I lived in the United States for the first 31 years of my life, and moved to Canada in 1981. I was involved with the Green Party of British Columbia off and on from its inception in 1982. I was a Green candidate for the British Columbia legislature in 2001 and 2005. Did well the first time, not so well the second time. After that, I felt that I had made my contribution to electoral politics, and it was time to turn the Green Party of BC and the Green Party of Canada over to the next generation.
I have also supported Democrats in the United States for many years by involvement in Democrats Abroad, and making financial contributions to Democratic candidates I consider worthwhile. I was a total supporter of Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. I regard the Green Party of the United States as an abomination. The purpose of this site is to defend that point of view.
The Green Parties of Canada and the provincial Green Parties have become significant because they have done two things right:
- Recruit environmentalists: One of the Green Party of BC’s early candidates was Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Society. Later on, they got high-profile environmentalist Colleen McCrory. The current leader, Andrew Weaver, was a high-profile environmentalist prior to be elected to the BC Legislative Assembly.
- Run candidates at the local level: Anybody can talk about grass roots activism, but talk is cheap. It took a few years, but the Green Parties in the provinces ran candidates and got them elected to city councils and boards of regional districts. This led to election of Greens as mayors and members of provincial legislatures. And, in many cases, the successful candidates had a history of community activism.
The Green Party of the United States is notorious for having done none of these things.
In 2000, they nominated Ralph Nader for President. Nader was not even a member of the Green Party, and had no interest in developing it as a more significant political organization. The consequences of Nader’s candidacy were the election of George W. Bush as President, two tragic wars, and the emptying of the US treasury. Since then, they have managed to elect 23 mayors; the high-water mark was a close race in San Francisco in 2003, which was won by Gavin Newsom. They have gotten multiple members elected on a few city councils. They do not currently have a single member in a single state legislature.
If you look at prominent environmental activists in the US; Bill McKibben, Daryl Hannah, Ed Begley, Julia Hill, Lester Brown, Paul Hawken, etc. none of them support the Green Party of the US. Winona LaDuke was Nader’s running mate, and even she supported Democrats in 2004, 2008, and 2012.
I do my US voting in Washington State. In 2016 and 2018, there was only one Green Party candidate on my primary ballot, both of them obvious flakes running for the US House of Representatives. No Green candidates whatsoever for the state legislature.
As I wrote earlier, talk is cheap. You can teach an eight-year-old to say slogans like “think globally, act locally.” Actually doing it? That’s hard work.