Green Party candidates are springing up like spring crocuses around B.C., but in Boundary-Similkameen no one has stepped forward yet to put their name on the ballot.
And that’s prompted Dave Cursons to organize meetings this week in Oliver, Princeton and Grand Forks to try to drum up a candidate.
Cursons has been co-ordinating the search on behalf of an informal group of local Greens that isn’t organized as a formal riding association.
The May 9 provincial election is now just two months away and Cursons had hoped to have a candidate by now.
“I’m looking for a young, enthusiastic candidate that I can work for,” said Cursons, who makes it clear he’s not interested in running himself if no one else steps forward.
“I have run in the ’80s and early ’90s and it’s not my time, notwithstanding Bernie Sanders,” he said referring to the 75-year-old who ran against Hillary Clinton for the Democrat presidential nomination in the U.S.
“I’m 70 this year and I think I’d rather lend a hand to a younger and enthusiastic candidate. That’s why we are holding these meetings and putting the word out within the email network of members and supporters.”
Cursons said one of the challenges of recruiting a candidate is that the Green Party of British Columbia is not attractive to someone looking for a career in politics.
“I think it is fair to say that a political career path would not be clearly carved out through the Green Party,” he said. “If one is definitely wanting to turn to the profession of politics, they would be more likely to adhere to one of the mainline parties.”
People who are committed to Green principles and values would have to decide whether they would make “a considerable sacrifice of time, energy and moral courage to step forward and run for the Greens,” he said.
The party has run a candidate here in every election since 1986, he said, even though Cursons has had to put his own name forward at times in the past.
A potential candidate would have to commit to being out and meeting the public and going door to door, he said.
“In a constituency in the West End of Vancouver, it’s a little bit different than going door to door between the gateway of Manning Park and Christina Lake,” he said.
The same challenge faces candidate of other parties, he added, but the “mainline” parties are better financed by the corporate and union sectors.
Cursons also admitted the policies the Green Party advances, such as addressing global warming, sustainable communities and preventive healthcare don’t have the “sex appeal” of some other issues.
He acknowledged that parties sometimes bring in a “parachute” candidate from outside the riding, or a “paper candidate,” who is on the ballot, but doesn’t campaign.
But he said that’s not his choice.
“I don’t like it,” he said. “I don’t think anybody likes that.”
In the 2013 election, Green Party candidate John Kwasnica took just 8.8 per cent of the vote in Boundary-Similkameen.
The public meeting in Oliver is at 2:30 p.m. this Saturday in Room 1 at the Oliver Recreation Centre.
The meeting in Princeton is at 7 p.m. on Friday at the Riverside Centre.
The meeting in Grand Forks is at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the library.
Anyone interested in running for the Green Party can also contact Cursons at 250-499-5417.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
