Kim Darwin has officially launched her bid to become the next leader of the BC Green Party, but without the usual launch event or the planned press conference – both had to be cancelled because of concerns around the COVID-19 pandemic.
Darwin, whose application to become a leadership nomination was recently approved by party officials, said she expects the precautions against public gatherings and large events being implemented to keep the coronavirus from spreading will have some impact on the leadership race.
Earlier this month, Green Party headquarters announced it would cancel all in-person public events.
“While this is disappointing for everyone involved in organizing upcoming riding association AGMs, leadership campaign events and other gatherings, we are asking everyone to contribute and take necessary actions to reduce the risk of transmission,” said party executive director Andrew Brown.
“We have definitely had those concerns, but the ultimate concern is to ensure that we’re following all of the recommendations of our health professionals,” Darwin told Coast Reporter. “We have had to change a number of our plans.”
Darwin, former BC Green Party vice chair, said she feels this is the right time to make a run for the leadership.
“I firmly believe that the BC Green Party is going to be the future party for British Columbia. I like the trajectory that we have been on under the leadership of Andrew Weaver. I feel like we’ve broken out in a way that we were unable to do in previous years.”
Darwin also said she believes her professional and business experience, which includes her current work as a mortgage consultant, makes her the ideal person to lead the Greens into the next election.
“It’s something that the Greens haven’t been known for, being business-minded per se,” said Darwin.
“The clean tech, climate conscious economy of the future starts today in B.C.,” Darwin said in the release announcing her campaign launch. “When we prepare to elect a provincial BC Green government to pass progressive, thoughtful and balanced legislation to transition our economy for the decarbonized era, and establish B.C. as a global leader in clean tech.”
Darwin also said she plans to step away from her business to devote herself full-time to getting the party ready for the next election, while the sitting BC Green MLAs focus on their work in the legislature and in their ridings.
“I’m asking BC Green members and supporters to let me do the heavy lifting to gather the team of MLA candidates we’ll take into the next election. This will give our MLAs increased capacity to implement our policies and platform into BC legislation,” Darwin said in her launch announcement. “The quality and
quantity of candidates that I am already working on to bring to the next B.C. election will be an absolute game-changer for B.C. politics."
The only other declared candidate so far is Cowichan Valley MLA Sonia Furstenau, who announced her leadership bid on Jan. 27, and Darwin said that fact that two experienced women are in the running for the leadership shows how progressive the party is. “In fact, I find it kind of exciting.”
Darwin was the Green candidate for Powell River-Sunshine Coast in the 2017 provincial election, when she finished a close third with 6,505 votes, or 24.2 per cent, which doubled the Green showing in the riding in the 2013 election.
She told Coast Reporter she’d like to thank Coast residents who’ve been sending messages supporting her leadership run and that she plans to stand for election in the riding again. “We only just officially launched and the outpouring of support has been absolutely amazing… I look forward to becoming not only the next BC Green Party leader, but our community’s MLA after the next election.”
The deadline for candidates to apply to enter the race is April 15, and the Greens say the final list of approved candidates will be released April 30, to allow time for screening of any last-minute entries.
Before the restrictions on in-person events as a result of COVID-19, the Green Party was planning three leadership debates between April 30 and June 15: one on Vancouver Island, one on the Lower Mainland and one in the North or Interior. There’s been no announcement about whether those debates will still be held.
Leadership voting will take place online and by telephone between June 15 and 26, and the results will be announced June 27 at the party’s annual convention in Nanaimo.
