The BC Greens’ Strange Claim They Are Centrists

[Editor’s note: This is the latest in an occasional series by Mo Amir called Logic Check, whose focus is explained in a sidebar to this article.]

Quick, sum up in one sentence where the BC Greens locate themselves on the political spectrum. It’s a fairly basic test of a party on the brink of survival ahead of British Columbia’s provincial election.

BC Green Party campaign chair Adam Olsen gave it a shot earlier this month on CBC’s The Early Edition, saying, “The BC Greens are working towards the space that I think we’ve occupied for the last seven years or last decade really in the B.C. legislature, and that’s right in the middle.”

It’s a strange self-assessment that doesn’t seem to serve a purpose beyond invoking nostalgia for a time when the BC Greens held the balance of power in the B.C. legislature. The suggestion is that the current Greens under leader Sonia Furstenau are politically consistent with the BC Greens under Furstenau’s predecessor, Andrew Weaver.

Weaver openly rejects this idea. Presumably, so would Furstenau.

Moreover, if the BC Greens are “right in the middle,” that would make them, relatively speaking, centrist: a middle-ground option for voters faced with two dominant but polarized political parties.

This idea was further emphasized by former BC Green Party executive director Jonina Campbell on a recent Global News political panel:

“We have the NDP seemingly moving to the left, a little, under the premier, a little bit away from the centre, where some people say the former premier had. And now we have on the right, far right, the BC Conservative party.... And so I think the Greens are gonna have a challenge, where they’re an option and they could take up this space in the middle, potentially.”

Perhaps Campbell is speaking more to Weaver’s BC Greens. But after he left the legislature, Weaver repeatedly slammed the party under Furstenau as “extremist,” “ecosocialist” and “fringe far left.” He has since endorsed the BC Conservatives after endorsing the BC NDP in 2020.

Even dismissing Weaver’s cosplay of Abe Simpson yelling at a cloud, the idea that the BC Greens are a “centrist” party is not cohesive with the party’s policies, despite what its proponents say on political panels.

Under Furstenau, the BC Greens are a social democratic (or “left”) party, based on their policy positions. They should own it in their messaging.

After all, the BC Greens campaign on the promise of free public transit, a universal mental health-care system and a food security program. They want to crack down on companies profiteering from B.C.’s housing and health-care crises. They reject the expansion of involuntary care, while advocating the expansion of regulated safe supply to address the toxic drug supply crisis. They champion vacancy control and a four-day workweek.

The BC Greens’ progressive positions extend beyond climate change action. For voters who feel that the governing BC NDP has pivoted too far to the right, the BC Greens present a unique ballot option.

Furstenau implicitly acknowledges this idea: “[Premier] David Eby follows John Rustad off every reactionary cliff.”

Vote BC Green or whatever

Yet Furstenau has openly backed some former BC United, now Independent, incumbent MLA candidates.

On the Bigger Than Me podcast, Furstenau said of former BC United and NDP candidates now running independently: “I look at Adam Walker, I look at Tom Shypitka, I look at Dan Davies, I look at Mike Bernier. In a riding where you have a strong Independent running, especially someone who has demonstrated that they are a strong and effective MLA, elect that Independent.” Walker was elected as a New Democrat in 2020 and is running as an Independent. The other three are BC United incumbents running as Independents.

While Furstenau did promote BC Green candidates, she made a point of advocating for “the most representative legislature we’ve ever had in B.C.” to include the group of Independent candidates.

But it’s unclear what overlap Shypitka, Davies and Bernier share with the BC Greens beyond not being the BC NDP or the BC Conservatives.

Moreover, in Shypitka’s riding of Kootenay-Rockies (formerly Kootenay East), Kerri Wall is running as the BC Green candidate. In Davies’ riding (Peace River North), Brennan Wauters is the BC Green candidate. Furstenau’s soft endorsement of Shypitka and Davies seems to undercut her own candidates, or out them as paper candidates.

It may be a realistic appeal to block a majority government, but it’s still a peculiar one for Furstenau to make, while concurrently fielding candidates in those ridings.

So what do the BC Greens represent?

Is it a centrist political party, as its proponents claim? Is it a social democratic party, as its policies indicate? Or is it a party seeking to block any one party from forming a majority government, as its leader suggests?

If the BC Greens’ branding challenge was to offer a clear alternative for voters, these are not the types of questions that the party’s messaging should be raising at the onset of an election campaign.

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