's a work in progress. Don't expect any progress beyond getting the thing focus group tested and hiring some more polished wordsmiths to make it more palatable to the average voter.
Many Green leaders and candidates are quite right wing on labour issues, and I doubt they took many more votes from the NDP than from the BC Liberals on May 12th. Witness their candidate in Oak Bay-Gordon Head who presented a boquet and boquets to the narrowly re-elected Liberal Cabinet Minister in his riding, thanking her for encouraging and supporting his campaign!
It's a bit different at the Federal level where the interest of Liberal opinion shapers at DeSmogBlog.com and elsewhere is in raising the apparent profile of the national Greens in an attempt to prevent growth in Jack Layton's support. That whole operation got it's start in David Suzuki's living room where he hosted Elizabeth May's first leadership drive event, and had its first big outing in the London byelection of late 2006.
It's probably successful in that regard, but only at the price of seeing them suck away some Liberal votes as well. I guess that's a price that top Liberal strategists are willing to pay.
Dan the socialist
2 years ago
All the Greens will do is
All the Greens will do is get the Liberals elected again and the environment will continue to suffer...
Skywalker
2 years ago
Who's dissing who
I think the point is made that Greens are more Liberal than anything else and that is really the whole point. The holier than thou attitude is a farce. They are a group who spout saving the environment and in an indirect way keep the liberals in power. It's just talk and it protects the status quo.
G West
2 years ago
Respectfully
There was one way to change the outcome of the May 12 election...it was not to vote Green; that said, I'm with Frank, people are free to cast their votes wherever they like.
I don't think that negates the essential point that, under the current electoral system, voting Green isn't likely to achieve anything but more right wing hegemony in British Columbia.
Whose fault is that?
I'd say it lands on the shoulders of the voters...
crh
2 years ago
125,000
votes is a fair number. However, once they are spread out into 85 ridings, it wears really thin. This is lost power to the green voice. If you all cannot see this then you are doomed to repeat the same results over and over again. Green voices would be louder if they were all together in one advocacy group, or pressing issues from within an existing party. With only two parties in the legislature, and with Liberal majority we only get dictatorial governing from Mr Campbell and no green voices heard at all. Not desirable, it's just the way it is.
Also, we never hear much from the Greens in between elections. Maybe keep up pressure as an unoffical opposition.
deeby
2 years ago
Blame yourselves....
Save this for Adrianne Carr, whose petulant opposition to the '05 referendum question did more to perpetuate the status quo than Tielemann, Shreck and the inept 'No' campaign combined.
deeby
2 years ago
umm....
...that's 'inept Yes campaign'.
[Sheepish Grin]
Moonbug
2 years ago
many of those 125 000
many of those 125 000 didn't know that some of your candidates were openly supporting the Liberals - like Steven Johns.
It actually makes me happy to read comments here from Green posters which are nothing but vicious and defensive.
It reaffirms what I believe about the most involved of the greens being, at best politically clueless, and at worst, purposefully trying to undermine the left.
Of course no one "owns" voters - but the fact is the average uninformed voter thinks the greens are "left" and "progressive" - which has the potential to undermine NDP support.
As for the Greens reaching out to the NDP, I've never seen it. A comment to Charlie Smith is hardly an overture. That is the most I've ever seen in that regard.
Anyway, the NDP actually has to be credible, run credible candidates and have credible policies.
It is hard to imagine the NDP joining the green party as long as their candidates are showering praises and bouquets on Liberals like Ida Chong (who has never once stood up against the removal of land from the TFL and the development of the Jordan River lands - SO GREEN!)
Meanwhile more than half of their candidates couldn't string a coherent sentence together if their life depended on it, and half of the other half made up policy on the fly.
The remaining quarter was reasonably credible and should have been the only candidates running. I think Chris Parent (quoted here in the Tyee) is right - if the Greens were really interested in gaining some credibility (and maybe, eventually a seat!) they would only run strong candidates.
Of course, they are not really interested in credibility or seats. The leadership is in the pocket of Gordon Campbell, has been since the purges, and will continue to be.
Way to go, Green party. Thanks for killing fish and destroying rivers!