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Greens have been elected in countries in Europe and South America, and in New Zealand and Australia since the 1970s.

In Germany, the Greens played an instrumental role in a coalition with the Social Democratic Party from 1998-2005, during which they reached agreement to end nuclear power in the country.

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Today, in Sweden, the Greens are part of a coalition government and the Greens are deliberating whether to help form a coalition government in the Netherlands, after the recent election there.

In all of these countries, Greens have come to hold power and influence because they have gained seats through proportional representation, under which some seats are distributed as a proportion of the popular vote.

It makes the Green’s breakthrough in British Columbia all the more remarkable, where the province’s first-past-the-post system (where the winner is the candidate with the most votes) disadvantages third parties.