GREEN PARTY WILL HAVE NO ALLIANCES with OTHER PARTIES

Oldtown News
Vancouver, BC

GREEN PARTY WILL HAVE NO ALLIANCES with OTHER PARTIES

At the BC Green Party annual general meeting held this weekend in Victoria, party members assembled to discuss the recent election results and to map out strategies for leading the party toward the 2013 election.

A small segment of the BC Green party including one significant party member had immediately after the election spoken out offering up to a number of media the possibility of the Green party joining the NDP in an electoral alliance. This important party member has a small group of supporters and I call them our Green rat-packers.

The only problem with this move by the member was that he had not consulted with the members of the party or the Party Leader. Although this issue was put forward at the AGM it did not have any traction.

In fact these Green rat-packers were desperately attempting to push through at the AGM that the Party undertakes a poll on the question of whether they want the Green party to support an electoral alliance with another party.

This Green Rat-Packer with his gang of three pushing for the move are engaging in divisive politics which if allowed to continue will ultimately hurt the party. They need to come to the realization that Green party supporters support the Green Party and not the NDP or BC Liberals. If these rat-packers or as they style themselves 'Greens in Suits', think otherwise, they are showing themselves as opportunists who care less about the greater good of the Party and appear motivated by their own egos. They have obviously over estimated their self-importance in the party.

The Green Party attracted over 125,000 voters and the Green Party members assembled at the AGM continually articulated this positive outcome. Members want to build constituency associations and increase the party membership to steer us toward 2013. The party has no campaign debt and demonstrates that we live within our means. Members generally concurred it was a good campaign even though we did not win any seats.

At the AGM in the campaign debrief sessions, members including about 40 candidates in the recent election clearly rejected the idea of discussing any electoral alliances with other parties saying it was far too premature to even think along those lines especially considering 125,000 voters endorsed the Green Party and its vision & ideals.

The Green Party must move forward without any hindrances and if a certain small group think they know what is best for the party, they should seriously think about moving on as they seem completely out of step with Green Party members and supporters on this issue.

Jamie Lee Hamilton
tricia_foxx@yahoo.com