Colourless election

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/05/2007 (6964 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LATE Israeli diplomat Abba Eban uttered one of the best one-liners in political history when he quipped, “The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

The same, unfortunately, could be said for the Green movement in Manitoba. While environmentalism is alive and well in almost every corner of the province, the political party that supposedly speaks for the planet is making less noise than the worms in my backyard compost pile.

Seriously. At a time when climate-change fears have pushed the environment back on top of the public agenda and the federal Green Party enjoys an unprecedented profile, it’s only logical to expect the provincial Greens to make huge inroads in the provincial election.

But that logic only works on paper. In real life, the Manitoba Greens will not be a factor when grumpy voters return from a long weekend holiday and go to the polls on May 22.

Lake Winnipeg is overloaded with nutrients, urban cyclists are clamouring for more commuter paths and the hog industry “pause” has reignited a heated dialogue over sustainable farming. But the Manitoba Greens are still less visible than an albino polar bear on an ice floe and more poorly organized than a Blue Bomber huddle during the Jeff Reinebold era.

It wasn’t always this way. As recently as 2003, the Green Party of Manitoba enjoyed a small but significant profile under former leader Markus Buchart, an oddly earnest but otherwise likable lawyer with a passable understanding of political strategy.

That spring, Buchart became the first and only Green in Manitoba history to finish second in a provincial election. Running in Wolseley, the most hippie-ish riding in the entire province, the Green Party leader garnered 1,183 votes and provided a modest challenge to victorious NDP candidate Rob Altemeyer, a former University of Manitoba recycling manager.

If Buchart had remained in charge of the provincial Greens, he could have posed a more serious problem for Altemeyer during the current provincial race. At the federal level, new party leader Elizabeth May has attracted considerable attention to the Green movement, and an experienced leader in Manitoba would have been able to ride the coattails of that exposure.

Buchart, however, didn’t stick around long enough to reap the benefits. In March 2005, he and seven members of the Manitoba Green Party’s executive resigned in a bitter dispute with more radical party members.

The tempest in an organic green-teapot involved both strategy and style: Buchart’s plan was to win seats and behave like a normal suit-wearing politician, while party dissidents wanted to drop the boring, old political rigamarole and act like the activists they really desired to be.

Buchart went on to unofficially lead the Green Party of Winnipeg, a fledgling organization that fielded six candidates in the 2006 civic election, even though political parties aren’t recognized on the municipal ballot or at city hall.

Parachuting into St. Vital, Buchart fared poorly in the October election, finishing third in a ward race won handily by incumbent Gord Steeves. But Buchart’s former colleagues at the provincial level didn’t fare much better last fall.

In November, the Green Party of Manitoba named a 23-year-old, Andrew Basham, as its new leader. Basham, a University of Winnipeg student, is the son of Ardythe Basham, who served as the Manitoba Green Party’s president following Buchart’s resignation.

His online resume describes him as a high-achieving environmental/urban studies student with an interest in ecological economics and social justice. He’s been a Manitoba Eco-Network board member, a university conference co-ordinator and has worked as a “research assistant, pizza cook, bar-back, bartender and beer-vendor clerk.”

Instead of running in Wolseley in the current provincial election, where many of the malathion-hating Folk Fest fans who just might vote Green actually reside, Basham has chosen to go head-to-head with NDP leader Gary Doer in the northeast Winnipeg riding of Concordia. This appears to be an attempt at a political statement, rather than an act of hubris, but it remains a dumb move if the man actually wants to get elected.

Overall, the Manitoba Greens are fielding 15 candidates in the provincial election, up from a slate of 14 in 2003. Seven of the provincial Greens have bios posted on the Manitoba Green Party website, and I would hazard a guess that all are genuinely committed to the environment.

But idealism alone does not win elections. In fact, all it guarantees is your name on a ballot.

The Manitoba Liberals are fielding candidates in all 57 ridings, yet even this party — whose roots extend back to the 19th century — will only be a factor in a handful of those ridings.

As an inner-city resident who’s obsessed with water quality, sustainable farming and is prone to enviro-preachiness, I am precisely the sort of person who would vote Green on paper.

But I can not cast a ballot for a party that can’t tell the tofu from the tempeh. I can’t support people I frankly would not trust to mow my unfertilized, unwatered lawn.

Given the national mood and the federal Green Party’s rising stature, this is not a happy statement about the Manitoba wing. The party abandoned by Buchart and led by Basham is missing a glorious opportunity this spring.

Growth, the party says, is not a sustainable phenomenon. But the Manitoba Greens better figure out a way to grow if they ever want to be anything but a bunch of sandal-wearing, nice-guy also-rans on the fringe.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca