Green leader presses to hold seats on Vancouver Island ahead of Monday

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NANAIMO (NEWS 1130) — Annamie Paul is campaigning on Vancouver Island on the final weekend ahead of the election, and at least one political scientist sees this is a bid to maintain the seats the Party already has.

“The Greens have had a terrible year,” Hamish Telford with the University of the Fraser Valley says.

This year, the Green Leader has had to survive months of party strife after a move to push her out of her leadership position, leaving her with a tenuous grip on power for this federal election.

Telford suggests this is putting intense pressure on Paul as she runs to win a seat in the Toronto-Centre riding for the third time.

“If she doesn’t prevail, in this election, that will be three times that she has run for a seat in Parliament in Toronto center and not succeeded.”

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But rather than stumping in her own riding ahead of the vote on Monday, the Green Leader is hoping to shore up the only Members of Parliament the party currently maintains in the Commons.

“They have to focus on and really try and hold if the Greens are going to have a visible presence in the next parliament.”

The Green Party’s only two seats in Parliament are on Vancouver Island.

One is held by former Green Party leader Elizabeth May, whose re-election is considered likey.

The other — Nanaimo — is held by Paul Manly.

“It’s historically been an NDP riding and the NDP have poured a lot of energy into getting that riding back,” Telford says.

The Party did have three M.P.’s before one of their members from New Brunswick crossed the floor to the Liberals earlier this year.

If Elizabeth May becomes the only elected member of the party in Parliament, Telford says that will come with its challenges.

“That makes it difficult for the Greens to sort of get to that next stage,” Telford says.

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