Jane Sterk is set to resign as leader of the B.C. Greens at the party’s annual general meeting on August 24.

In an announcement made through Twitter this afternoon (August 13), Sterk said she has had “a good run” and will be retiring from politics.

“We’ve had three months…since the election, so I’ve had a chance to reflect on where I’m at personally and where the party’s at, and I decided that I wanted to move on to other opportunities,” Sterk told the Straight by phone. “I feel good about what I’ve done as leader, and I feel ready for the next phase of what I want to do professionally and personally.”

The party elected its first member to the B.C. Legislature, University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver, in the May 2013 election.

Sterk said she thinks it would make “logical sense” for Weaver to run for leadership of the party. The new provincial council that is elected at the AGM later this month will determine when a leadership contest will be held. 

The leader didn't specify what she plans to move on to next, but said she has applied for jobs. She noted she will remain a member of the B.C. Green party, and plans to help with political campaigns of some candidates.

“I really look forward to the possibility of really bringing a lot of my political acumen to campaigns of individual candidates who I think can change the world,” she said.

Sterk has been leader of the Green Party of B.C. since October 2007. She lost her bid for a provincial seat in the riding of Victoria-Beacon Hill this year. She said when she took over the party, it was “in very poor shape”.

“I think that through my leadership, we imposed a principle of fiscal responsibility,” she said. “We’re the only party that functions without debt, and administrative systems that allow the party to expand as it needs to.”

Weaver, the B.C. Green MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head, thanked Sterk for "her tireless years of work". 

“Jane Sterk set an example of a new style of politics, one that is inclusive, far less divisive and which invigorated the party," he said in a news release. 

"We witnessed that in the campaign, especially during the debates; we saw that in how she built the party at the grassroots around the province. She created the template for the party to follow."

Prior to being elected leader of the B.C. Greens, Sterk ran as a candidate with the federal Green party in 2004, and was a councillor with the Township of Esquimalt from 2005 to 2008.

Under B.C. Green party bylaws, Sterk's resignation at the AGM later this month will lead to the appointment of an interim leader.