Vancouver Greens lose former chair over Vision-COPE alliance snub
Ben West is leaving the Green Party of Vancouver. The environmental activist is resigning in protest of the party’s decision not to join an electoral alliance led by the ruling Vision Vancouver.
“In light of [Conservative prime minister] Stephen Harper having a majority government, progressive-coalition politics is more important than ever, and I thought we provided a model, potentially, for how coalitions could be done,” West told the Straight in a phone interview. “We need to do a lot more work to make it work effectively, and I, for one, am not personally interested in being involved in splitting votes among progressive voters in Vancouver.”
West had previously chaired the local Green party. He was last elected as deputy chair.
According to him, the decision reached by the party at an assembly on June 26 was made by a “small clique of sort of Green party partisans”.
“There’s a small group within the party that’s taking the party in the wrong direction at the moment, and I just don’t feel that it’s the direction I want to go in,” West said on June 27.
The Greens joined Vision and the Coalition of Progressive Electors in an alliance during the 2008 election that saw party candidate Stuart Mackinnon elected as park board commissioner.
Mackinnon refused to comment on West’s claim about a “clique” in the party. Asked about West’s negative view of his party’s rejection of another political marriage with Vision and COPE, Mackinnon told the Straight by phone: “That’s his opinion.”
According to Mackinnon, the motion junking the Vision–COPE offer for the Greens to run one candidate for park board and none for council and school board “passed unanimously”.
West acknowledged that “some people” felt that the offer wasn’t the best possible deal that the Greens could get. “But I think given how small the party is, like if we learned anything from [Green Party of Canada leader] Elizabeth May getting elected [to Parliament], we’re better off if we really focus our resources on a small number of candidates and get them elected,” West said.
West also said that the decision to reject the Vision–COPE offer does not reflect the wishes of Green supporters.
Comments
9 Comments
cosmicsync
Jun 29, 2011 at 4:29pm
Finally, a "Green" who gets it. "Progressive" vote splitting in the last two provincial elections has resulted in such green initiatives as fish farms, rape-of-river projects and a completely ineffective carbon tax.
Now Christy Clark is pledging to fight the environmental review that nixed the prosperity mine, and throwing her support behind the Enbridge Pipeline.
Hopefully Mr. West will be able to convince a few more of his colleagues that you don't get to set environmental policy if you can't get elected.
?
Jun 29, 2011 at 4:41pm
I am someone who very much was a supporter of the Green Party, I am no longer.
The is the final nail in the coffin of my support of the Green Party they have become for to selfish in their interests. The only thing this will result in is a further splitting of the progressive vote.
I admire Ben West for doing the right thing and would fully encourage others to stop supporting the Green Party until they actually start acting on behalf of the environment and not party interests.
I fail to see how stealing votes from other progressive parties and allowing regressive parties to gain power is going to help the environment.
JamieLee
Jun 29, 2011 at 4:43pm
It seems that Mr West has a problem accepting the wishes of the Green membership. This isn't the first time this has happened. During the BC Green Party leadership race Mr West resigned after Green members by a significant margin chose Dr Jane Sterk as Leader. Mr West had been running against Dr Sterk. Mr West though loses complete credibility when he puts down Green members in such a derogatory fashion when he claims members to be 'sort of Green party partisans', merely becausethe membership unanimously chose to reject the Vision crumbs.
Good For Ben
Jun 29, 2011 at 6:31pm
Kudos to Ben West, Get out while u can..what it looks like to me is a few self interested folks that are willing to align them selves with the NPA to get in the race. Unbelievable...And Stuart you may have just found a running mate with Jamie Lee have fun with that..Lol...you better wear some armor on your back...
Bob Dickson Bryant (BDB)
Jun 29, 2011 at 8:22pm
God, the Green party is a joke
?
Jun 29, 2011 at 8:25pm
If you are being loyal to the Green Party then you obviously don't care about the environment.
If the Green Party joins with NPA I will work tirelessly to ensure their defeat.
The NPA are the absolute antithesis of environmental sustainability.
Sven Biggs
Jun 29, 2011 at 9:07pm
I wholeheartedly agree with Ben and I have also resigned my membership in Green Party of Vancouver. Progressives need to work together if we are to make change. However a small clique in Vancouver Greens have decided to put their egos before what is best for our movement and the future of our city.
James G
Jun 29, 2011 at 10:35pm
Mr. West is known as an honorable individual and one who has a reputation for putting genuine commitment above his personal ambition. All parties have people like this in them -- and woe to a party that loses such a key one.
Antony Hodgson
Jun 30, 2011 at 10:51am
Ben has long been a strong supporter of fairer voting systems that could ensure that political parties of all stripes would not have to resort to this sort of pre-election 'gaming', but could instead focus on communicating their message clearly to voters and be sure that any resulting support they win amongst the voters would be reliably translated into seats on council.
All this negotiating for spots on slates is fundamentally due to the fact that our horrible at-large voting system essentially results in one or the other of the two main slates being elected, even if each one is only supported by a plurality of the voters. If you want parties that can remain true to their principles, work to bring in a new voting system that is better than either at-large voting or single-seat wards.
COPE once proposed a dual-member proportional system in which there would be five 'wards', each electing two councilors - this is only one of several possible systems that would produce far more representative councils than the ones we get under our current system.
Antony Hodgson
President, Fair Voting BC
Supporting fair. effective, accountable government