B.C. Greens to make leadership announcement at 11 a.m. PT
A "significant announcement" is coming about the leadership of the B.C. Green Party today.
That's according to current Leader Sonia Furstenau, who is holding a news conference on the topic Tuesday at 11 a.m. in Victoria.
Furstenau, 54, has been leader of the B.C. Greens since 2020 and was an MLA from 2017 until 2024, when she failed to get elected in the riding of Victoria-Beacon Hill.
She had previously represented the riding of Cowichan Valley but decided to run in Victoria-Beacon Hill in the last election, saying she wanted to be closer to her adult children. However, she lost to incumbent NDP cabinet minister Grace Lore by 3,688 votes — a margin of 13.7 per cent.Provincewide, only two Green MLAs were elected: newcomers Jeremy Valeriote and Rob Boterell.
The party announced Furstenau would stay on as party leader to help manage the transition and to play a role in negotiating with the NDP, which won a narrow majority.
In December, the two parties announced a co-operation agreement outlining a list of priorities agreed upon by both sides, including health care, affordable housing and the economy.
WATCH | NDP and Greens pen 4-year agreement to work together on major provincial issues:
Teacher-turned-politician
Raised in Edmonton, Furstenau attended the University of Victoria and earned a degree in teaching, a career she pursued for several years before entering the political fray in 2014 as a Cowichan Valley Regional District director.
There, she was a fierce opponent to the waste discharge permit that allowed a quarry upstream from Shawnigan Lake to receive and store contaminated soil.
The dumping permit was cancelled in 2017 just a few months before she was first elected as an MLA.
B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau arrives to cast her ballot at Sir James Douglas Elementary School in the Victoria-Beacon Hill riding in Victoria, B.C., on Oct. 19, 2024. (Chad Hipolito/The Canadian Press)
She became deputy leader of the B.C. Green Party, and under then-leader Andrew Weaver and alongside Adam Olsen, MLA for Saanich North and the Islands, the three MLAs struck a deal to prop up John Horgan's NDP minority government. The party helped draft the province's Clean B.C. plan which set targets for greenhouse gas emission reduction.
Weaver and Furstenau would later clash after he stepped down as leader, with Weaver publicly criticizing Furstenau for moving the party too far to the left. Weaver endorsed the NDP in the 2020 election after Horgan called a snap election.
During her time in the legislature, Furstenau pushed for an end to old-growth logging, worked with Indigenous communities to end the practice of birth alerts (in which hospitals alerted child welfare authorities about newborns at risk which disproportionately affected Indigenous families), as well as advocating for mental health services to be covered under MSP.
B.C. Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau, joined by MLAs Rob Botterell, left, and Jeremy Valeriote, answer questions from the media on Oct. 23, 2024. (Chad Hipolito/The Canadian Press)
Speaking to CBC ahead of the 2024 provincial election, Furstenau said she felt her party had successfully pushed the government to do more to address major crises facing the province, including the toxic drug supply, affordability and the climate crisis. Furstenau was praised for her performance in the televised leaders' debate, with many pundits saying she offered a long-term vision for the province while the other two leaders, David Eby and John Rustad, took swipes at each other.
Furstenau and her husband, Blaise Salmon, have a blended family of five kids.
She welcomed her first grandchild at the beginning of December.
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