Stuart Parker
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Stuart Parker was leader of the Green Party in British Columbia, Canada, from 1993 to 2000.
Parker managed to take the party from a tiny group of 59 in 1992 to a party that was only four candidates short of a full slate in the 1996 provincial election. He built links to poverty activists and labour groups. During his leadership, the party's standing in public opinion polls rose from 1% to 11%.
Reversing his earlier position, he negotiated agreements with the municipal affiliates of the then-incumbent New Democratic Party of British Columbia (NDP) provincial government and the labour councils of Vancouver and Victoria in 1998 and 1999, resulting in the first and only Red-Green coalitions in BC's 1999 municipal elections. As part of these coalitions, the Greens won their first-ever municipal seats in Canadian cities.
Ultimately, his focus on building a broadly left-wing green party in BC brought criticism from some members of the environmental movement in the province. Those people played a significant role in the efforts that eventually led to Parker's defeat at the party's March 2000 convention - after previous unsuccessful attempts in 1998 and 1999.
At the time of Parker's defeat, the party was in negotiations with the NDP over a potential provincial electoral alliance. His successor, Adriane Carr, cancelled these negotiations.
Parker's departure from the party came as the Greens were perceived to be moving to the political right. He subsequently worked with the NDP in the 2001 provincial election and with the federal New Democratic Party in the 2004 federal election.
He is currently living in Ontario, where he is pursuing a doctorate at the University of Toronto.
