James Robert Beddome (born October 2, 1983) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

lawyer and politician who was the former leader of the

Green Party of Manitoba The Green Party of Manitoba (GPM; ) is a Green politics, green provincial political party in Manitoba, Canada, founded on November 11, 1998. The party is legally autonomous from the Green Party of Canada, though for several years many of its mem ...

from November 2014 to March 2023. He has run in several elections for the provincial party, and was also the

Green Party of Canada The Green Party of Canada () is a federal political party in Canada, founded in 1983 with a focus on green politics. The Green Party is currently the fifth largest party in the House of Commons by seat count. It elected its first member of ...

candidate in

Winnipeg South Centre Winnipeg South Centre () is a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1925 to 1979 and since 1988. Geography The district includes the neighb ...

for the 2019 federal election. He works as a lawyer in Manitoba.

Early life and career

Beddome was born in

Brandon, Manitoba Brandon () is the second-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada. It is located in the southwestern corner of the province on the banks of the Assiniboine River, approximately west of the provincial capital, Winnipeg, and east of the ...

, and was raised on a livestock farm north of

Rapid City Rapid City is the county seat of Pennington County, South Dakota, United States. It is located on the eastern slope of the Black Hills in western South Dakota and was named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed. It is the second-mo ...

. He has an Honours

Bachelor of Arts degree A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in Political Studies and Economics from the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of ...

(2006), and has worked as an administrator at Nesbitt Burns. In 2008, he and two partners started a bicycle taxi service in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

. Beddome joined the Green Party of Manitoba in 2006, and soon became the chair of its economic policy committee. He worked on Kaj Hasselriis's campaign for

Mayor of Winnipeg The mayor of Winnipeg is a member of Winnipeg City Council, but does not represent a ward. The position of mayor was created in 1873 following the incorporation of Winnipeg. Since 1998, the term of office has been for four years. The 44th and ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, and stood as the Green candidate for the rural division of Minnedosa in the 2007 provincial election. He travelled by bicycle in the latter campaign, carrying a trailer and sleeping at campsites. Beddome said that he wanted to raise awareness about clean modes of transportation as well as the problems faced by family farms.

Party leader

Beddome was elected to a two-year term as Manitoba Green Party leader on November 15, 2008, defeating incumbent Andrew Basham and third candidate Shane Nestruck. After his victory, he said that he would work toward running a full slate of candidates in the next provincial election. He was the party's candidate for a by-election in the northeast Winnipeg division of Elmwood in early 2009. In 2011, he ran as the party's candidate for Wolseley in the general election that year. In 2013, Beddome stepped down as leader to focus on completing his articles of law after graduating from the faculty of law at the University of Manitoba. Alain Landry was appointed interim party leader for the Manitoba Greens in November 2013. Beddome ran as a candidate in the party's 2014 leadership race, and was reelected as party leader in November 2014. In the

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

provincial elections he ran in

Fort Garry-Riverview Fort Garry-Riverview was a provincial electoral division in the Canadian province of Manitoba. It was created by the decennial electoral redistribution in 2008, out of parts of Lord Roberts and Fort Garry. It was in south-central Winnipeg. It ...

and then Fort Rouge. In the 2019 federal election, he ran in

. Beddome had been planning on running for federal election in 2019 before Brian Pallister called the provincial elections early. He was prepared to retract his federal campaign and had a replacement candidate in place, should he have won the provincial seat but Beddome did not win in either election. In May 2022, Beddome announced that he would step down as leader of the Green Party of Manitoba. He was succeeded by Janine Gibson on March 26, 2023.

Electoral record

References

External links

*
Interview with James Beddome, Leader of the Green Party of Manitoba

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(August 2019) {{DEFAULTSORT:Beddome, James 1983 births Living people Green Party of Canada candidates in the 2019 Canadian federal election Leaders of the Green Party of Manitoba Politicians from Brandon, Manitoba Green Party of Manitoba candidates in Manitoba provincial elections