The Green Party of British Columbia

The Green Party of British Columbia headed into 2009 with a new leader following the departure of the high-profile environmental activist Adrienne Carr, who raised the Greens from a marginal party to a viable third option.

The new leader, Jane Sterk, a former Esquimalt town councilor, previously ran for the Greens in the 2004 federal election and the 2005 provincial election but remains a relative political unknown in B.C.

And while the Greens did manage to capitalize on dissatisfaction with the NDP in 2001 and capture 12 per cent of the vote, that support waned in the 2005 election.

Now, the party faces a tough challenge promoting itself and its new leader against the well-oiled and experienced BC Liberal and NDP teams.

Green roots

The B.C. Green Party was launched in 1983 as part of the international network of Green parties around the world.

That year, the new party, led by Adrienne Carr, a prominent environmentalist and co-founder of the influential Western Canada Wilderness Committee,ran four candidates in the provincial election and received a total of 3,078 votes, or just under 0.2 per cent of the popular vote.

The Green vote climbed slowly through the 1980s, but overall support remained marginal, at less than 0.5 per cent, and the party struggled under factional leadership to find mainstream recognition.

Then in 1993, the party selected a new leader, 21-year-old Stuart Parker, who attempted to unite the party and turn it into a viable province-wide party with a focus on social issues and electoral reform, alongside its traditional environmental policies.

In the 1996 election, lead by Parker, the Greens fielded 71 candidates, nearly a full slate, but failed to pick up eventwoper cent of the vote.

Carr returns, snags Greens' first leaders' debate

By 2000, Carr had returned and, with the support of environmentalists, once again took control of the party.

As the NDP government collapsed heading into the 2001 election, Carr had some success positioning the party as a third centrist alternative in B.C.'s traditional left-right political split.

For the first time, a Green party leader was included in the leaders' debate, with Carr debating on television alongside Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell and then-premier Ujjal Dosanjh.

The Greens ran 72 candidates, covering all but five of the province's ridings, and managed to pick up more than 12 per cent of the total vote,

Carr herself won 27 per cent of the vote in her own riding of Powell River-Sunshine Coast, the Greens' best showing to date, but still placed third, and despite hopes of a breakthrough, the party failed to win a single seat.

In the 2005 provincial election, the Greens ran a full slate of 79 candidates. But facing a resurgent NDP led by Carole James, theparty's share of the overall vote dropped to nine per cent, and it once again failed to win a seat.

Shortly afterward, Carr stepped down as leader to become the deputy leader of the Green Party of Canada under newly elected leader Elizabeth May.

More success at municipal level

Despite being shut out at the provincial level, the Greens in B.C. have had better results in municipal elections.

The first Green party victory came in 1990 when residents of Lions Bay elected a Green candidate to council.

During the 1990s, Green candidates won seats on the Port Alberni, Duncan and North Saanich councils.

In 1999, the party made breakthroughs in Vancouver and Victoria, electing candidates to Victoria city council and the Vancouver Park Board.

The party has also long advocated electoral reform, arguing proportional representation would more fairly translate its voter support into seats in the provincial legislature.

Federal ties

The party has ties with but is separate from the Green Party of Canada, which has also failed to ever elect a candidate.

Former federal Liberal MP Blair Wilson, who represented the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding, crossed over to the Green Party of Canada in 2008, becoming its first MP.

But Parliament was dissolved before he actually was able to sit in the House of Commons as a Green Party MP. Wilson ran for the federal Greens in the riding inthe 2008 election but failed to retain his seat.