BC Greens seem to be focusing on the Victoria region

There are 19 Greens nominated to run in the May 2013 BC election which is 22% of the total though they will not be running in Delta South against Vicki Huntingdon or Cariboo North versus Bob Simpson.  Counting those decisions, the Greens are close to 1/4 of the ridings covered..

What is interesting is where the Greens are nominated so far.   In five of the seven ridings in the CRD the Greens have nominated a candidate.

• Oak Bay Gordon Head - Andrew Weaver
• Victoria Beacon Hill - Jane Sterk
• Esquimalt Royal Roads - Susan Low
• Victoria Swan Lake Cecila Stocker
• Saanich South Branko Mustafovic

Given the success of Green federally in this region with the election of Elizabeth May and the close second by Donald Galloway and the history of Greens being elected to some of the local councils in this region, there seems to be a core of support for the party in the CRD.    There are Greens in this region that now know how to campaign.

I also understand that likely four of the Greens in this region will be trying hard to get elected.   What I mean by this is that they will be spending $30,000 to $80,000 between now and the election and will be running with full teams of volunteers.   In the past the BC Greens have run very few strong campaigns and certainly had not identified a region where their strength was concentrated.   The Victoria media market is likely the prefect size for the BC Greens to gain the most momentum from each other's campaigns and potentially have success in electing someone.   If we compare the Greens to the BC Conservatives, it would seem the Greens are preparing much better for the coming election.

In the last year the BC Conservatives have managed to get a lot of media coverage while the BC Greens have really been off of the radar.    Yes the BC Conservatives have gone through their latest round of infighting in the last few months and are much weaker now than were they were in March of this year, but they should be much further ahead in their organization on the ground and have 20 to 30 candidates nominated, instead they have three and I am not sure if they have figured out where they have a regional strength and where not.

Could 2013 be the year the BC Greens finally elect an MLA?  Maybe, certainly they seem to be working towards it in a more coordinated and thought out way than in the past.