Stuart Parker was 21 when he became the leader of the B.C. Greens in 1993 after campaigning against McDonald's use of ozone-damaging foam packaging.
He said youth alone won't be enough to sustain the next leader of the Greens, in a race where the average age of the contenders is just 30.
"So yes, I got in as the young, radical urbanite, but I maintained my leadership of that party for seven years by spending my time on the road," said Parker, who has also run for the New Democrats and more recently has worked for the B.C. Conservatives.
Parker said he campaigned not on his age, but by shaking as many hands as possible, and meeting and listening to people.
The Greens' leadership contest, with a voting period from Sept. 13 to 23, features 24 year-old Emily Lowan, who is an organizer with Climate Action Network Canada, 23-year-old student Adam Bremner-Akins, and family doctor Jonathan Kerr, the elder of the group at 44.
By comparison, the last two Green leaders, Sonia Furstenau and Andrew Weaver, were 54 and 59 respectively when they stood down.
Lowan and Bremner-Akins have no doubts that they are experienced enough to lead.
"I absolutely think I am, and I don't think that is just arrogance," Lowan said, adding she has a "decade of extremely relevant experience as a movement-builder, as a campaigner and a policy researcher."
Bremner-Akins, meanwhile, pointed to his experience on the party's provincial council and two runs as candidate for the party.
"It's not always used on the younger end of the spectrum, but age is just a number," Bremner-Akins said.
"Whether you are in your 60s, 70s 80s or 20s — it is just a number, and I have been through a lot. If people want to know, I'm seasoned. I have been fired for union organizing. I have taken on roles inside the party. I have run for election."
UBC political science lecturer Stewart Prest said having two candidates in their 20s offered a "silver lining" for the party, because it was a chance for renewal and to distinguish the party from rivals.
But there were also risks.
"At same time, it makes it that much harder to make the claim that they're a party ready to govern, that they are ready to compete and offer an alternative both to the NDP and to the Conservatives," he added. "So, I don't know that there is a single personnel choice here available to the Greens to turn things around."
Whoever wins, the B.C. Greens are leaning into the youth movement, both rhetorically and logistically.
The party's website describes the contest as "an opportunity for a bold new vision, fresh energy, and renewed commitment to building a sustainable, just, and prosperous British Columbia."
And party membership is free for everyone aged 14 to 29. Party members as young as 16 can vote in the contest.
That emphasis isn't solely the Greens' domain. The NDP's 2022 leadership contest let members as young as 12 vote, while the Conservatives' 2023 race set the age limit at 14.
Neither of the Greens' two MLAs, Rob Botterell and Jeremy Valeriote, who is the interim leader, are seeking the leadership.
The Greens may have maintained a presence in the legislature after last year's election, but the party's vote share dropped from about 15 per cent to just above eight per cent, amid an increasingly polarized political environment.
Prest added that "barring a change in the electoral system ... there's only so much the Greens can do here to remain relevant."
He said the Greens should instead focus on a regional strategy.
Kerr, a twice-elected municipal councillor in Comox on Vancouver Island and vice-chair of the Comox Valley Regional District, disagreed.
He said his leadership campaign tour across B.C. showed "there is Green support everywhere," including in northern and central B.C., where voters want to see forestry practices that focus on conservation, selective logging, and value-added production to keep mills open.
"People care and see what we've been doing isn't working," he said. "I am focused on the environment and climate. That is how I got involved with the Greens. But I'm equally focused on creating a clean economy, a new economy that's better."
When asked whether young party members should take a flyer from a 44-year-old, Kerr chuckled. "Isn't that funny?" he said. "I'm the old guy in the race."
Lowan said she was running because the party needed a "true organizer to bring this party back to life," so it can "be a strong thorn in the side of the governing party."
Over the years, the party had lost its youth base and connection to social and climate movements, she said.
She said she wanted "to challenge the oligarchs that really run the show in the premier's office," as well as projects she said were jeopardizing the climate and affordability.
She said the Greens need to move in "lockstep" with social and climate movements, with young people, workers, renters and Indigenous communities for the party to have a future.
"In this moment of time, the Greens have a real crossroads, between fading into the background, or choosing to be a bold, galvanizing party," she said.
Bremner-Akins said the party needed a leader "who lives with the problems we're facing in the province, whether that's housing affordability, the rising cost of living, the existential threat of climate change we're facing," he said.
He added that people "need someone who isn't just passionate about issues" but "lives with them and is motivated to deal with them because people are frustrated" by the lack of "relative urgency" from governments.
Kerr said both Lowan and Bremner-Akins were "great young leaders" with much to offer, saying as leader he would work to get them elected as MLAs alongside him.
Prest cautioned that there was no guarantee the next leader of the Greens would win a seat in the legislature, let alone the two other candidates.
But he said the two younger candidates' presence in the race pointed to an "area of potential growth for the Greens"- young, progressive voters disenchanted with the NDP on issues including the environment and energy, after nearly a decade in office.
Parker, who also led the B.C. Ecosocialist party before resigning in 2020 over comments that critics called transphobic, said the Greens were currently "incapable of being relevant" in B.C. politics. But he had some advice.
"If you are a radical party, people are supposed to be offended by your opinions," Parker said. "If you are not offending anybody, you are doing it wrong."
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — B.C. Green Party
