The Green Party of Canada (French: Parti vert du Canada) is a Canadian federal political party founded in 1983 with 10,000–12,000 registered members as of October 2008. The Greens advance a broad multi-issue political platform that reflects its core values of ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy and non-violence. It has been led by Elizabeth May since August 26, 2006.
The party broke 1% of the popular vote in the 2004 federal election, when it received 4.3% and qualified for federal funding. Its support has ranged between 3.1% and 14% since the 2006 federal election. In the 2008 federal election, the Green Party of Canada was invited to the debates for the first time and achieved a high mark of 6.8% of the popular vote. With just under a million votes, it was the only federally funded party to receive more votes than in 2006, but it still failed to win any seats. In the 2011 federal election the Green Party of Canada saw its share of the popular vote drop to below 4% for the first time in eleven years.
On August 30, 2008, independent MP Blair Wilson joined the Green Party and became its first Member of Parliament. He was defeated in the 2008 federal election, which was called before he had a chance to officially sit in the House of Commons as a Green MP.
On May 2, 2011, Green Party leader Elizabeth May became the first elected Green Party MP to sit in the House of Commons. She won the riding of Saanich—Gulf Islands in coastal British Columbia. In winning her seat, May also became one of the few Greens worldwide to be elected in a federal, single-seat election.
Read more about Green Party Of Canada: Principles and Policies, Leadership, History, Federal Election Results, Internet Innovation, Membership Exclusions, May-Dion Electoral Co-operation, Green Party Role in 2008-2009 Parliamentary Dispute, Provincial & Territorial Parties
Famous quotes containing the words green, party and/or canada:
“It seemed like this was one big Prozac nation, one big mess of malaise. Perhaps the next time half a million people gather for a protest march on the White House green it will not be for abortion rights or gay liberation, but because we’re all so bummed out.”
—Elizabeth Wurtzel, U.S. author. Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America, p. 298, Houghton Mifflin (1994)
“What is the disease which manifests itself in an inability to leave a party—any party at all—until it is all over and the lights are being put out?... I suppose that part of this mania for staying is due to a fear that, if I go, something good will happen and I’ll miss it. Somebody might do card tricks, or shoot somebody else.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“I fear that I have not got much to say about Canada, not having seen much; what I got by going to Canada was a cold.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)