In P.E.I., the Green party is leading in the polls. It’s not the only province where the party is suddenly winning.
Peter Bevan-Baker got sent to the basement in 2015 when he first won a seat as Green party leader in Prince Edward Island. The legislative office building’s main floors were always set aside for Liberals and Conservatives, with one tiny basement space for rare times in provincial history anybody else had won.
Then a by-election win made it two Green members, a historic breakthrough for a third party. They got moved across the street to the fourth floor of a Victorian brick building. It was partially storage space in a sort-of attic. The ceiling slopes down sharply next to the leader’s office desk. “Sometimes I’ll stand up and give myself a good egg,” Bevan-Baker says, pointing to his currently bump-free head.
His next move could be into the premier’s office, to the shock of many, including Bevan-Baker. Recent polls show Island Greens narrowly leading the Liberals, and for nearly two years have shown the Green leader, until recently a small-town dentist, as residents’ preferred premier. Bevan-Baker might not be measuring the drapes in the premier’s office yet, but he wants to have a tape measure, making sure his candidates and platform are government-ready, should the lead hold when an election is called as soon as this spring.
Continue Reading.
