Green Party of Canada
Parti vert du Canada |
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Leader | Elizabeth May |
President | Ken Melamed |
Founded | 1983 |
Headquarters | 116 Albert Street Suite 812 Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5G3 |
Youth wing | Young Greens of Canada |
Ideology | Green politics |
Political position | Centre |
Continental affiliation | Federation of the Green Parties of the Americas |
International affiliation | Global Greens |
Colours | Green |
Seats in the Senate |
0 / 105
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Seats in the House of Commons |
1 / 338
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Website | |
www |
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The Green Party of Canada (French: Parti vert du Canada) is a Canadian federal political party, founded in 1983.
The Greens advance a broad multi-issue political platform that reflects its core values of ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy and non-violence. It has been led by Elizabeth May since 26 August 2006.
The party broke 1% of the popular vote in the 2004 federal election, when it received 4.3% and qualified for federal funding. Its support has ranged between 3.1% and 14% since the 2006 federal election. In the 2008 federal election, the Green Party of Canada was invited to the debates for the first time and achieved a high mark of 6.8% of the popular vote. With just under a million votes, it was the only federally funded party to receive more votes than in 2006, but it still failed to win any seats. In the 2011 federal election the Green Party of Canada decided to focus on increasing seats over increasing votes, and succeeded in sending its first MP to Ottawa, while its share of the popular vote dropped to below 4% for the first time in eleven years.
On 30 August 2008, independent MP Blair Wilson joined the Green Party during Parliament's summer recess, technically becoming its first Member of Parliament (MP). He was defeated in the 2008 federal election, which was called before he had a chance to sit in the House of Commons as a Green MP.
On 2 May 2011, Green Party leader Elizabeth May became the first elected Green Party MP to sit in the House of Commons. She won the riding of Saanich—Gulf Islands in coastal British Columbia. In winning her seat, May also became one of the few Greens worldwide to be elected in a federal, single-seat election. On December 13, 2013 Thunder Bay—Superior North MP Bruce Hyer, who had left the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 2012 to sit as an independent after breaking party lines to vote in favour of a repeal of the Long Gun Registry, joined the party, resulting in a record two-member caucus in parliament.