Green Party of Manitoba

The Green Party of Manitoba is a 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 members also belonged to the Green Party of Canada in Manitoba, a federal organization established in 1996. (The two organizations were separated in May 2005.) The GPM was the most successful of Manitoba's smaller parties in the provincial election of 2003.

History
The GPM is not the first "Green Party" in Manitoba history. Former New Democrat Nick Ternette established a "Green Party" in Winnipeg in 1989, and fielded candidates under its banner in that year's municipal elections. Ternette was from the left-wing of the NDP, and opposed the party's centrist direction in the 1980s. His "Green Party" supported several progressive and environmental causes, and was further to the left than is the current GPM. None of its candidates were elected, and the party never ran candidates at the provincial level. Ternette is not affiliated with the GPM, although neither has he opposed it.

The current party was established by Winnipeg electoral reform activist Chris Billows in November 1998, with the assistance of the Green Party of Canada. Billows, Eymond Toupin, and future provincial leader Markus Buchart hosted the Green Party of Canada's national convention in Winnipeg in August 1998.

Policies
The GPM's policies are generally progressive. The party is primarily focused on environmental issues, and promotes the conservation of land and non-renewable natural resources. It has expressed concern about "urban sprawl" in Winnipeg's suburbs, has called for reform in Manitoba's commercial hog sector, and generally supports the rights of small farming interests over corporations.

The GPM also favours liberal positions on social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, and promotes accessible public health care with emphasis on healthy lifestyles and illness prevention.

The party is not primarily focused on labour issues, but supports the extension of labour protection laws to farmworkers, and a reduction of Manitoba's standard work week from 40 to 32 hours. It has also endorsed full employment, and has criticized Gary Doer's NDP government for not reversing welfare cutbacks enacted by the previous Tory government of Gary Filmon.

It is not clear what position the GPM holds on tax reform. At the federal level and in other provinces, the Green Party favours eliminating progressive income taxation in favour of taxes on personal consumption, a position which is generally regarded as right-wing.

Elections
The GPM ran six candidates in the provincial election of 1999, and scored its best result in the Winnipeg riding of Wolseley, where Phyllis Abbe, also a prominent former New Democrat, received 386 votes. Former party leader Markus Buchart ran against Premier Gary Filmon in the riding of Tuxedo, and received 126 votes. The party received 0.2% of all votes cast in the province.

The GPM ran fourteen candidates in the 2003 election. Buchart received 1193 votes (19.5%) in Wolseley, placing second against New Democrat Rob Altemeyer. The GPM as a whole received 4.08% of the vote in the ridings that it contested.

In the December 13, 2005 by-election held in the strongly conservative Fort Whyte constituency, GPM candidate Shelagh Pizey-Allen garnered 1.77% of the vote.

The GPM ran fifteen candidates in the 2007 election. The fifteen captured 1.33% of the vote, or 5.5% in the electoral divisions that were contested. The Green candidates received 12.32% in Wolseley placing second, 8.46% in Lord Roberts, 7.76% in St. Boniface, 6.38% in Fort Rouge, and third place in Minnedosa ahead of the Liberal Party of Manitoba.

Leadership
Markus Buchart resigned as party leader in late February 2005.

The party's second leader was Daniel Drimes. He served as leader from April 2 to 22, 2005.

The party's first leadership contest under the rules of Elections Manitoba began on July 1, 2005, and a new leader was chosen on November 20, 2005. She was Holly Nelson, a retired electrical technologist and professional writer who owned a Winnipeg New Age book store, the Philosopher's Stone, during the 1990s.

In September 2006, a few weeks before the party's leadership convention, she stepped down, having accepted an out-of-province job. On 19 November 2006, the party chose 23-year-old Andrew Basham as its new leader.