The Green Party Of Canada

The Green Party of Canada

Canada had nine registered political parties in the 1993 federal

election. Each one of these parties was trying to place their candidates into

Parliament as members. In this particular election there were the usual

dominating parties that ran, the Liberals and Conservatives. Also vying for

seats were seven minority parties which included the Green Party, the Christian

Heritage Party, the National Party of Canada, the Abolitionist Party, the

Commonwealth, The Canada Party, the Liberaltarian Party, the Marxist-Leninist

Party, and the Natural Law Party. Each of these minority parties had then and

still do have their own values, goals, and political expectations. Most

minority parties try to guide themselves along on the basis of these beliefs,

especially around election time when they work hardest to raise issues of policy

alternatives trying to make a mark on the political scene in Canada despite

their limited support and resources.

The Green Party of Canada is one particular minority party that

presented themselves to the political scene in Canada about 15 years ago, in the

early 1980's (Darfler). The small group of individuals belonging to the Green

Party is an interesting bunch. They're all ages and come from a wide variety of

views and opinions. Even together as a party they vary in their individual

values and beliefs compared to other political parties in Canada. The party

faithful is unlike most other parties in many ways, the most noticeable

difference is having tried to invert a system which is bottom-up, meaning that

all the real power and responsibility are held at the level of the local

chapters. This is unique to the Green Party because most political organizations

operate on a top-down basis, with a middle group within the party hierarchy that

is in charge of their own membership, income, policies and incentives (Darfler).

They together as a united party hold their own political sights for the future.

The Green Party members for the most part believe that it is time to take a more

sensible approach to running the affairs of the people and to do that we must

base our political and economic beliefs on fact. In Canada, the Green Party

values such things as ecological wisdom, social justice, grass roots democracy,

non- violence, decentralization, feminism, and future focus/sustainability

(htp.//www.green.ca). If you agree that the government should focus its

attention toward these values, then you yourself are probably Green. All of

these values are joined by a common value system which is determined by a set of

underlying theories about the nature of reality and the people placed in it. The

Green Parties political thought will probably never become entirely known as