Category: Alberta Greens

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Alberta Greens Joe Anglin

alberta green party de-registered.

The writing was on the wall… from the now former Alberta Green Party website:

The “Alberta Greens” Green Party of Alberta has been de-registered by Elections Alberta as a political entity in the Province of Alberta. De-registration of the party is an administrative opportunity to re-organize and rebuild the party into a viable political organization. The importance and mainstream acceptance of the Green Party’s values and principles are on the rise, and the Green Party’s many supporters can now look forward to a fresh start.

The “Alberta Greens” Green Party of Alberta Society is now registered as a non-profit corporate entity in the province of Alberta for the purposes of advancing a “Green” agenda, and preparing the Green Party’s political future. A meeting will be announced in the very near future to plan a path forward.

…….. more information will be released as soon as it becomes available.

(ht @grant)

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Alberta Greens David Crowe George Read Joe Anglin

green insider lays it all out.

It has been a rough year for the Alberta Greens. After a months-long legal battle between Joe Anglin and George Read for the right to lead the party, the Greens were reported to be in financial ruin.

Long-time Green activist David Crowe has now published his extensive outline chronicling the downfall of Alberta’s Green Party.
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Alberta Greens Alberta Progress Party Edwin Ericksen Joe Anglin

alberta green goes progress.

Following up on Trevor Scott Howell‘s piece at the Weekly Albertan on the new Green Party Executive’s push to change the party name to the ‘Alberta Progress Party,’ Trish Audette posted a media release from Green Deputy Leader Edwin Erickson. In the 2008 provincial election, Erickson placed second with 19% of the vote in Drayton Valley-Calmar, but now he’s leaving the Greens to help form the Alberta Progress Party.

Here’s the release:

Alberta Green Party Deputy Leader Leaves to Start New Party

BUCK LAKE, AB- February 25, 2009 – “Over the strong objections from the newly elected leader Joe Anglin and party executive, I have tendered my resignation as deputy leader from the Green Party of Alberta and withdrew my membership in the Alberta Greens today.”

“I have very high regard for Joe Anglin and the new executive. This group has both the capacity and the ambition to really get things done, and that is something that has certainly been lacking in the past. In fact, I would have resigned last year, if it hadn’t been for Anglin’s insistent encouragement that I stay on and help “fix the Green party”. Even after the ridiculous outcome of the September 27 AGM, I stayed on, hoping to help clean up old baggage and move forward.”

“But, the situation only seems to get worse. Aside from continued attempts by members of the old guard to undermine the new leadership, it has now come to my attention that important financial information from last year has been either withheld or is not made available, making it impossible for the new executive to file a year-end report. To make matters even worse, and I state this without prejudice, it looks as though certain members of the former party executive may have self-approved illegal loans to the Party, in what can only be viewed as an attempt to profit from tax-deductible donations intended for the party.”

“It is now totally obvious to me that there is no political future with the Alberta Greens – I think it’s a ship that’s about to capsize. I admire the efforts of Anglin and the new executive to patch things up, but I’ve had enough. ”

“I have argued since last spring that this province needs a strong centrist party that can truly be an effective and electable political force, one that is prepared to serve the interest of Albertans. I don’t believe we’ve had a government in this province that gave a damn about Albertans since the early days of Peter Lougheed. I’m leaving the Alberta Greens in order to lead the effort to register a new political party called the Alberta Progress Party. I am now in the process of organizing the collection of signatures as required by Elections Alberta and in the recruitment of new members. I intend to do everything in my power to bring members from various political backgrounds into the fold, people who truly want to make a positive political change in this province.”

-30-
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Alberta Elections Act Alberta Greens Elections Alberta Section 23 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms

greens to launch constitutional challenge.

The Alberta Greens sent out a media release today announcing that they will be launching a constitutional challenge against the Alberta Elections Act.

Media Release- Alberta Green Challenge Elections Act

(Calgary, Apr 14, 2008) The Alberta Greens have sent a letter to the Attorney General Alison Redford asking her to change the Alberta Elections Act by Sept 10th,2008, if not the party will proceed with legal action.

