B.C.’s lone Green Party MLA Andrew Weaver wants to lead party in 2017 election

VICTORIA – British Columbia’s lone Green Party member of the legislature says he wants to lead the party into the 2017 provincial election.

Andrew Weaver represents a Victoria-area riding and says the Greens offer an alternative to the negative, confrontational styles of B.C.’s Liberals and New Democrats.

Weaver says former Green Party candidate Adam Olsen will continue to serve as interim leader, but when a leadership convention date is set, he will enter the race.

Weaver became B.C.’s first elected provincial Green Party MLA in the 2013 election, defeating former Liberal cabinet minister Ida Chong.

The former University of Victoria climate scientist has often said he was a likely one-term politician but that he enjoys being an alternative voice in B.C.’s often polarized political tradition and will run again.

Last spring, Premier Christy Clark said Weaver has been doing a better job in the legislature opposing her government than the entire NDP caucus, which she called irrelevant.