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Green Party of Saskatchewan

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Saskatchewan Green Party
LeaderNaomi Hunter
PresidentBarry Dickie
Deputy leaderVictor Lau
Founded1998
Registered1999
HeadquartersRR#1 Site 9 Comp 23 Shellbrook, SK S0J 2E0[1]
IdeologyGreen politics
ColoursGreen
Seats in Legislature
0 / 61
Website
www.saskgreen.ca
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The Saskatchewan Green Party is a Green political party in Saskatchewan, Canada. The party was founded in 1998 as the New Green Alliance by a coalition of environmental and social justice activists. In the twenty-first century, only the New Democratic Party and the Saskatchewan Party have fielded more candidates than the Greens in provincial elections, yet no Greens have been elected to the Legislature.[2] The current party leader is Naomi Hunter.

History

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Foundations and the New Green Alliance

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In the mid-1990s, a number of environmental and social justice activists began to organize against the perceived rightward drift of the governing New Democrats (NDP) under Premier Roy Romanow, who were seen to have embraced Third Way politics.[3] In April 1998, organizers held a news conference, stating their intention "... to create a political party committed to protect the environment from corporate plunder and to advance a social justice agenda," before officially registering the New Green Alliance (NGA) with Elections Saskatchewan in January 1999.[4] Early on, the party debated focusing on community activism over electoralism—future party leader Victor Lau stated in 1998 that in his opinion, "... 20 per cent of the energy of the new party should be devoted to electoral politics and 80 per cent to promoting community projects like low-cost housing, new transit systems, or solar energy."[5] Others looked to revive the democratic socialist politics of Tommy Douglas, the first CCF/NDP Premier of Saskatchewan, which they argued the NDP had drifted away from.[5]

The party's first leader was anti-nuclear activist Neil Sinclair. In the 1999 provincial election, the NGA ran 16 candidates province-wide, earning 1% of the vote and approximately 4% of the vote on average where they ran.[6] The NGA, whose platform was characterized as "counter-ideological" in contrast to the NDP and Saskatchewan Party, who were competing to form government, found it difficult to garner media attention during the campaign.[7] In the 2003 election, under the leadership of Ben Webster, the party ran 27 candidates but actually lost support compared to 1999, earning only 0.6% of the vote province-wide.

Saskatchewan Green Party

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In 2005, the NGA changed its name to come in line with the federal Greens, becoming the Green Party of Saskatchewan; however, the party maintained that it was only loosely affiliated with the Green Party of Canada.[8] The party had several short-term leaders between 2005 and 2006, when antiwar and anti-vaccination activist Sandra Finley became leader ahead of the 2007 provincial election. The Greens ran a much larger campaign in 2007, fielding candidates in 48 out of 58 ridings. The party was able to capture 2.0% of the vote; Harold Johnson, running in the Cumberland riding, received 6.2% of the vote and secured the first third-place finish for the Greens.

On 6 September, 2011—the unofficial kickoff for the 2011 provincial election campaign—Green leader Larissa Shasko resigned her position to join the campaign of Regina South NDP candidate Yens Pedersen.[9] Upon her resignation, Shasko cited frustrations with the "inner workings" of the party and concerns about a potential candidate.[9] Her resignation triggered a visit to Saskatoon by federal Green leader Elizabeth May, who also announced that deputy leader Victor Lau had been elevated to become the provincial party's new leader[9]—a decision that was reinforced by party members at a special leadership convention held on 25 September.[10] Lau and the party ran a full slate of 58 candidates—a first for the party—and 43% of which were women.[11] Although no Green candidates were elected, the party increased its vote share and emerged from the election as the third largest party in the province, surpassing the Liberals for the first time.[12]

After the 2011 election, the party began an effort to organize on a constituency basis across the province. In March 2015, the party was rebranded as the Saskatchewan Green Party and ran a nearly full slate again in the 2016 provincial election under Lau, though fell back in vote share across the province, finishing in fourth place.[13]

In March 2020, former federal Green candidate Naomi Hunter was named leader of the Greens ahead of the 2020 provincial election.[14] In the election, the party increased its vote share, finishing with its second highest total after 2011, but again finished fourth, this time finishing behind the fledgling Buffalo Party.[15]

