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BC Greens: Rifts or Renewal?

Party looks for a new leader, and compass.

By Richard Warnica, 15 Aug 2007, TheTyee.ca

Ben West

Ben West, leadership candidate.

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When the brain trust of the B.C. Green Party gathered last month to kick off their search for a new leader, the event, held in a small windowless room in downtown Vancouver, drew a smattering of supporters and journalists.

For a party that 28 months ago was considered the third force in B.C. politics, it was not an auspicious launch to their first leadership contest in almost seven years. After the 2005 vote, the Green presence faded, even as green issues boomed. Today the party remains mired where it has been for most of the last decade.

Their core support -- about one in ten British Columbians -- is concentrated among those least likely to vote. Their slate of would-be leaders, meanwhile, is absent anything approaching a household name and the upper echelons of the party are split over where to go next.

Now, with the next provincial vote less than two years away it's worth asking: Do the Greens still matter in B.C. politics?

The five candidates for the leadership announced that early July morning are Ben West, Damian Kettlewell, Jane Sterk, Silvaine Zimmermann and Jack Etkin. Whoever wins will face a daunting task. To snag seats in the next election the party has to move far beyond its base and convince wary voters they are more than a one-issue bunch. And the party will need to heal internal rifts, such as the controversy over its interim leader's support of a BC Liberal-backed free-trade initiative that many environmentalists say would undercut green regulations.

Conservation cred?

Matt Price, coordinator of the influential Conservation Voters of B.C., told The Tyee he had a hard time imagining any Greens getting their endorsement in 2009.

"We'd be open to listening to evidence," Price said. "There are ways they can break through." But after the last election, it doesn't seem likely. "You had Adrianne Carr in the Global TV debate, we endorsed her and she still came in third," he said. "It would be tough to justify that again."

Municipally, it's a different story. In the last Victoria campaign, Price and company did endorse a Green candidate, who won. But "politics provincially and federally, it's a different story," he said. "We're not against Greens. But under the current system, it's a bit daunting."

Best chance behind, or ahead?

Dennis Pilon a professor of political science at the University of Victoria agrees. "My gut answer would be no," they can't make a breakthrough, Pilon told The Tyee. The party's best chance was in the last campaign. If Carr had played her cards right, had used the media coverage she got and maybe picked her riding better, they might have won a seat, Pilon added.

In September 2006, Carr stepped down and took up a new job with the federal party. It took the B.C. party seven months to name an interim replacement. A new elected leader will not be in place until October 2007, more than a year after Carr quit.

Still, Pilon said, a Green MLA in 2009 is, if unlikely, not impossible. If the party found a star candidate with broad appeal outside their current base (David Suzuki for example) and put that candidate in the right riding, they might squeak in, but only if the other two parties split the rest of the vote almost evenly between them. "They'd need a whole bunch of stars to align," Pilon said, "and I don't think that's going to happen."

Warming to the issue

Not everyone is so bearish on the Greens' prospects. Angus McAllister is the president of McAllister Opinion Research, a Vancouver based polling company. In an interview with The Tyee this week, McAllister said there are plenty of B.C. voters who would consider voting Green if the party puts out the right message.

The Greens in this province have two big problems, McAllister said.

The first is timing. Carr left the Greens leaderless at a crucial time. Climate change, the party's bread and butter issue, hit a tipping point in the public consciousness last fall. And with the Greens basically absent on the file, the other two parties -- especially the Liberals -- were able to claim some of their turf.

The second issue, though, is the same one they've always faced.

As a party, the Greens have always had trouble converting theoretical support into actual votes. "They say they're going to vote, but they never do," McAllister said. It's a problem for Green parties everywhere, he added, but is especially acute in B.C. where the core Green support is a concentrated mix of the young -- who generally don't vote -- and the politically disillusioned, who have given up on the present political system.

Young opportunities

Still, McAllister said, the Greens could move beyond that core by tapping into what he called Boomer legacy issues. A lot of younger voters in their late 20s and early 30s are moving themselves into the political market for the first time, McAllister said. And what's driving them there is a sense that the legacy of the Baby Boomer generation has left them with a raw deal.

