The Green Party of Nova Scotia ( French: ''Parti Vert de la Nouvelle-Écosse'') is a

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

. It received official party status in the province in April 2006. The party has not won any seats in the

Nova Scotia House of Assembly The Nova Scotia House of Assembly (; ), or Legislative Assembly, is the deliberative assembly of the General Assembly of Nova Scotia, and together with the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia makes up the Nova Scotia Legislature. The assembly is ...

. As of November 2015, it emphasized that "the Green Party embraces the ''Environmental Goals and Sustainable Prosperity Act (Nova Scotia)'' and the Nova Scotia Genuine Progress Index (GPI)...". The GPNS executive is organized regionally.

Leadership

Nick Wright of Halifax, Nova Scotia won its first contested leadership nomination race over

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 and organizer Sheila Richardson of Wolfville, Nova Scotia. In May 2007, Wright was replaced by Ken McGowan, but resigned in protest together with both his deputies in a constitutional struggle over unelected rival Ellen Durkee's presence on the executive – to be replaced by Durkee as interim leader. Ryan Watson was elected Leader of the Green Party of Nova Scotia on June 29, 2008. Watson, from Halifax, was unopposed and contested the

2009 Nova Scotia general election The 2009 Nova Scotia general election was held on June 9, 2009 to elect members of the 61st House of Assembly of the Province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The government was defeated on a money bill on May 4, and the Nova Scotia House of Assembly w ...

. The party failed to file financial paperwork with Elections Nova Scotia by the April deadline; however, when Watson resigned, he denied this was the reason. On October 31, 2009, John Percy was announced as the new leader of the Green Party of Nova Scotia following a leadership contest against Sebastian Ronin. Dawna Toews was Percy's running mate and thus became Deputy Leader of the party. However, Toews moved to Ontario in early 2010 and thus resigned her position. Kris MacLellan was chosen as Deputy Leader by Executive Committee vote in October 2011, prior to the AGM. Percy made a point of emphasizing politicians of other political stripes he admired, including

Joe Clark Charles Joseph Clark (born June 5, 1939) is a Canadian businessman, writer, and retired politician who served as the 16th prime minister of Canada from 1979 to 1980. He also served as Leader of the Official Opposition (Canada), leader of the ...

Ed Broadbent John Edward Broadbent (March 21, 1936 – January 11, 2024) was a Canadian social democracy, social-democratic politician and political scientist. He was leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) from 1975 to 1989, and a Member of Parliament (Ca ...

Stephen Lewis Stephen Henry Lewis (born November 11, 1937) is a Canadian politician, public speaker, broadcaster, and diplomat. He was the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations in the 1980s and was the leader of the social democratic Ontario New Democr ...

and

Peter Stoffer Peter Arend Stoffer (born January 6, 1956) is a Canadian politician, who represented the riding of Sackville—Eastern Shore or its redistributed equivalents from the 1997 election until his defeat in the 2015 election. A member of the New D ...

. After the

2013 Nova Scotia general election The 2013 Nova Scotia general election was held on October 8, 2013, to elect members to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. The result of the election was a Nova Scotia Liberal Party, Liberal victory under the leadership of Stephen McNeil, with th ...

(in which it fielded only 16 candidates in 51 districts), the party was largely dormant and invisible in NS politics. Leader John Percy was also Veterans Affairs Critic in the

Shadow Cabinet, and this was an active file during the

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

administration until its demise in the

2015 Canadian federal election The 2015 Canadian federal election was held on October 19, 2015, to elect the 338 members of the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons of the 42nd Canadian Parliament, 42nd Parliament of Canada. In accordance with the Fixed election date ...

. Percy resigned in 2015 and was replaced by interim leader Brynn Nheiley. The party was to hold a leadership convention on February 6, 2016; however, no one came forward to run for leader. After this experience of near-collapse, Thomas Trappenberg was elected leader in November 2016. He and Deputy Leader Jessica Alexander led the party in the 2017 election, when the party ran 32 candidates and received 2.78 percent of the vote. This was the highest total ever achieved by the party, both in terms of total votes and percentage, though the party did not win any seats. Trappenburg resigned in April 2021 and was replaced by Jessica Alexander as interim leader. A leadership convention was then held in October 2021, resulting in Anthony Edmonds elected as Leader. The party did not win any seats in the

2021 Nova Scotia general election The 2021 Nova Scotia general election was held on August 17, 2021, to elect members to the 64th General Assembly of Nova Scotia. In a major Upset (competition), upset, Tim Houston led the Progressive Conservative Association of Nova Scotia, Pr ...

Conventions

Founding convention

The party's first convention was held on March 4–5, 2006. At the convention, the party unanimously approved its constitution which divided powers in a way fairly conventional among

Green parties A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace social democratic economic policies and form coalitions with ...

: an executive controlled regional relations, regions retained control of their local policies and candidacies, and a policy committee took control of the overall platform and positions taken even during an election. The leader's role was to act as spokesperson and organize his or her most trusted critics as a Shadow Cabinet or (once elected) a Caucus. Leaders and deputies would run together on a "ticket" for continuity and to assess leader judgement of persons before they are elected to the critical role. Members also voted to support the six principles of the Global Green Charter, elected an executive and chose a party logo.

Leaders

* Nick Wright (2006-2007) * Ken McGowan (2007-2008) *Ellen Durkee (2008-2008; ''interim'') *Ryan Watson (2008-2009). Originally from British Columbia, he lives in Halifax with his wife, Shannon, and daughter Katarina. In the

he ran in the riding of Halifax Citadel-Sable Island, garnering 4.27% of the vote. *John Percy (2009–2015) *Brynn Nheiley (2015-2016; ''interim''). Educated at Dalhousie and Ryerson, was the interim leader of the party during the

, where she contested

Dartmouth—Cole Harbour Dartmouth—Cole Harbour (formerly Dartmouth and Dartmouth—Halifax East) is a federal electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2004. Demographic ...

and received 1,775 (3.40%) votes, ranking in last (4th) place behind

Halifax Regional Council Halifax Regional Council () is the governing body of Halifax, known as the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). Halifax is governed by a mayor-council system, where councillors are elected from sixteen geographic districts though a first-past-th ...

or and winner Darren Fisher. *Thomas Trappenberg (2016–2021) *Jessica Alexander (2021-2021; ''interim'') *Anthony Edmonds (2021–present)

Election results 2006-2021

Election campaigns

In its first provincial election in 2006, less than three months after the founding convention, the party had a full slate of candidates but won only 2.33% of the popular vote (9,411 votes). The party did not win any seats in the 2021 provincial election. In 2024, a provincial election was called for November 26th. At the outset the party claimed through an official release that there would be a "full slate of candidates," meaning that 55 candidates would be registered. However, when nominations closed, 23 candidates were registered, the lowest number of candidates since 2013.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Green Party Of Nova Scotia 2006 establishments in Nova Scotia Environmental organizations based in Nova Scotia Political parties established in 2006 Provincial political parties in Nova Scotia