The Saskatchewan Green Party 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, ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, Canada. The party was founded as the New Green Alliance in 1998 by a coalition of environmental and social justice activists. In the twenty-first century, only the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

and the

Saskatchewan Party The Saskatchewan Party (SP or Sask Party) is a conservative political party in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The party was founded in 1997 by a coalition of former provincial Progressive Conservative ...

have fielded more candidates than the Greens in provincial elections, although no Greens have been elected to the

Legislature A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of the people therein. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial power ...

. The current party leader is Naomi Hunter.

History

Foundations and the New Green Alliance

In the mid-1990s, a number of environmental and social justice activists began to organize against the perceived rightward drift of the governing New Democrats (NDP) under

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of govern ...

Roy Romanow Roy John Romanow (born August 12, 1939) is a Canadian politician who served as the 12th premier of Saskatchewan from 1991 to 2001. He was the leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party from 1987 until his retirement in 2001. He was the Mem ...

, who were seen to have embraced

Third Way The Third Way is a predominantly centrist political position that attempts to reconcile centre-right and centre-left politics by advocating a varying synthesis of Right-wing economics, right-wing economic and Left-wing politics, left-wing so ...

politics. In April 1998, organizers held a news conference, stating their intention "... to create a political party committed to protect the environment from corporate plunder and to advance a social justice agenda," before officially registering the New Green Alliance (NGA) with

Elections Saskatchewan Elections Saskatchewan is the non-partisan organization which oversees general elections and by-elections for the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. References External links * Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territori ...

in January 1999. Early on, the party debated focusing on

community activism Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

over

electoralism Electoralism is a term first used by Terry Karl, professor of political science at Stanford University, to describe a "half-way" transition from authoritarian rule toward democratic rule. As a topic in the dominant party system political scien ...

—future party leader Victor Lau stated in 1998 that in his opinion, "... 20 per cent of the energy of the new party should be devoted to electoral politics and 80 per cent to promoting community projects like low-cost housing, new transit systems, or solar energy." Others looked to revive the

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-mana ...

politics of

Tommy Douglas Thomas Clement Douglas (20 October 1904 – 24 February 1986) was a Scottish-born Canadian politician who served as the seventh premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 and leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971. A Bap ...

, the first CCF/NDP Premier of Saskatchewan, which they argued the NDP had drifted away from. The party's first leader was

anti-nuclear The Anti-nuclear war movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, n ...

activist Neil Sinclair. In the 1999 provincial election, the NGA ran 16 candidates province-wide, earning 1% of the vote and approximately 4% of the vote on average where they ran. The NGA, whose platform was characterized as "counter-ideological" in contrast to the NDP and Saskatchewan Party, who were competing to form government, found it difficult to garner media attention during the campaign. In the 2003 election, under the leadership of Ben Webster, the party ran 27 candidates but actually lost support compared to 1999, earning only 0.6% of the vote province-wide.

Saskatchewan Green Party

In 2005, the NGA changed its name to come in line with the federal Greens, becoming the Green Party of Saskatchewan; however, the party maintained that it was only loosely affiliated with 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 ...

. The party had several short-term leaders between 2005 and 2006, when

antiwar An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during co ...

and

anti-vaccination Anti-vaccine activism, which collectively constitutes the "anti-vax" movement, is a set of organized activities expressing opposition to vaccination, and these collaborating networks have often sought to increase vaccine hesitancy by dissem ...

activist Sandra Finley became leader ahead of the 2007 provincial election. The Greens ran a much larger campaign in 2007, fielding candidates in 48 out of 58 ridings. The party was able to capture 2.0% of the vote; Harold Johnson, running in the

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

riding, received 6.2% of the vote and secured the first third-place finish for the Greens. On 6 September, 2011—the unofficial kickoff for the 2011 provincial election campaign—Green leader Larissa Shasko resigned her position to join the campaign of Regina South NDP candidate Yens Pedersen. Upon her resignation, Shasko cited frustrations with the "inner workings" of the party and concerns about a potential candidate. Her resignation triggered a visit to Saskatoon by federal Green leader

Elizabeth May Elizabeth Evans May (born June 9, 1954) is a Canadian politician, environmentalist, lawyer, activist, and author. She has served as the member of Parliament (MP) for Saanich—Gulf Islands since 2011. May is the leader of the Green Party ...

, who also announced that deputy leader Victor Lau had been elevated to become the provincial party's new leader—a decision that was reinforced by party members at a special leadership convention held on 25 September. Lau and the party ran a full slate of 58 candidates—a first for the party—43% of which were women. Although no Green candidates were elected, the party increased its vote share and emerged from the election as the third largest party in the province, surpassing the Liberals for the first time. After the 2011 election, the party began an effort to organize on a constituency basis across the province. In March 2015, the party was rebranded as the Saskatchewan Green Party and ran a nearly full slate again in the 2016 provincial election under Lau, though fell back in vote share across the province, finishing in fourth place. In March 2020, former federal Green candidate Naomi Hunter was named leader of the Greens ahead of the 2020 provincial election. In the election, the party increased its vote share, finishing with its second highest total after 2011, but again finished fourth, this time finishing behind the fledgling Buffalo Party. The party saw its vote share decline in the 2024 election, although it again finished in fourth place overall.

Election results

Party leaders

''†'' Denotes interim leader

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Green Party Of Saskatchewan 1998 establishments in Saskatchewan Environmental organizations based in Saskatchewan Organizations based in Saskatoon Political parties established in 1998 Provincial political parties in Saskatchewan