To win over those voters, the Greens would have to demonstrate how their one abstract issue -- the environment -- translates into concrete day-to-day concerns. If the Greens can tap into the younger voters' discontent over housing prices, urban sprawl and a deteriorating health care system and convince enough of those traditionally reticent youngsters to go to the polls in 2009, they might have some success.

Those voters, however, have to come from somewhere. And in B.C., McAllister said, it is the NDP who have the most tenuous grip on their supporters. So any kind of a Green uprising will come at least to some extent at the New Democrat's expense.

Campbell's Green flank

The BC Liberals, however, are also vulnerable. A full third of their supporters would consider voting Green, McAllister said. And while Gordon Campbell's climate change PR blitz has probably done a lot to shore up that flank, it is not impervious.

The key to targeting both parties, McAllister said, is the same. You have to "translate green issues into day-to-day life."

That is a challenge for any would be Green leader because environmental issues have broad if shallow appeal across the ideological spectrum. Christopher Ian Bennett, the party's interim leader, endorsed a host of policies not usually associated with green politics, including lifting the party's ban on corporate donations and supporting B.C.'s controversial TILMA agreement with Alberta. Free trade creates wealth, and wealth can buy green fixes, he told The Tyee.

Pro-business wing

But Bennett's views have not gone down well with some in the party.

In an interview with The Tyee, leadership hopeful and current Esquimalt councillor Jane Sterk blasted Bennett on the TILMA issue. "Free trade agreements have terrible legacies in terms of environmental and social policy," she said. "He either doesn't understand the agreement or supports the idea that more industrial development is what [this province] needs."

Political scientist Dennis Pilon meanwhile thinks his stand is just plain politically stupid. "I've seen some things this new leader is saying and I've been appalled," he said. "There's not really enough voters to make a soup out of [what he's trying.]"

Damian Kettlewell, another candidate, has also been dismissed by some as too pro-business. Kettlewell "was persuaded to enter the race only by certain provincial councillors who want a more 'business-friendly' Green party," wrote environmental activist Stuart Hertzog on his greenpolitics.ca blog, later adding that "the corporatists on provincial council may pull out the stops to make sure Damian Kettlewell is on the second ballot" in October. This about a candidate who is chair of the B.C. Rivershed Society and drives a vegetable powered Mercedes.

Facebook winner

At the leadership launch in Vancouver, the candidate with the largest entourage was Ben West.

With his beard freshly shorn and clad in an ill-fitting blazer, slacks combination, West looked more like a high school debater than a provincial party leader. But insiders say he is no joke.

The off-the-record insider-whisper campaign has West as the current frontrunner. He is also dominating the equally scientific Facebook endorsement campaign. His nearly 400 supporters as of Aug. 14 is not an insignificant chunk in a party with a membership in the low thousands.

West might be a good candidate to exploit the weaknesses McAllister identified in the NDP's flank. But what about those waffling Liberals? Would the so-called pro-business green community really support a guy twice ran for office under a platform calling for a 32-hour work week?

Electoral reform redux

Other candidates too could have a tough time expanding the party's boundaries. Bowen Island's Silvaine Zimmermann helped get the Green Party off the ground in Canada in the 1980s. But could she appeal to the young lifestyle voters McAllister brought up? And while Esquimalt councilor Jane Sterk told The Tyee she is a "fiscal conservative" who could appeal to all as a "middle class professional" her position against free trade might hurt her appeal to the centre-right.

Perhaps the best hope for the Greens still lies in a new electoral system with more proportional representation, allowing small parties to get seats in the legislature. So it's no big surprise that a major issue for all three of the B.C. Green Party leadership contenders was the second electoral reform vote scheduled for May 2009.

Dennis Pilon, however wonders if, by not supporting the vote last time, the Greens have already blown their one big chance. "I was deeply disappointed with Carr's stance on STV," he said. "It was politically stupid. For her to not make that her key issue -- And to have TV time! TV Time is gold ... I wonder now if they blew it."

