greenpolitics.ca

It’s time for the four Canadian opposition parties to come together in a coalition to stop the awful prospect of yet another mandate for what could soon prove to be the meanest, most secretive, most militaristic, and most repressive ultra-right government in Canadian history.

After a hotly-contested race, the BC Green Party chose Esquimalt councillor Jane Sterk as their new Leader. She’s going to have to use all her impressive political and personal skills to repair the damage of the previous eleven months and build the party into a vote-getting machine for 2009.

The BC Green party’s attempt at broadcasting its final leadership debate live over the Internet quickly turned into a technical bust. But every cloud has a silver lining: they’re using it as an exercise in damage control. Could this be a sign that the BC Green Party is becoming like all the others?

Since his appointment in April, Christopher Ian Bennett has been acting like a crazy Caribbean pirate, firing off his personal opinions like a loose cannon while steering the party ship onto some very sharp and dangerous political rocks. Unfortunately, he’s been leaving many members behind, and should be stopped.

Although it’s the height of summer and the last thing British Columbians want to think about is politics, the BC Green party leadership race is finally getting under way. Lack of official party support for an all-candidate leadership tour only allows a first impression gleaned from brief conversations plus a close inspection of their respective campaign web sites. My detailed evaluation of the line-up says that it’s shaping up to be a two- or maybe even a three-horse race.

The BC Green party doesn’t have a good track record when it comes to choosing a leader. Although she handled the provincial media fairly well and performed successfully in the televised leadership debate, in my opinion former leader Adriane Carr’s reign was a disaster for the Green party.

Conventional thinking maintains the view that Green parties will not be effective until at least one elected Green sits in Canada’s parliament or a provincial legislature. This ignores the fact that the mere threat of Green environmental candidates has already forced Canada’s major political parties to hurriedly ‘green’ their image.

Something rotten is eating away at the heart of the Green Party of British Columbia. It’s called corporatism, and it functions through elitism, control of decision-making, and restriction of information. Right now, many Greens are wondering whether the Green Party of British Columbia can still claim to be Green.

There are basically two kinds of political and social leader — those who seek power over others, and those who lead by example and empowerment. Green politics was never supposed to imitate the ‘top-down’ authoritarianism of the mainstream political parties. Green politics rests on the belief that everyone in a free and democratic society has the right to voice and vote in decision-making.