The Green Party of Prince Edward Island is a registered provincial

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

and one of the three major parties in

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

. The party was founded by

Sharon Labchuk Sharon Labchuk (born November 25, 1952 in Trenton, Ontario) is an environmental activist and political organizer for the Green Party of Canada (GPC). She was also the first leader of the Green Party of Prince Edward Island. Career Labchuk founded ...

, 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 e ...

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

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment (biophysical), environment, par ...

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 v ...

, and

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals ...

. 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 Peter Stewart Bevan-Baker (born 3 June 1962) is a Scottish-Canadian politician, currently the leader of the Green Party of Prince Edward Island and a member of the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island representing New Haven-Rocky Poin ...

defeated a Liberal incumbent to win the district of

Kellys Cross-Cumberland Kellys Cross-Cumberland was a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island, Canada. It was previously known as Crapaud-Hazel Grove. It was the first provincial constituency to elect a member of the Green P ...

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 ''t ...

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

at 6.84%, Cindy Burton at 6.68%, Party leader

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 Belfast-Murray River is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island, Canada. Created mostly from 4th Kings, part of 5th Kings 5th Kings was an electoral district in the Canadian province of Prince Edwa ...

. 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 Charlottetown-Victoria Park is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island, Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean ...

, had the best result at 12.82%, followed by Elizabeth Schoales in Charlottetown-Brighton at 10.17%, and Peter Bevan-Baker in

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)

resigned the

leadership Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets v ...

of the Green Party on July 12, 2012. She was succeeded by

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

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 A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to ...

to fill a vacancy left by retiring Charlottetown-Parkdale MLA Doug Currie 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 Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on af ...

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 factio ...

. 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 ''t ...

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 CTV News is the news division of the CTV Television Network in Canada. The name ''CTV News'' is also applied as the title of local and regional newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated stations (O&Os), which are closely tied to the national ...

, 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