The Hook

Looking at the Green Party of Canada's website, it would be easy to get the impression the party is totally unprepared for the October 14 election.

While leader Elizabeth May got some press for her campaign launch in Guelph and there's significant interest in what the Greens will do this time out, the party's posted list of candidates includes many vacancies.

In British Columbia, a province more open to the Greens than most, as of September 8 the site lists candidates in just 16 of 36 ridings. Manitoba has five Green candidates listed in 14 ridings, New Brunswick two in 10 and Newfoundland zero in seven.

Not to worry, said Rob Hines, the Green Party's regional organizer for B.C. and the north in an interview a few days before the election was called. The website is not up to date and a few last nomination meetings are quickly filling the remaining slots, he said. Once the writ is dropped the party can name candidates, though the policy is to have local constituency associations pick candidates whenever possible.

“We're at 30 of 36 in B.C.,” he said. “We'll very shortly have a full slate.” Across the country the party will run candidates in 307 of 308 ridings, the only exception being Stéphane Dion's riding of Saint-Laurent--Cartierville.

The named B.C. candidates include as many as eight with very competitive campaigns, Hines said. They include Adriane Carr in Vancouver Centre, Blair Wilson in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country, Andrew Lewis in Saanich-Gulf Islands, Huguette Allen in Okanagan-Shuswap, John Fryer in Nanaimo-Alberni and Daniel Grice in Vancouver-Quadra.