B.C. Green Party leader resigns

Adriane Carr, who helped found B.C.'s Green Party and led it for the past six years, has resigned because she feels it's time for a new leader and a different direction.

Carr, who helped create the party in 1983, told its provincial council on Sunday she plans to leave at the end of November.

"I believe it is absolutely in the best interest of the Green Party," she said.

"I really feel strongly that the party, which is going to head into a leadership race next year, needs to be open to new energy, new leadership and a revitalization that'll move it forward to the next level."

Carr, who was reaffirmed as leader at a party convention in Kelowna in October 2005, said one reason she decided to step aside was the reaction after Elizabeth May became leader of the federal Green party in August.

'A good leader knows when it's time to move on'

"I saw that party completely revitalized by it," Carr said. "I want the same thing for the B.C. party. I think her leadership federally will move all the Green parties forward.

"I really believe a good leader knows when it's time to move on and open the door to new leadership. It's my time provincially to open the door to new leadership here."

Carr ran as a Green candidate in the 1983, 2001 and 2005 provincial elections as well as in the 1984 Vancouver school board election.

Under Carr, the Greens won about 12 per cent of the vote in the 2001 provincial election, but they dropped to nine per cent in 2005.

Carrhad been seen as the party's best chance to get a seat in the provincial legislature in 2005, but she finished third in her riding of Powell River-Sunshine Coast more than 4,000 votes behind the NDP winner.

Carr championed electoral reform

Carr, a former college instructor, said she is proud of the push she made for electoral reform in British Columbia.

A referendum on whether the province should move to a different form of electing members almost passed in the 2005 election. Another vote is to be held in 2009.

The referendum will allow voters to choose between the current system or one called the Single Transferable Vote (STV), which allows people to rank their choices among several candidates.

Before becoming party leader, Carr was also one of the forces behind the 1993 memorandum of understanding to preserve Vancouver Island's Clayoquot Sound.

"It has been the biggest environmental issue in Canada's history," she said. "A lot of people right now are worried Clayoquot might fall apart."

A decision by First Nations groups in the region opened the door to potential logging in the sound earlier this summer.

"I am absolutely still committed to ensuring that Clayoquot is protected," she said.

Carr says she will still be involved with the Green Party, but she doesn't know in what capacity.