“Ed Stelmach was elected by only 20% of Albertans,” said Read. “Obviously, when only 40% of voters turn out something is seriously wrong with our democracy,” said Alberta Greens leader, George Read.

The constitutional challenge, to go ahead this fall unless the government amends the Act, says section 62(2) interferes with the rights of candidates and supporters of small political parties to participate in elections and therefore contravenes the electoral fairness required by section 3 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Read said the provision, which denies the return of half a candidates deposit unless they receive at least half as many votes as are received by the candidate who is elected, cost the Alberta Greens a significant amount of money that it could otherwise use to promote its positions to the voters.

Both the Canadian government and the Ontario government have been forced to change similar provisions in their Election Acts because they were struck down by the courts. “We hope that the Attorney General will do the right thing for democracy,” said Read.

As much as I’d love to comment on this right now, I’m in the middle of wrapping up a paper on Section 23 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the context of Mahe v. Alberta, so I’ll have to tackle the Greens challenge later this week…

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Alberta Greens Alberta Politics

memo for the alberta greens.

With Greens across Canada buoyed from their strong showings in the Vancouver-Quadra, Toronto-Centre, and Willowdale by-elections (but not quite so strong in Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River), Elizabeth May is probably getting her share of high fives left, right, and center. But on the provincial scene, with the March 3 provincial election only weeks in the past, the Alberta Greens still have a lot of work to do to solidify their place in Alberta’s political scene.

Though the Alberta Greens weren’t able to win any seats in the Legislative Assembly, they did succeed in almost doubling their province-wide popular vote from just over 2% in 2004 to 4.58% in 2008. They also achieved two strong second place finishes in Lacombe-Ponoka and Drayton Valley-Calmar, and strong third place showing in Banff-Cochrane. If I were to give some advice to the Alberta Greens, it would be to focus their resources on grassroots organizing in the targeted rural Alberta constituencies.

With large parts of rural Alberta involved in some seriously intense land-use struggles, the Greens would do well to focus their resources in these areas. Two of the most high profile areas include Rimbey – where controversy over AltaLink’s north-south transmission corridor, the closure of debate on Bill 46, and the AEUB Spy Scandal erupted in 2007 – and the Tofield area – where the Round Hill-Dodds Agricultural Protective Association are fighting the development of a massive coalmine, which if constructed will include a gasification plant and power station built prime farmland south of Tofield (word on the street has it that the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund and the City of Edmonton-owned EPCOR have a substantial stake in this project).

This isn’t the first time that the Round Hill-Dodds Agricultural Protective Association has stood up to oppose this type of encroachment. As documented by Todd Babiuk, during the last energy boom in 1976, landowners in the Round Hill-Dodds community rallied to oppose the development of a $2.6 billion coal-fired power station on 360 square kilometers of agricultural land which would have displaced over 130 landowners.

“It turned into a folk tale, big power and big government pitted against real people. Local, provincial and national news outlets followed the story. The local Conservative MLA supported the landowners and then-premier Peter Lougheed, with a keen understanding of his party’s rural base, eventually stepped in.”
– Todd Babiuk

With the urban-based Alberta Liberals and New Democrats or the largely anti-regulatory Wild Rose Alliance unlikely to be able to capitalize on this type of rural discontent, I would think that the Greens are in the best position to benefit from spending the next four years of their energy harnessing the frustration with the current Progressive Conservative regime in these areas. After netting 22% for the Greens and having strong name recognition in Lacombe-Ponoka, Joe Anglin could potentially be the person best positioned to lead the battle in the rural areas. This isn’t a slight against current Calgary-based Green Leader George Read, who has led his party in doubling their support, I’m just more convinced that the Greens’ immediate growth potential is in rural areas like Lacombe-Ponoka and Drayton Valley-Calmar, rather than large urban centers like Calgary.

According to a recent media release, the Alberta Greens will hold a leadership review in October 2009.

A Green Shadow Cabinet

This week, the Alberta Greens released their shadow cabinet, which includes Joe Anglin as critic for the Department of Energy and Edwin Erickson as critic for Agriculture and Rural Development.

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