It may be a different Green Party of B.C. going into the provincial election next year.

Former candidate Pete Fry believes that it will be stronger, a party better positioned to present itself as a viable third option.

Unlike in past campaigns, the Greens now have a sitting member of the legislative assembly leading the party, Andrew Weaver.

A world-acclaimed climate scientist, Weaver ran in 2013 and became the first elected Green MLA in B.C.

As representative of Oak Bay-Gordon Head, Weaver has raised the profile of the Greens to a higher level compared to previous party leaders who were not able to capture a seat in the legislative assembly.

Fry thinks that this will make a lot of difference for the party in the 2017 election campaign.

“Andrew has punched way above his weight. I think he has proven himself to the people of British Columbia,” Fry told the Straight by phone about Weaver.

Fry, who ran for the Greens in the February 2016 by-election in Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, said that Weaver has proven to be a good MLA.

“People see that,” according to Fry, who is convinced that Greens are set to gain new ground in the May 2017 election.

In 2013, Greens fielded 61 candidates, and only Weaver won. The party captured 146,685 votes or eight percent of the popular vote.

When Weaver announced his intention to seek the leadership of the B.C. Greens in November 2015, he laid out what may be his party’s most compelling argument.

According to Weaver, British Columbians had to put up with a “two-party dichotomy of dysfunction” for decades.

“On the left there’s the BC NDP. Frankly there’s nothing new or anything particularly democratic about the BC NDP. On the right we have the BC Liberals. And there is absolutely nothing liberal about the BC Liberals,” he said.

Weaver continued: “Too often British Columbians vote for the BC Liberals not because they like what they stand for, but rather because they dislike what the BC NDP stand for. Too often British Columbians vote for the BC NDP not because they like what they stand for, but rather because they dislike what the BC Liberals stand for. And therein lies our opportunity.”

According to Weaver, “The BC Greens will offer British Columbians candidates, ideas and policy that they can vote for, instead of vote against. It’s time for us to create a third viable option.”