http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Harris_%28politician%29
James R. M. "Jim" Harris (born February 12, 1961) is a
Canadian author, environmentalist, and politician. He was leader of the
Green Party of Canada from 2003 to 2006, when he was succeeded by
Elizabeth May.
Early life and Green activism
Harris was born in
Toronto, attended
Lakefield College School, and received a
Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History from
Queen's University in
Kingston in the 1980s.
[1] Initially a
Progressive Conservative,
[2] he was converted to
green politics in 1985 after reading
Green Politics by
Fritjof Capra and
Charlene Spretnak, which highlights the rise of the
German Greens. Harris worked as the national press officer of the
British Green Party in 1987.
[3]
He helped organize the
Ontario Green Party's campaign in the
1990 provincial election, and was himself a candidate in the
Toronto division of
St. Andrew—St. Patrick.
[4] In this election, he spoke against a provincial government decision to build more nuclear reactors in the province.
[5] The Green Party fielded 40 candidates and received 33,000 votes, a significant increase from seven candidates and 3,000 votes in the previous
1987 election. Harris finished fourth in his constituency.
Harris campaigned for
Mayor of Toronto in the
1991 municipal election, as an independent candidate supporting green policies. He called for water conservation and a ban on city pesticide spraying, and supported stricter gun control.
[6] Considered a fringe candidate, he finished well behind frontrunners
June Rowlands and
Jack Layton.
In 1993, Harris and other Ontario Greens sought and won a change in the party's constitution allowing for the election of a full-time leader. The party had been nominally led by
Katherine Mathewson in the 1990 election, but she held little influence over the campaign or policy. Harris and others argued that electing a full-time leader would allow the Green Party to organize professionally, and present a united message in future elections. Harris stood for the leadership, and lost to
Frank de Jong. De Jong later supported Harris in his bid to become federal leader, while Harris endorsed de Jong's bid for re-election as provincial leader in 2001.
[7]
Harris was a Toronto organizer for the federal Green Party for the
1993 election, recruiting seventeen candidates in the area. New legislation brought in before the election required a party to run 50 candidate or suffer de-registration and lose its assets. By fielding seventeen candidates in the Toronto region (which then had roughly twenty-two ridings) the Toronto team presented over one-third of the national requirement. Harris stood for election in
St. Paul's, and finished sixth.
Harris campaigned for leader of the Green Party of Canada in 1997, and finished second against
Joan Russow.
[8] He was elected as the first president of the Green Party of Ontario in 2001, and served in that capacity until moving to the federal arena in 2003.
Author and speaker
Harris has written six books, two of which have been national best-sellers in Canada. He also delivers speeches on change and leadership in the corporate sector, and was forced to miss at least one campaign appearance in 2004 to fulfill a prior speaking engagement.
[9] Association Magazine has ranked him as one of Canada's top speakers. He spoke at about fifty international conferences a year before becoming GPC leader, and conducts strategic planning sessions with executive teams on leadership, change, CRM, eLearning, innovation and creating
learning organizations.
His second book,
The Learning Paradox, was nominated for the National Business Book Award in Canada and appeared on several bestseller lists. In this work, Harris argues that Canadians should embrace new learning to gain usable skills for a business community grounded in rapid technological change.
[10] Books for Business ranked it as one of the top-10 business books in
North America. Harris co-authored the second edition of
The 100 Best Companies to Work for in Canada, which sold over 50,000 copies in Canada. A more recent book,
Blindsided!, has been published in over 80 countries.
[11]
National leader
2004 campaign
Harris was elected leader of the
Green Party of Canada on February 14, 2003, defeating
Jason Crummey and
John Grogan with over 81% of the votes cast by delegates.
[12] He replaced interim leader
Chris Bradshaw, who led the party from 2001 to 2003.
Harris attempted to shift the GPC away from an exclusively environmentalist message, and often described the party's ideology as socially progressive and fiscally conservative and as the only party committed to sustainability.
[13] He has rejected the argument that voting for the Greens will elect Conservative candidates through vote-splitting, arguing that his party takes support from across the traditional political spectrum.
[14]
The party conducted a high-profile campaign in the 2004 election under Harris's leadership, running candidates in all federal ridings for the first time in its history. The 2004 GPC platform, produced by wiki technology called
LivingPlatform. As such the GPC was the first party worldwide to use a wiki—and an open process—to develop its platform. More than 60,000 people participated in the final selection of platform planks.
The Living Platform emphasized
full cost accounting, the "
triple bottom line" (social, financial, environmental) and the
green tax shift.
[15] The party's fiscal policy proposed taxing polluting activities and non-renewable resources more and incomes less on a revenue-neutral basis. The plan also proposed selective tax cuts on corporate income, which alienated some left-of-centre Greens.
Despite their increased profile, Greens were not invited to the leadership debates. Harris complained of a double-standard, as the
Bloc Québécois had been included despite not fielding candidates in all ridings. The CRTC defended the right of the broadcasters' consortium to decide on participants and refused to overturn the party's exclusion.
[16]
On the eve of the 2004 election, Harris argued that as the NDP won nine seats with 6.9% of the vote in 1993, if the Greens would elect MPs if they could match or surpass that threshold.
[17] The party received 582,247 votes (4.3%), but failed to elect any candidates. Harris campaigned in
Toronto—Danforth and finished fourth against
New Democratic Party leader
Jack Layton with 2,575 votes (5.4%) -- 400 votes behind the Conservative candidate.
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