Cameron Wigmore: Green Party Member

July 7, 2006

More info on council & leadership candidates

I've provided for you some links to the many sites I am aware of that have further information about the Green Party leadership and council candidates. During the last federal election we urged Canadians to make an informed vote, and I believe this applies to Green Party members voting for candidates during internal elections as well. I strongly recommend visiting all of the sites listed below. I will not offer any suggestions on who to vote for as we all should be able to come to a descision through our own research.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

For information on the leadership race and candidates go to:

http://web.greenparty.ca/leadershiprace

For information on council contestants go to:

http://web.greenparty.ca/contestants

As Green Party members we can sign up for an account on the members site where there is currently a wealth of information on what's happening in the Green Party right now. Call the national office at: 1-866-868-3447 or email webadmin - at - greenparty.ca to request a user name/account on this site.

Answers to a survey for council members are at the link below. There are some informative answers from candidates regarding the proposed constitution we're voting on. This is a very important vote. I gave my answers to all questions a lot of thought and I'd love to hear some feedback on them.
http://greenlibrarian.atspace.com/

A number of council candidates:

http://councilfreshstart.ca/

More council candidates:

http://www.council2006.ca/

Some candidate websites and weblogs, most of whom have links to these also on their bios at the Green Party website.

http://www.messagemedium.blogspot.com/

http://ancienthippy.blogspot.com/

http://kevinsgreenpartyblog.blogharbor.com/

http://www3.sympatico.ca/newideas/GP/GP.htm

http://catjo.blogspot.com/

http://myspace.com/greenkateholloway

http://jeanfrancoispinel.blogspot.com/

Lastly, a forum where discussion with & about candidates is taking place:
http://www.greenerpolitics.com/

5 comments:

gfdgfdfd said...: Many thanks for the links. I wasn't aware of several of them.

As a relatively new Green, am I correct to perceive that "Council Fresh Start" and "Council 2006" are candidate blocs?

If so, is this the first time they have existed, or were there such blocs during the 2004 GPC convention?

I would assume that "Council Fresh Start" are those who haven't been big fans of the Harris leadership over the past two elections. It's a bit obvious from the name and their list of objectives - which seem (to me at least) more geared towards fixing mistakes of the past few years than about a new vision for the future.

It's also interesting to note that while "Council Fresh Start" openly back Elizabeth May for leader, "Council 2006" do not support any particular candidate. My hunch would be that many (most?) support Chernushenko. Would this be an accurate guess?

Perhaps I'm being a bit naive here by "connecting the lines" so publicly, but I'm just trying to get to the bottom of what's going on in this party. Unfortunately, wounds from the past few years are starting to rip open again in the lead-up to the convention. I'm honestly a bit disappointed to see cliques so openly promoting themselves - we all need to rally behind the PARTY itself, or we'll become just like any of the big parties, in my humble opinion.

Who genuinely wants to witness a Chretien-Martin divide within the GPC, and all of its according nastiness and baggage?

Cheers.; 3:56 a.m.
camsax@gmail.com said...: Good questions Plonker, and thanks for the reply Mark T.

I'm not sure if candidate 'blocs' existed in the last election. I've been actively involved with the party for about a year, and although I haven't researched this detail specifically, I'm sure one could ask a council member who was with the party at that time.

Some candidates have joined blocks or groups in a show of teamwork and I think while that's a great idea, it doesn't neccesarily mean that one who doesn't join a group isn't skilled in a team setting. There may be other reasons that many of the council contestants have not aligned themselves with groups. Also, I think that members of each group, while they obviously support their slate, may be voting for people outside of it. That's not a bad thing; in fact I think it could be seen as a good thing, showing that the lines of division aren't as deep as some fear they are.

604 Plonker said, "we all need to rally behind the PARTY itself, or we'll become just like any of the big parties, in my humble opinion."

I agree.

Mark Taylor said, "Come Aug 28th, if I am elected and regardless of who else is chosen by the membership, I will work with everyone to see the Green Party move forward."

Me too!

Cameron Wigmore; 8:45 a.m.
gfdgfdfd said...: Thanks for your responses, guys. I guess I was just worried that a "line in the sand" had already been drawn, and that whichever bloc wins in August would attempt to freeze out the other bloc(s) from power.

I'm glad to hear that people will sometimes vote outside of their slate, and will be willing to work with everyone/anyone from GPC come September, when we all need to get to work on moving our party forward

Cheers!; 3:55 p.m.
catharine said...: Some "Green Team" members have told me that they are voting for me for Chair, so I don't think there are any particularly rigid divisions. I was asked to be a part of the "Fresh Start" group and figured, hey, why not? I didn't know Paula Boutis, Doug Anderson, or Jean-Francois Pinel very well and it has been a great opportunity to learn about their visions for the party. It also helped me to get the issue of a Green Party Youth Wing more exposure.

I can also say that I think Mark Taylor would make a fine Treasurer. :); 8:21 a.m.
camsax@gmail.com said...: Thank you all for your support!

I have been elected to council as the Alberta Provincial Representative and I'm looking forward to working for the members in this capacity.

I am still in Ottawa posting this from the hostel I stayed at (http://www.ottawahostel.com/) and since there's a line up to use the computer I only have time for a quick comment post.

I will be making regular posts to my blog from now on, and I hope you'll check in here now and then. If you want to hear my thoughts on any subjects just ask away and I'll open up a discussion/debate (I really hope I'm not the only one here who likes to debate - tell me I'm in the right place ;-) for us to have some exchange of ideas. I'll also put up some of the better pictures I took at the convention.

Stay tuned!!!; 7:49 a.m.