‘It was disappointing’: Green party slides down election support ladder

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This article was published 04/10/2023 (756 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tuesday’s provincial election marked a shuffling of political fortunes — and perhaps none suffered more than the Green Party of Manitoba.

The Greens logged their lowest voter support since the party’s inaugural year, tumbling from an all-time high in the 2019 election.

While Elections Manitoba is still tabulating ballots, the Greens appear to have mustered less than 3,700 votes, beating out only the Communist Party of Manitoba and independent candidates. Even the Keystone Party of Manitoba (a southern region upstart) garnered more support.

“It was disappointing, but the people have spoken. All along, I’ve been saying it’s up to the people of Wolseley,” Green Leader Janine Gibson said by phone Wednesday.

Gibson sought to win a legislature seat in Wolseley, where the party had been a perennial second-place contender the past three elections.

Instead, New Democratic Party candidate Lisa Naylor claimed the Winnipeg electoral division with 6,488 votes. Gibson earned just 544, behind both the Progressive Conservative and Liberal candidates.

Worse, Green candidates from across the province only generated a cumulative 3,525 votes, according to unofficial results. The numbers mark a shocking reduction from 2019, when the party pulled in 30,295.

Despite a marked lack of voter support in 2023, Gibson believes the party has been successful in proliferating its policies in the decades since its 1999 inception.

“I feel that I am seeing our policies and our ideas reflected around me. I felt it increase during the course of the campaign, as well,” she said. “We did our best to do that.”

The Green platform prioritized environmental interventions, universal basic income and democratic reform.

Gibson said the team is preparing to rebuild. The party hopes to maintain an office in Wolseley, but must first debrief and account for party resources, she added.

Gibson, who was elected leader in March, intends to continue in the role.

It may become increasingly difficult for Greens at the provincial and federal levels to earn voter support, as mainstream parties adopt environmental policies, said Félix Mathieu, a political science assistant professor at the University of Winnipeg.

“Our voting system makes is very hard for any new party to have any electoral success,” Mathieu said. “People in Wolseley or in other electoral districts might simply prefer to focus on a party that has real chances of taking power.”

A lack of resources — including candidates — make it difficult for the party to compete on larger political stages, he added.

The Greens fielded 13 candidates in the 2023 Manitoba election, leaving vacancies in 44 ridings.

In contrast, the Keystone party, which campaigned with only five candidates, managed to earn roughly 200 more votes than the Greens.

Kevin Friesen, who founded the party in July 2022, was responsible for the majority, capturing 17 per cent (1486) of the popular vote in Turtle Mountain.

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“I think they were able to convince people that normally don’t vote that this time they should vote in protest of all the other parties, which they feel don’t represent their political views,” Mathieu said, adding the numbers were “quite significant” for a young party.

However, Keystone may have difficult replicating such success in the future, the political analyst added.

“To convince people who traditionally don’t vote to vote once is one thing but to convince them to follow you and participate in institutions over a longer period of time — that’s something else.”

Speaking by phone, Friesen said he was pleased with his party’s performance and hopes it can build on it in the coming years.

He agreed many Keystone voters were frustrated with the mainstream parties.

Keystone advocates for less government influence and more personal freedom. It tabled an election platform calling for larger personal tax exemptions, lower PST, parental rights, and fewer legislative barriers for farmers.

“Some people label us as the far-right, I frankly don’t really care where people put us because what we are about is grassroots,” Friesen said. “It’s a party that isn’t based on where we want to fit on the political spectrum, its a party based on principles.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca

Tyler Searle
Reporter

Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press’s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.

Every piece of reporting Tyler produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.