Party Ending : 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)