Election results

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Election Leader # of candidates # of elected candidates Votes % Place Legislative role
1999 Neil Sinclair
16 / 58
0 / 58
 4,101 1.01% 4th Extra-parliamentary
2003 Ben Webster
27 / 58
0 / 58
 2,323 0.55% Decrease 5th Extra-parliamentary
2007 Sandra Finley
48 / 58
0 / 58
 9,076 2.01% Increase 4th Extra-parliamentary
2011 Victor Lau
58 / 58
0 / 58
 11,461 2.89% Increase 3rd Extra-parliamentary
2016
58 / 61
0 / 61
 7,967 1.83% Decrease 4th Extra-parliamentary
2020 Naomi Hunter
60 / 61
0 / 61
 10,033 2.25% Steady 4th Extra-parliamentary
2024
58 / 61
0 / 61
 7,649 1.8% Steady 4th Extra-parliamentary

Party leaders

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Naomi Hunter, SGP leader since 2020

† Denotes interim leader

# Party Leader Highest Position Tenure Notes
1 Neil Sinclair Party leader 1999 – 2002
2 Ben Webster Party leader 2002 – 2005
3 Neal Anderson Party leader 2005 – 2006
† Victor Lau Party leader 2006 Interim
† John Kern Party leader 2006 Interim
4 Sandra Finley Party leader 2006 – 2008
5 Amber Jones Party leader 2008 – 2009
6 Larissa Shasko Party leader 2009 – 2011
7 Victor Lau Party leader 2011 – 2016 First leader to organize a full slate of candidates for a general election.
8 Shawn Setyo Party leader 2016 – 2019
† Richard Jack Party leader 2019 – 2020 Interim
9 Naomi Hunter Party leader 2020 – present

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Contact". Saskatchewan Green Party. April 17, 2022. Archived from the original on January 4, 2024. Retrieved January 4, 2024.
  2. ^ Tank, Phil (October 4, 2022). "It sure ain't easy being Green in Saskatchewan politics". Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Archived from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  3. ^ Warnock, John W. (2004). Saskatchewan: The Roots of Discontent and Protest. Montreal: Black Rose Books. pp. 413–414. ISBN 1-55164-244-1.
  4. ^ "Who We Are". Saskatchewan New Green Alliance. Archived from the original on February 17, 2001.
  5. ^ a b Gonick, Cy (July–August 1998). "It's Party Time in Regina". Canadian Dimension, Vol. 32, No. 4. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  6. ^ Voyageur, Cora; Green, Joyce (2001). "From Many Peoples, Strength: Demographics and Democracy in Saskatchewan's 1999 'Harvest Election'". In Leeson, Howard A. (ed.). Saskatchewan Politics: Into the Twenty-First Century. Canadian Plains Research Centre. p. 344. ISBN 0-88977-131-6.
  7. ^ Sperling, Gerald B.; Wishlow, Kevin. "Politics and the Media in Saskatchewan". In Leeson (ed.). Saskatchewan Politics. p. 394.
  8. ^ "New Green Alliance changes name". CBC News. April 28, 2005. Archived from the original on November 13, 2022. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  9. ^ a b c "Saskatchewan Green Party leader resigns". CBC News. September 6, 2011. Archived from the original on April 16, 2016. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  10. ^ "Lau new leader of Saskatchewan Greens". CBC News. September 26, 2011. Archived from the original on December 27, 2013. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  11. ^ "Greens, NDP, Sask. Party field full slates". CBC News. October 22, 2011. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  12. ^ "Green Party hopefuls shut out". CBC News. November 7, 2011. Archived from the original on July 7, 2016. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  13. ^ Cowan, Micki (April 5, 2016). "Liberals 3rd place in Sask. election, Greens slide to 4th". CBC News. Archived from the original on May 12, 2016. Retrieved April 6, 2024.
  14. ^ White-Crummey, Arthur (March 1, 2020). "Sask. Green Party chooses new leader who wants to target Sask. Party seats". Regina Leader-Post. Archived from the original on March 2, 2020. Retrieved October 11, 2020.
  15. ^ Pearce, Nick; Radford, Evan (October 27, 2020). "Saskatchewan election: Buffalo Party takes larger than expected share of vote in debut". Global News. Archived from the original on November 21, 2020. Retrieved May 21, 2022.
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