The Canadian political landscape has acquired a distinctive Green hue this spring, and the voting public should take note.

In Prince Edward Island this week, the Green Party recorded the best results it has ever achieved in a Canadian election, either federal or provincial.

Not only did the Greens win 30.6 per cent of the popular vote and become P.E.I.'s Official Opposition after boosting their seat count to eight, they became a decisive force in the province's first minority government since 1890.

Such a breakthrough has been a long time coming for political seeds that were planted with hopeful expectations across Canada decades ago and only now are starting to flourish.

In neighbouring New Brunswick, the provincial Greens captured three seats in the 2018 election, their best showing ever. Leap across to Queen's Park and you'll see Mike Schreiner, who was elected Ontario's first Green MPP last year.

Out in British Columbia, the three Green members elected to the legislature in 2017 — again the party's best result in that province — hold the balance of power in a minority New Democrat government and are witnessing their battle plans for fighting climate change put into action.

Something's happening, something that will raise hopes for Elizabeth May who holds the Green Party's sole federal seat but can anticipate this fall's federal election with hopeful expectations of her own.

Some pundits will accuse us of seeing a Green forest where there are only a few scattered trees. Others will point to the victory of P.E.I.'s Progressive Conservatives over the governing Liberals this week and the United Conservative Party's landslide win in Alberta last week as part of a more significant conservative realignment of Canada's provincial legislatures.

Whatever the truth of this observation, a liberal-conservative two-step has occupied Canada's political centre stage since Confederation and what we're witnessing with new small-c conservative governments now may just be its latest act.

As a real, if slowly emerging and potentially game-changing force, however, the Greens deserve to be considered in a new light. Timing might be on their side.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is touting climate change as key ballot issue in the next federal election. But standing up for the environment is the Green Party's original raison d'être.

That's their brand and their colour. If the next general election is fought over climate change, Green voices should resonate as never before.

But it's not just that the Greens are in sync with one of today's leading global priorities, they have the appeal of looking new when much of the electorate has wearied of same-old, same-old politics. In democracies around the world, voters are increasingly dissatisfied with the stale, divisive, counterproductive games played by traditional mainstream parties.

As more and more Green politicians are elected, they're showing how different, how much more collaborative and civil things can be. In P.E.I., Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker wants to co-operate with the minority PCs, not defeat them.

Ontario's Mike Schreiner has garnered accolades for his level-headed, non-partisan behaviour. In Ottawa, Elizabeth May is being praised as Parliament's conscience. Meanwhile, the Greens are proving they're not a one-trick pony by pushing issues related to housing and innovation.

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These ideas may appeal especially to centre-left voters disillusioned with the governing Liberals. And if voters trust the Greens to represent them, could they one day choose the party to govern?

Green wave? Perhaps it's still a Green trickle. But when Canadians choose a new government this fall, the Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats will have more to worry about than each other.