Green deputy leader Adriane Carr placed a disappointing fourth in the Vancouver Centre riding, in spite of earlier assertions from her supporters that the race was going to be between the Greens and veteran Liberal Hedy Fry.
A sea of Green supporters, candidates, volunteers and campaign staff decked in swells of kelly, forest and emerald gathered in the Creekside Community Recreation Centre in the Olympic Village waiting for the election results.
Carr received 15 percent of the vote, down from the 18 percent she received in the same riding in the 2008 federal election.
“I will acknowledge my disappointment, but I am not defeated,” says Carr.
Any sense of disappointment in Carr’s loss was tempered by federal party Leader Elizabeth May’s unseating of Conservative cabinet minister Gary Lunn in the Saanich-Gulf Islands riding to become Canada’s first-ever elected Green MP.
“It was our party’s primary goal to elect our leader. We have vested so much hope and effort in that. I cannot imagine a more articulate, intelligent, persuasive MP than Elizabeth in the House of Commons,” says Carr.
The crowd in the recreation centre cheered, whistled and applauded as they watched May deliver her victory speech on television from Vancouver Island.
Carr expresses regret at her loss but is focusing on the future. “It was a positive campaign; it was exciting, vibrant, it was full of youth. I think we ran the best campaign that I’ve ever been involved in,” she says.
“I’m doing this work because I’m passionate about the need for change,” she continues. “The fact that I wasn’t elected isn’t going to deter me from continuing that work.”
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