Related Tyee stories:

[Tyee]

Richard Warnica is a senior editor at The Tyee.

24 Comments:

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  • bob the cat

    4 years ago

    too compromised..

    You can`t get elected on strictly an environmental platform...maybe ya should..but you won`t..so ..the Green Party here in B.C. and Canada has never been a movement as it was in Europe and to some extent the U.S.
    Silvaine Zimmerman is a very bright lady with a great sense of humour...but after an hour of conversation I came away still confused about who the Canadian Greens are..
    Adriane Carr was handing out pamphlets at a peace march..when I tried talking to her I thought she was going to hit me with her purse.
    They talk of "Green Collar" jobs..whatever that means.
    The Greens in Canada seem to the right to me and yet they seem to get the majority of their votes from the left.
    The Greens really confuse me I guess..I have no idea what they are about...and by voting for them I would feel I would be aiding and abetting the Chamber of Commerce log it burn it pave it group presently ensconced in those stone buildings in Victoria.

  • atom

    4 years ago

    As the pollster says, "the

    As the pollster says, "the key is in translating green issues into everyday life". And if the Greens don't do that, then I guess someone else will.

    In fact, Gordo's wide open on issues like the Gateway project, fish farming and offshore oil, but he's still eating the NDP and the Green's lunch. The Gateway project could be translated into increased neighbourhood traffic. Fish farming and offshore oil could be translated into threats to quality of life issues (are trout farms Gordo's vision of the future of salmon fishing?). No shortage of possibilities.

    The real problem is that NDP policy wonks and the Green yuppies lack the imagination to translate their zoo-topia into the hopes and aspirations of everyday people.

  • tina crouse

    4 years ago

    Tyee wants to be the new 'Greens'

    It's the second time in two months that the Tyee has decided that it's going to tell the Greens how to run our own Party.

    Interim Leader, Christopher Bennett, has not and cannot change Party policy; that is done by the membership at the AGM. Talking about ideas is encouraged in the Green party because we believe in democracy. Something which the Tyee, of all publications, seems to resist, by telling us what we ought to be doing, continuously. It's the membership which decides these things, not the media.

    And if the Tyee doesn't think that our leadership candidate launch was impressive enough, we received national media and television. As for suggestions about youth, note today's media converage on the Green Party's youth poll on Facebook.

    Finally, you frequently quote Steward Hertzog as a main voice of the Party. He is neither elected nor sanctioned as a party spokesperson, so again, you determinedly misrepresent the Green Party because the real news is how far we've come, how fast and this doesn't seem to sit well with your media invention.

    Look for Greens at the polls; you are definitely going to see us there.

    Tina Crouse
    Green Party member

  • rockerbiff

    4 years ago

    The Green challenge...

    The Green's DO face significant challenges ideologically and at the ballot box. However, they do have a wealth of opportunities at their feet including the Gateway Plan [being the only party that opposed it in 2005]; the 2010 Olympics and the greenwashing of BC politics in general.

    Star candidates/leaders have their drawbacks, look what Larry Campbell did in Vancouver. There is no real need for the Greens to have a star candidate other than to superficially outshine other leaders.

    The issues this leadership race will inevitably raise will show the Greens are different than the Liberals and NDP on significant issues - getting those differences heard and dragging voters to the polls will be their challenge.

    Whilst Ben West has the most successful Facebook numbers, do the Greens need someone as youthful ?

    Jane Sterk received the most votes in the Esquimalt municipal election in 2005, if she can translate that support provincially she could indeed be the first Green MLA in BC - to me she's the best Green option. What she lacks in media friendly energy at the moment can be easily remedied via a few media training sessions.

  • tessa

    4 years ago

    error

    It's spelled Silvaine Zimmermann - with an e.

  • bob the cat

    4 years ago

    don`t you mean

    Zimmermann with two "n`s"?

