The strange case of the seemingly reluctant Green Party candidate in Kelowna-Lake Country just keeps getting stranger.
First, Gary Adams told Green Party members voting at the nomination meeting last month before the vote took place he would step down if nominated to support the Liberal candidate running in the riding. He was subsequently nominated as the party’s candidate in the Kelowna-Lake Country riding. Green Party leader Elizabeth May subsequently asked Adams to hold off implementing his plan.
Adams says he will not relinquish the nomination despite the federal party not allowing him to support another candidate as long as he is the Green Party’s candidate.
Asked by the Kelowna Capital News this week if he will give up the nomination, Adams replied: “I have no intention of doing that and no plans to do so.”
At the same time, he said negotiations are ongoing between himself and proponents of his plan, as well as with the local Green Party electoral district association and the federal party.
In a bid to try and unseat Conservative incumbent Ron Cannan, Adams wants to will step aside so Liberal Stephen Fuhr will have fewer opponents as he tries to defeat Cannan.
Adams said a final decision about what will eventually happen has to be made soon because Elections Canada needs to know if his name will be on the ballot.
He said he was surprised it has taken this long to find a resolution to the issue.
On Wednesday, the Green Party of Canada’s director of communications said the issue is currently in the hands of the local Green Party electoral district association.
But, he said, the federal party does not allow its candidates to support candidates of other parties.
“If he’s talking about supporting another party’s candidate, our constitution’s rules and regulations don’t allow for that,” said Julian Morelli.
Where the local electoral district association for Kelowna-Lake Country officially stands on the issue and what it is specifically doing is not known because the head of that association Zena Ryder has declined a request to be interviewed.
In a brief email response she said she had no information to provide.
The plan for Adams to run for the nomination and then step down to support Fuhr was originally proposed as a formal co-nomination of Fuhr, but that was quickly nixed by the federal Green Party.
A watered down “co-operation” agreement was made that would see Fuhr, if elected, consult the local Green Party constituency executive on issues.
While based on a memorandum of understanding drawn up between the local Liberals and Greens, Adams said it was not a signed agreement but rather a “handshake deal.”
Meanwhile, Adams said he has been working on his campaign but has not been knocking on doors in the riding seeking support.
The former CEO of the Kelowna-Lake Country Green Party electoral district, Angela Nagy, said she asked the federal party about the local plan prior to the nomination meeting and was told it was not allowed under the Green Party’s constitution.
But Nagy said party members voting at the nomination meeting were not told that because the meeting’s rules did not allow any other business than the nomination.
Nagy lost the CEO position to Ryder in a vote and is now the association’s financial agent.
Nagy is opposed to Adams’s plan.
Neither Morelli nor Adams could say when they situation with the Green Party candidate in Kelowna-Lake Country will be settled, with both saying they needed to hear from the other before a final resolution.
