A A

Decision '19.

GRAND TRACADIE, P.E.I. - Less than a week after election season began, the Green party has finalized its slate of candidates and is making a bid to be the party that frustrated voters choose as the alternative to the governing Liberals.

An evening nomination meeting, also described as a “campaign launch,” on Monday night drew a gathering of enthusiastic Green party supporters to Grand Tracadie Elementary School. About 160 people attended the tightly packed meeting, selecting the party’s candidates for the districts of Montague-Kilmuir, Stratford-Keppoch, Morrell-Donagh, Stanhope-Marshfield, and Alberton-Bloomfield.

The meeting room, designed for much smaller gatherings, was packed beyond capacity. However, by comparison, a Liberal nomination rally for Liberal leader Wade MacLauchlan drew around 260 people on March 29, while a campaign kickoff held by Dennis King and the Progressive Conservatives on the same night drew 400.

Four of the five Green nominations Monday were uncontested but still required a vote by members, as party rules require members to vote between the nominees and a “no candidate” option. In the end, Devon Strang became the candidate for Stratford-Keppoch, Kyle MacDonald became the candidate for Morell-Donagh, Sarah Donald became the party’s choice to run against premier Wade MacLauchlan in Stanhope-Marshfield and James McEnna became the candidate in Alberton-Bloomfield.

Three individuals — Patrick Brothers, Gregory Jobe and John Allen MacLean — contested the Green nomination for Montague-Kilmuir. In the end, MacLean won the nomination, earning 74 of the 111 ballots cast.

The nomination proceeded faster and smoother than a Green nomination held in Charlottetown on August 2018, when the vote for five candidates took more than 90 minutes despite the presence of only 132 party members. The nomination vote on Monday night took less than 20 minutes.

In a speech, Green Leader Bevan-Baker said recent polling, which has put his party at the top of public opinion polls, reflected a desire of Island voters for “real change” beyond simply switching between PC and Liberal governments.

"I think when Islanders go into that voting booth, they will be thinking not how their parents and grandparents would want them to vote but how their children and grandchildren would want them to vote," Bevan-Baker said.

Green party supporters attend a nomination meeting and rally Monday night. The party released its platform on Monday and also held the last of its nominations for candidates in five ridings. - Stu Neatby

Green party organizers said they had raised $27,000 in donations since the writ dropped March 26.

The party released a platform earlier on Monday that pledged to implement a carbon tax on transportation fuels, committed to a $10 million increase in social assistance rates and pledged to “aggressively pursue negotiations” with the federal government on the implementation of a Basic Income Guarantee pilot.

In a statement e-mailed to the Guardian, the Liberal Party of P.E.I. slammed the platform, claiming it did not adequately address job creation and health care.

“Instead of promoting a plan to provide better services to Islanders, the Green party appears more intent on reviewing internal government processes,” the Liberal statement read.

In a surprise announcement, the Liberal party also released the remainder of its platform on Monday morning. The full Green party plan can be found here while the Liberal platform can be found here.



Twitter.com/stu_neatby



Green Party Leader Daily Schedule

Peter Bevan-Baker's Daily Schedule for Wednesday, April 3:

Morning: Canvassing in North Rustico with District 18 candidate Colin Jeffrey

Early Afternoon: Canvassing in Kensington with District 20 candidate Matthew J MacKay

Late Afternoon: Canvassing in Wellington with District 24 candidate Nick Arsenault

Early Evening: Canvassing in Summerside

*The daily schedule is subject to change.