  • Skywalker

    4 years ago

    The Greens area a media creation

    The only time you hear about the BC Greens is when there is an election in which the left might be a threat. Then you can expect the CanWest people to inflate the Greens just enough to take some votes away from the NDP and get their boy Gordon elected. It wouldn't matter who the leader was

  • alive

    4 years ago

    Lazy voters

    The main reason that people vote green is because that is the only way to vote "none of the above" !

    It picks up votes from people who are disillusioned with their "old" parties and are too lazy to attend meetings and reform those parties.

    It is so much easier to walk away than to come up with a constructive suggestion!

    And the excuse is that they also know the greens will not get elected so it matters not if they are a bunch of flakes!

    What lazy voters fail to realize is that Gordo will sneak in again, if the greens are allowed to split the votes!

    If you feel that Gordo is bad for BC, then forget your complexes inspired by the media, and vote for the only alternative.

  • Skywalker

    4 years ago

    The persuit of perfection.

    I can't remember who said it first but the obsession with perfection is a hindrance to progress. If what you say is correct then we have had Gordon twice now only because the people when they vote expect perfection.
    Kinda reminds me of the guy who point the gun to his head and says, "One more step and I shoot."

  • Bytesmiths

    4 years ago

    Spoken like a US Democrat

    "What lazy voters fail to realize is that Gordo will sneak in again, if the greens are allowed to split the votes!"

    Spoken like a US Democrat!

    Let's not blame the victim. The problem is voting reform, not "splitting the vote."

    If there were proportional voting, rather than "first past the post," you'd see more people willing to vote Green, and fewer silly accusations of Greens being spoilers.

    What happened to Gordo's being willing to "listen to the voters" when some 57% of them voted for Single Transferrable Vote? Why don't you hold his feet to the fire on that, rather than berate the Greens for being spoilers?

    Another big evil is fixed election cycles. Big Money can't react to an election called in four weeks. Look south of the border to see what happens when everyone knows when the next election happens: they began raising money for the next presidential election the minute after the polls closed in 2004.

    Get rid of fixed election cycles and implement some form of proportional representation if you want to see a re-vitalized Green Party. Until then, they'll be crushed by the moneyed resources of the Fiberals.

  • alive

    4 years ago

    Lazy is lazy

    proportional voting would be an improvement.
    However lazy voters will be here regardless of what system we end up with!
    So, the statement stands: it is easier to vote against, than to try to reform the party the should represent you.
    Greens have one platform we can agree on, but behing the scenes it is a collection of totally different ambitions, and there is no overall policy.
    I agree we could use more choices, but at the moment we have one common enemy and BC cannot afford to give Gordo one more shot at selling us all out to the highest bidder!

  • Bytesmiths

    4 years ago

    alive wrote: "Greens have

    alive wrote: "Greens have one platform we can agree on, but behing the scenes it is a collection of totally different ambitions, and there is no overall policy."

    With all due respect, I don't think you know what you're talking about. Certainly, you could substitute the name of any party for "Greens" in the above sentence and sound equally ridiculous.

    The way you used the word "platform" makes it sound as though it is trite and simple, like "save the planet." In reality, the Green Party Platform consists of 216 points in a 35 page document. Have you read it? Didn't think so.
    http://www.greenparty.ca/files/GPC_Platform_2006.pdf

    "Ambition" is a funny word. When people use it for themselves, it's good; when used to describe others, it's bad. Politicians of all parties have "totally different ambitions," even within the same party. So why single out Greens here?

    As for "no overall policy," again, Alive demonstrates a rather obvious lack of knowledge about the Green Party. They have a carefully crafted and lucidly explained overall policy, that is aligned with global green parties' policies -- how many other parties can claim that openly? (I'm sure other parties have aligned policies, like "reward the wealthy," but they tend not to advertise them.)
    http://www.greenparty.ca/en/policy

    So please refrain from making such factually inaccurate statements. You can say something like, "In my opinion, some Green politicians don't follow party policy well," but it's just plain wrong to claim there is no overall policy.

