The Green Party of Prince Edward Island is a registered provincial political party and one of the three major parties in Prince Edward Island, Canada. The party was founded by Sharon Labchuk, a political organizer for the federal

Green Party of Canada The Green Party of Canada (french: Parti vert du Canada) is a federal political party in Canada, founded in 1983 with a focus on green politics. The Green Party is currently the fifth largest party in the House of Commons by seat count. It el ...

. It is a party in the international green political tradition, espousing environmentalism,

grassroots democracy Grassroots democracy is a tendency towards designing political processes that shift as much decision-making authority as practical to the organization's lowest geographic or social level of organization. Grassroots organizations can have a var ...

, and social justice. The party was registered in 2005 and first ran candidates in the 2007 general election. In the 2015 election, the party elected its first member of the

provincial legislature In South Africa, a provincial legislature is the legislative branch of the government of a province.'' Chapter 6: Provinces'', Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. The provincial legislatures are unicameral and vary in size from 30 ...

: leader Peter Bevan-Baker defeated a Liberal incumbent to win the district of Kellys Cross-Cumberland with 54% of the vote. The party won 8 seats in the 2019 election and, as the second largest party in the legislature, formed the

Official Opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''th ...

for the first time in the history of any Green party in Canada.

History

Founding (2006–2012)

The Green Party ran 18 candidates during its first election in May 2007, winning 3.04% of the vote, or 4.44% in ridings contested, and replacing the Island New Democrats as the Island's third party. The result was the first time a Green Party had bested a New Democratic Party at the federal or provincial level in Canada. A third of all candidates won more than 5.40%. Jamie Larkin had the best result of 8.45%, followed by dentist Peter Bevan-Baker at 6.84%, Cindy Burton at 6.68%, Party leader Sharon Labchuk at 6.03%, Denise Reiser at 5.79%, and Jodie Bowmaster at 5.40%. All other candidates captured less than 5.0%, however 14 out of the 18 candidates had placed ahead of the NDP, with two of the four candidates who finished fourth doing so by just one and two votes. The party ran a candidate in the 2007 by-election to replace Pat Binns in the riding of Belfast-Murray River. Candidate Ahmon Katz finished with 3.2%, ahead of NDP candidate Jane McNeil. In the 2011 general election the party increased its number of candidates from 18 in the 2007 election to 22, and upped the vote share from 3% to 4.4%, or 5.3% in ridings contested, beating out the Island New Democrats for third place again. The party increased its votes per riding from 138 to 147, even though turnout in the province fell from 84 to 77%. Party leader Sharon Labchuk, running in Charlottetown-Victoria Park, had the best result at 12.82%, followed by Elizabeth Schoales in Charlottetown-Brighton at 10.17%, and Peter Bevan-Baker in Kellys Cross-Cumberland at 9.36%. At 59%, the party had the highest number of women candidates in the 2011 election. The Green Party was the first Canadian political party to run more than 50% women candidates.

Bevan-Baker era (2012–present)

Sharon Labchuk resigned the leadership of the Green Party on July 12, 2012. She was succeeded by Peter Bevan-Baker on November 3, 2012. The party released its platform for the 2015 election on March 20, 2015. In that election, leader Bevan-Baker was elected in the district of Kellys Cross-Cumberland with 54% of the vote, and won the party's first seat, and only the second seat ever won in the legislature for a third party. The party secured their second seat in a by-election to fill a vacancy left by retiring Charlottetown-Parkdale MLA

Doug Currie Douglas W. Currie (born 25 June 1961) is a Canadian politician who represented the electoral district of Charlottetown-Parkdale in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island as a member of the Liberal Party from 2007 until his resignation ...

on November 27, 2017. This was the first time in Island history that a third party won in a by-election. Bevan-Baker pursued a strategy of broadening the Green Party's focus so as to place social concerns such as affordable housing at the forefront, rather than its traditional association with environmentalism, in the hopes of appealing to voters and appearing as more than a

single-issue party Single-issue politics involves political campaigning or political support based on one essential policy area or idea. Political expression One weakness of such an approach is that effective political parties are usually coalitions of faction ...

. Heading into the 2019 election, several polls showed the Green Party in the lead, with Bevan-Baker the most-liked party leader; on election day, however, while the party won eight seats and is likely to form the

official opposition Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''th ...

in the 66th General Assembly of Prince Edward Island, they did not win the most overall seats as recent polls predicted."Seven things to know about the P.E.I. election results"
CTV News, April 23, 2019. In 2019, the party was elected the

in the 66th General Assembly of Prince Edward Island.

Leadership

Leaders

Current MLAs

Electoral record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Green Party Of Prince Edward Island 2005 establishments in Prince Edward Island Green liberalism Political parties established in 2005 Provincial political parties in Prince Edward Island Social democratic parties in Canada