Coalition-building: lessons from Ireland and New Zealand
Green parties around the world face different electoral systems through which they must run candidates in order to get elected. Here in Canada, like 23 percent of countries in the world, we use the First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) system in which a ruling government is formed by the political party that scores the highest number of riding victories (as opposed to other systems that distribute a proportion of legislative seats based on a party’s share of total vote count).
Normally, Canada’s FPTP system requires individual candidates to achieve in excess of 35 percent support from the voters in order to win their seat (over 50 percent if only two candidates are running). As a consequence of this “winner-takes-all” arrangement, our electoral system benefits political parties with ideological objectives that are broad enough to attract more than one-third of the electorate.
Elsewhere around the world, Green legislators have been elected under a variety of other electoral systems: either as a single party option or through a coalition-type arrangement inside an electoral alliance. Elected Greens in other countries have learned to work with other parties and legislators to form majority governments.
Green legislators are currently serving in European Union governments in the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland and Latvia. As well, they served in governments in France, Germany, Belgium and Italy. The Green Party has also previously provided legislative support to the government of New Zealand.
With 6.8 percent support in the 2008 Canadian federal election, and several candidates breaking the 20 percent barrier, the Green Party of Canada is entering the electoral threshold where it might obtain a seat. Many people are therefore asking how the Green Party might work with other parties to get elected and form a role in government.
In the fall of 2007, I offered to do research for the Green Party of BC on ways that various Green parties around the world may determine whether or not to enter into an electoral alliance with other political parties, how these deals might be negotiated, and how Green parties would formalize these decisions within their respective constitutions.
In the 2007 Irish General Election, for example, Comhaontas Glas (the Green Party of Ireland) obtained 4.7 percent support of the popular vote and won 6 seats out of 166 in the Dáil. Three of those elected candidates now serve as Ministers in the current government thanks to amendments to the Party’s constitution permitting negotiations with other parties.
Specifically, the constitutional amendments stipulated that the Party shall have the power to negotiate with other parties and to decide on all possible political arrangements with other parties (subject to ratification by a Special National Convention of any decision to participate in a government). All members (of at least 6 months standing) are entitled to vote at the convention and all decisions require a two-thirds majority.
Comhaontas Glas now holds key posts in the Irish government, including: Minister of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government; Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources; and Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture with responsibility for Food and Horticulture.
The Green Party of Aotearoa in New Zealand adopted a similar protocol permitting and guiding negotiations with other parties. While negotiations are undertaken by a small team appointed by the National Executive, the development of strategic direction is undertaken by a membership-wide consultation process organized by the Strategic Planning Facilitation Group (SPFG).
The party completed a two-year-long exercise of this kind just before the 2008 national elections, initiated by the Co-Leaders, Dr. Russel Norman and Ms. Jeanette Fitzsimons. Any final position reached by the negotiating team would have to be ratified by the Party membership in a Special General Meeting (SGM).
In 2008 the Green Party of Aotearoa became the third largest party in the national legislature with 9 seats, having attained 6.7 percent of the popular vote. Currently the National Party forms a minority government in New Zealand with parliamentary support from the ACT, Maori and United Future parties.
Based on the protocols of Comhaontas Glas and the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, the Green Party of BC unanimously adopted the following resolution at its 2008 Annual General Meeting in White Rock, BC:
When a Leader and/or the Provincial Council determines the GPBC should enter into any political arrangement with another organization or political party, that Provincial Council shall appoint a committee to negotiate any such arrangement;
The resolution further stipulates that, similar to the Irish and New Zealand Green parties, any tentative agreement would require ratification by the membership.
For the Green Party of Canada, it matters little whether its members and supporters agree or disagree with forming coalitions or political arrangements with other political parties and organizations. What should be clear is that the Green Party of Canada ought to set out clear parameters as to how those discussions should occur, who should have the authority to authorize them, and how to ratify any negotiated agreements so reached.
Andy Shadrack was elected Director Area D, Regional District Central Kootenay in 2005 and was re-elected in 2008. He currently serves as the Chair of the Rural Affairs standing committee and as a member on the Executive Board of the Association of Kootenay-Boundary Local Governments.
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