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The explanation for this depends on who you ask. The NDP and leader Jagmeet Singh benefitted from a late-stage bump in the polls. But the New Democrats also ran a tough campaign attacking the Green candidates on Vancouver Island — a “smear campaign,” May claims — that the Greens weren’t able to counter.

As you come under more scrutiny, often that exposes some deep problems, and I think that that happened with the Green Party in this election

May also made errors during the campaign, on questions about abortion and Quebec sovereignty. Party insiders and observers said the Greens, unused to the type of criticism major political parties face during campaigns, weren’t equipped to deal with the fallout.

“When you’re under less scrutiny, a lot of people can sort of insert their own ideas about what you’re about,” said Glen Sanford, the NDP’s B.C. campaign director. “And then as you come under more scrutiny, often that exposes some deep problems, and I think that that happened with the Green Party in this election.”

Ultimately, in an election that focused more on climate change than any that preceded it, the Green Party still emerged as a marginal political force. The question the party now faces is where to go from here.

Photo by REUTERS/Kevin Light

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Last Thursday, May revealed her conditions for supporting a Liberal minority government in an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Key among them was a demand that the government increase its existing 2030 target for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. The Greens also want to work with the Liberals and NDP to bring in national pharmacare, reduce cell phone charges and pursue electoral reform.