2005/12/17

Is the Green Party a sham?

Murray Dobbin writes in the The Tyee that the Green party is anything but Green.


In fact, all these categories make the assumption that the Green Party is at least, well, Green. They should take the time to be sure. In the last election I wrote, based on the policy platform on its web site, the party was right wing on social and fiscal policy and also pointed out that both the Sierra Club and Green Peace rated them below the NDP (and in most categories, below the Bloc) on environmental policies. Unfortunately, little has changed. Some things are actually worse.

Green Party leader Jim Harris, a former Tory and a motivational speaker for large corporations, is again preoccupied with running as many candidates as possible (he ran candidates in all 308 ridings in 2004). This is to ensure that there is a Green Party franchise in every riding in the country so the party's government funding remains intact. He knows that a certain percentage of voters will vote Green no matter what - and each vote brings the party $1.75. The party received over a million dollars under election financing rules implemented for the first time in 2004. Yet, Harris has been almost invisible since the last election, has done little organizing, no membership drive, has managed to raise just over $200,000 and has paid virtually no attention to policy development.

Obey your leader

But most disturbing to many inside the party, is Harris's authoritarian style. Many people vote Green because they assume it is more grass roots, more democratic, than the others. They would be shocked to know that the party is the most top down of any of the federal parties - and that Harris simply ignores decisions that he doesn't agree with. The situation is so bad that half of the party's governing council have resigned in protest or been forced out in the past eight months. Harris has not moved to replace them because, argue the dissidents, he is happy with the remaining council members who tend to support him and he does not want to risk having more people turn into troublesome dissidents.



For more details go to:
the tyee

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is regrettable since nearly 5 % of the population park their votes with the Green Party in protest. I assume they think the party stands for Green values in the European tradition.

Mark Richard Francis said...

That assumes that the article is accurate. It has major flaws.

A large rebuttal:

http://section15.blogspot.com/2005/12/closet-dipper-dobbin-smears-greens-yet.html

Dobbin pulled a similar stunt during last year's election. It's just partisan editorializing.