  • avandoc

    4 years ago

    voting reform

    I agree with Bytesmiths that electoral reform is essential for any other parties to succeed. Why would the young and disillusioned, who are the Green's supporters according to the author, bother to vote when their candidate has little chance to win a seat? Only with truly proportional representation can minor parties ever become law makers.

    And the matter of fixed elections is important too. Notice that Harper has suggested fixed federal elections. Fixed elections help incumbents and lead to a fossilized electoral landscape, which is what the established parties want. Nothing scares away political challengers more than an incumbent sitting on a big pile of campaign funds.

  • VancouverPointGreen

    4 years ago

    Definitions

    Lazy voters don't vote. The fact that strategic voting is deemed necessary is both proposterous and displays the failure of our political system. There is some obvious education needed on who and what the Green Party of BC is. Unlike the 2 traditional BC Parties that consistantly ride the old-school political spectrum backed by real-estate and natural resourse-based companies or labour and unions. BC desrves another progressive voice that takes into account much more than the often misconstrued attempts by misinformed journalists, like Richard Warnica, to label the Greens as only representing the environment with an ideological split within the Party of the "Pro-business" or "hippy" categories or "RIFT".
    The Greens are a global movement (see www.globalgreens.info/globalcharter.html) that base their policies on ecological economics and social justice based on a Global Charter of which the Green Party of Canada and BC are based on. The compass has always been there and it is non-reactionary (like traditional politics and media). Instead, it is systemic and non-partisan. Most journalists have a really tough time with this notion, as clearly exemplified by our friend Richard in this article, who failed to even interview any of the running candidates. As for polling data, the Greens are gaining ground across the board and the numbers supporting Green candidates in BC could possibly be the highest support in the World! I challenge anyone to find a region where Green support is higher. Alas, our archaic political system has not permitted a high enough support base in any specific area to get elected, but the lack of leadership and compass from the Liberals (reacting to business interests) and NDP (what's new about them anyway?) would invite greater support from whichever candidate wins in the election. The best way to make a difference is to join the Green Party of BC to enable you to vote. Visit http://www.greenparty.bc.ca/ and educate yourselves on the candidates and the tremendous oportunities the GPBC has for this wondeful province that has been terribly managed for far too long. I am encouraged by the new boundaries set by BC's Electoral Boundaries Commission and am hopeful that if the Greens don't make a break-through this upcoming election, they'll be the next time around with a stronger foundation.

  • G West

    4 years ago

    Then why?

    If the Green Party has a platform and is into communicating with possible supporters, why is it that a communication from me with the Greens, the NDP and the Liberals elicited a response (a long personal email from Jack Layton and a two page personal letter from Stephane Dion) from the two latter parties and absolutely NOTHING from Elizabeth May?

    We definitely need electoral reform, but until the Greens actually have a party platform and a position they are proud enough of to actually talk about with individual voters they are not going to get much support from people like me.

    I think a vote for the Greens, given the current system, is much the same as voting for Harper.

    Sorry. Wish it weren't so, but I think it is.

  • Bytesmiths

    4 years ago

    I got my Green response

    G West wrote: "If the Green Party has a platform and is into communicating with possible supporters, why is it that a communication from me [got] absolutely NOTHING from Elizabeth May?"

    Yea, we all know how reliable email is. Could be a disturbance in The Force. Could be it was thrown out with the spam. Heck, it *could* be that Telus just misplaced that communication, as their Big Brother AT&T did with certain lyrics from a Perl Jam concert.

    I have written the Greens, and have received responses. The data set is too small to tell if G West's or my experience is anomalous.

  • G West

    4 years ago

    Nope Bytesmiths

    I thought of that and tried twice more - once with a stamp via Canada Post. The two questions I asked each party leader concerned the party policy on Canada in Afghanistan and on the availability of legal abortion.

    nada on either from Lizzy!

  • VancouverPointGreen

    4 years ago

    Are we talking federal or

    Are we talking federal or provincial here? Why don't you post q's to the candidates that are running provincially?

