January 25th., 2010
Copy of a letter to greens in Alberta explaining the demise of the previous Alberta
provincial green party. Sent by past executive members.
Dear (member):
As you are a former member of the Green Party of Alberta (aka Alberta
Greens) we are writing to inform you about what happened in the past
year that culminated in the deregistration of the party.
The time from September 2008 to July 2009 was difficult and
disappointing, to say the least, for those whose hearts and energy
and money were invested in the Alberta Greens before September 27,
2008.
A detailed account of the fracturing of the party can be found at
http://green.grantneufeld.ca/2008agm-GrantCommentary.html but, in
short, a small group led by Joe Anglin, Connie Jensen, and Edwin
Erickson used weaknesses in the party's Constitution to force a vote
on just one week's notice that removed George Read from his position
as party Leader on the day scheduled for the party's 2008 Annual
General Meeting. A subsequent vote named Joe Anglin Interim Leader.
For declining to recognize the legitimacy of the meeting at which
those votes took place, George Read was threatened with a lawsuit the
next day (a Sunday). The majority of the 2007-08 executive, led by
George Read and President Susan Stratton, launched an attempt to find
a political solution to the dispute by organizing a meeting for
November 29, 2008 at which all members would have had an opportunity
to vote, in person or by absentee ballot.
Unwilling to allow that vote to proceed, Anglin and Jensen filed a
lawsuit against Read and Stratton and later shredded the ballots that
had been mailed in for the meeting.
Rather than drag the party through a court battle and drain their
personal finances in the process, Read and Stratton resigned in
December '08 as did Chief Financial Officer David Crowe, and shortly
afterward, Secretary Madeleine Oldershaw and Membership Coordinator
Kathy Burman. All records of the party finances and memberships
along with such materials as signs, banners, membership books,
accounting records, etc. were turned over to Anglin and other members
of the new executive via our lawyer or electronically in December.
Repeated requests for the Anglin group to acknowledge receipt of
these things were simply ignored, and they afterward claimed that the
former executive was at fault for not turning them over. A detailed
account of this dispute can be found at
http://davidcrowe.ca/Green/notgoodtobegreen.html
Anglin's Greens failed to issue tax receipts for donations, refused
to repay debts owed to members who had advanced money for '08
campaign expenses, failed to file the audited financial reports
required by Elections Alberta at the end of March '09, canceled all
memberships on April 1 '09 and, rather than remedy their failure to
file during the period of extension offered by Elections Alberta,
requested that the party be de-registered, which occurred on July 15,
2009.
The result is that, despite the stunning advances made by the party
in the elections of 2004 and 2008, there is now no provincial Green
Party in Alberta. All is not lost, however. A group of former Alberta
Greens members have established the Vision 2012 society with the sole
purpose of registering a new party based on Green principles on or
before the date of the next general election in Alberta. We expect
you will be hearing very soon from them. We are supporting these
efforts and we hope you will too.
Yours sincerely
Susan Stratton, Former President, Alberta Greens
(mailto:susan@prairiesky.ab.ca)
David Crowe, Former CFO, Alberta Greens
(mailto:David.Crowe@cnp-wireless.com)
January 1st., 2010
The process of creating a new provincial green party in Alberta has begun.
