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In just four years, the B.C. Greens have emerged from relative obscurity and nagging criticism as a one-issue party to become a legitimate political force with a comprehensive election platform.

They have the party’s smart, likable and hard-working leader Andrew Weaver, MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head to thank for that, as evidenced by his credible performance in Wednesday’s televised leaders’ debate. He scored second in an instant poll, behind the NDP’s John Horgan and just ahead of Liberal Christy Clark.

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The Greens are brashly putting themselves forward as a party to govern, adopting the slogan “Change you can count on” — a virtual knockoff of Barack Obama’s “Change we can believe in”, which was used successfully during the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

Political observers suggest the Green party should set its sights on a modest increase in legislative seats.

Norman Ruff, associate professor emeritus of political science at the University of Victoria, says that the Greens have grown from a “grassroots ecological movement toward a more fully fledged political party with all its trappings of a leadership-driven organization with a broad provincial policy agenda.