    Given the non-violence platform of all Green Parties, the Afghanistan answer woud be to pull out or put the blue helmets back on but we don't make the laws right now. I'm looking forward to a good match up against the new Minister of Defence, Mackay, in Nova Scotia when the time comes.

    As for voting FOR Harper or FOR anybody, at least you'd be voting FOR and not AGAINST, G West. That is the point isn't it? And just what is the NDP platform and will it be able to win over BC voters given the slippery slide in the polls?

    I don't recall the NDP bringing up electoral reform at all last election (were they for or against STV? -- at least Carr allowed the candidates the liberty to choose and over 90% were in favour). Where's Carole James these days anyway?... Seems like Gregor Robertson has no mention of the NDP on his new website these days... I wonder why??

  • G West

    4 years ago

    When I sent the questions to Ottawa

    After the new lady had a chance to check in and learn to shift the beast I sent the questions to her because I couldn't find anything on the subject matter I referenced on the Green Party website. As far as I can tell the provincial Green Party is basically in some form of suspended animation right now - no?

    Therefore the questions. As for the provincial situation, if there is a Green Party candidate running in any riding where there's a chance for the NDP to beat Campbell I'd expect them to withdraw. In the one or two cases where the Greens have a decent chance (and not in Saanich and the Islands) I'd expect the NDP to withdraw.

    I know as well as you do that the Greens haven't a hope in hell although I'd be really pleased to see a couple of them elected. However, it won't happen unless someone decides strategic voting is a good idea and gets working on it. As for electoral reform, I'm all for it but I'm not an STV fan. Unfortunately, it is the only option voters have in this undemocratic province in 2009 so I'll vote yes with a heavy heart.

    As for voting against things, socialists like me get used to that...it happens to be a matter of principle – what I’ve seen of the Greens modus operandi I’d be surprised if they could actually come up with a program that has fewer than 200 policy positions, cooperation and cohesion doesn’t seem to be a big thing for them.

  • Geoff

    4 years ago

    Administrator

    Typo fixed...

    Apologies to Silvaine Zimmermann.

  • bc4me

    4 years ago

    Your baggage, G. West

    Could it possibly be, G.West, that Lizzie can think of many, many other things to do than spend any time in corresponding with you?! Methinks you protest too much and while you conveniently mask or disregard your long history of monkey-wrenching the Green scene, there's plenty of folks around who remember too well your shenanigans. In other words your reputation precedes you ... and only time, but not extra stamps, is going to change this outcome in your favour.

  • Skywalker

    4 years ago

    bc4me

    I think you just validated G.West's opinion whether you meant to or not.

  • de Falla

    4 years ago

    Conservation Voters Reveal All

    "...we endorsed her and she still came in third," he said. "It would be tough to justify that again."

    It appears that the Conservation Voters have written off the Green Party as important to the public policy debate.

    The stated logic upon which that decision was made seems to leave the choice of either BCLiberals or NDP candidates to bestow the coveted and influential Conservation Voters endorsement upon in the coming 2009 election.

    By hiring high profile and influential BCLiberal insider lobbyist Jamie Elmhirst for political advice [http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/search?q=elmhirst], has Matt Price further removed the suspense and relieved anxious political speculators and armchair quarterbacks of their collective responsibility to worry about how to chase down that important political endorsement.

    And a warming, but less anxious, planet settles down to many happy evenings of organic popcorn and repeats of the Terminator series.

  • G West

    4 years ago

    to bc4me

    Actually, no, if you really knew anything about what I've written on the Green Party, its current leader, her policy of rapprochement with Stephane Dion relative to Central Nova and the idea of furthering the values of coalition government to better represent Canadians and their valid concerns about what is happening to the world around them, you wouldn't make such an overtly stupid comment about me monkey-wrenching anything.

    I think, in fact, I'd have to agree with Skywalker and assert that's much more a tactic of green activists about which, as a matter of fact, I know a fair bit. Furthermore, my views are and have always been expressed politely, openly and with an almost universal lack of anger and rancor.

    You don't have a point and your post simply underlines that fact.

    Cheers.

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