Why Yukon's Green Party faded to black this election

Yukon's Green Party supporters and volunteers have long awaitedand hoped for a breakthrough election, when their party would become a serious player in territorial politics.

They'll have to keepwaiting.

Yukoners have never elected a Green Party candidate and they won't even have the option this time around there are no Green candidates on the ballot for next month's territorial election.

"It does not feel good. It's actually quite sad for me," said Kristina Calhoun, spokesperson for the territorial party.

"I have been working, you know, over 20years volunteering with Green parties across Canada. And this is I feel like this is really a blow."

Yukon Greens have been active in local elections for nearly two decades, with Philippe LeBlond being the party's first federal candidate in the territory in 2004. The first Yukon territorial election with Greens on the ballot was in 2011.

Thatwas when the party seemed to have some momentum in the territory Green candidate John Streicker finished third in Yukon in the 2011federal election, ahead of the NDP candidate. Streickerearned nearly 19 per cent of the votes in the territory.

"We just didn't have the time to reach out and seek new players to sort of take it on and continue that momentum"- Kristina Calhoun, Yukon Green Party spokesperson

When the territorialelection was called months later in 2011, there were Green candidates in two ridings (one was Calhoun). It was a first forYukon but both candidates ended fourth in their ridings.

And that's when the apparently-blossoming Greens began to wither and fade in Yukon. Inthe next federal election, in 2015, many of those 2011 federal Green supporters parked their votes elsewhere and candidate Frank de Jong finished a very distant fourth.

The territorial election of 2016 was no betterfor the party there were thenfive Green candidates (including Calhoun again), but all finished last in their ridings. And Streicker once the Greens' standard-bearer in Yukon ran and won as a Liberal.

This year, Calhoun says the local party machinery just isn't there. It's been hard to find enough motivated volunteers to organize and mount a campaign, she says.

"It just sort of came slowly over the last four years since the last election, where a bunch of the key players became very busy. And we just didn't have the time to reach out and seek new players to sort of take it on and continue that momentum," she said.

Busy, and discouraged

Calhoun calls Green Party volunteers"very motivated types of people," and she saysmany have started environmentally-focused businessesleaving them little time for politics.

Former leader Frank de Jong the face of the party in Yukon in recent years has also left the territory, she says.

Calhoun also suggests that some Green supporters have simply become discouraged. The first-past-the-post voting system does not serve smaller parties well, she argues, and it's been frustrating to see no real moves toward asystem ofproportional representation.

"People are just sort of getting disenfranchised, like, 'I'm voting, I'm participating in the system,I'm not getting what I want. I'm not seeing the results that I want,'" she said.

"So it's putting a little bit of discontent within the voting public and then it's putting a large discontent within the parties that are trying to work within that system and just not getting anywhere."

Then there's the pandemic. Calhoun says that may have been the "last straw."

"There were some players that were still involved,that the pandemic really just sort of shut down their motivation altogether," she said.

Still, Calhoun is optimistic that the party is just dormant right now in Yukon, and not dead.

The Green Party is still a force in some parts of the country there are Green MLAs in several provinces, and in P.E.I.,the party is theOfficial Opposition. In the last federal election, the party had its best-ever showing, receivingmore than a million votes and winningthree seats in Parliament.

Calhoun says Yukon's Greens will bounce back before the next territorial election in 2025.

"Oh, yes. I mean, there will be an upswell and there will be people that will say, 'hey, I didn't even realize that you were in this situation. What can I do to help?'" Calhounsaid.

"And as soon as I get the first call I can direct them to what needs to be done."