Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Green Party candidate Alex Pope is taking a new leadership role in the party.
Pope was elected the Fraser Valley/Surrey rep for the provincial council for the BC Green Party.
“That means I’m getting involved with promoting membership, helping get riding associations established, communicating information from BC members back to our MLAs and just election preparedness for the next election – hopefully in four years,” said Pope.
The new role does not limit his candidacy, and Pope plans to run again in a Maple Ridge during the next provincial election.
Pope is a computer programmer and analyst who works in the financial sector. He has run for Maple Ridge city council, and ran for the Green Party of BC in the 2013 election. In the 2017 election he finished third with 3,329 votes, which was 12 per cent of the votes cast. Across B.C., the party doubled its share of the popular vote to 16 per cent.
Pope said the support was tangible during the race.
“I could feel it building through the election campaign, that there was a lot more support. I could sense that, and it happened.”
By having a Green candidate in every riding, that share of the popular vote can increase more, said Pope.
“We have to build the riding associations, build the membership and out of that, as we get closer to the election, we will find the candidates,” he said.
“How our three MLAs represent themselves in the legislature is going to improve on that too. It’s going to demonstrate that BC Green candidates can do a good job if they get elected.
He said the issue of proportional representation could be game-changer for the Greens, and other fledgeling parties, he said.
“And I think it would be good for democracy in B.C.”