The first Green Party in North America was born in British Columbia

History · Published 20 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Before it was a global movement, the Green Party of British Columbia was a pioneer. Founded in 1983, it navigated decades of internal schisms, leadership battles, and electoral hurdles to eventually break into the legislature, fundamentally altering the province's political landscape from the ground up.

The BC Greens were established on February 6, 1983, making them the first of their kind in North America. Under the initial leadership of Adriane Carr, the party debuted in the 1983 provincial election with four candidates, securing a mere 0.19% of the vote. This early period was marked by significant internal friction, including a deep divide between Carr's supporters, Greenpeace founder Jim Bohlen, and an Ecofeminist Caucus. The party even faced a brief internal crisis in 1988 when Carr and her husband, Paul George, had to intervene to defeat a proposal to field only female candidates.

A major turning point occurred in 1993 when 21-year-old Stuart Parker took the helm. By visiting unorganised rural regions, Parker refreshed the party, which saw its popularity reach a high of 11% in polls from 1996 to 1999. During this era, the party demonstrated a pragmatic, if controversial, shift toward social issues and municipal alliances. Art Vanden Berg became the first Canadian Green ever voted onto a City Council after Parker secured 1998 'Red-Green' pacts with the NDP in Victoria and Vancouver.

The party's trajectory continued to fluctuate through the 2000s, marked by a bitter public campaign to remove Carr in 1999 and her subsequent return as leader in 2000. Despite reaching 12% of the popular vote in 2001, the party won no seats, a result often cited as a critique of the first-past-the-post system. It wasn't until the 2013 general election that Andrew Weaver won the party's first seat in Oak Bay-Gordon Head. Since then, the party has moved from the periphery to a position of influence, notably signing a confidence and supply agreement with the NDP in 2017 to help defeat the incumbent Liberal government.

The BC Greens remain a complex political entity, often described by opponents as both right-wing and left-wing simultaneously. While their strength is concentrated in high-density areas like Vancouver and the Gulf Islands, their history is defined by a transition from a grassroots environmental movement to a sophisticated legislative partner that balances ecological wisdom with participatory democracy.

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