By ELLERY PLATTS
Halifax Green candidate Jo-Ann Roberts had high hopes for the 2019 federal election. Incumbent Andy Fillmore kept his seat, however, and heads back to Ottawa with a raft of Liberals from Nova Scotia.
“Always think about what you’ve achieved, not what you didn’t,” Roberts told party supporters Monday night.
“Sometimes you’d like to be just the winner. But other times you can be the legacy builder.”
That legacy’s already started.
Greens had a breakthrough in Fredericton, where Jenica Atwin became the first MP the party has elected in Atlantic Canada. The win comes just months after the Greens took eight seats in P.E.I.’s provincial election.
There has been growth, if not wins, in Nova Scotia.
The party polled under four per cent in Halifax and Halifax West in 2015. This election, Greens got 11.6 per cent of the vote in Halifax West and 13.8 per cent in Halifax.
Roberts said the party put up more than 1,000 signs, had 200 volunteers and knocked on over 16,000 doors in her riding.
But Roberts isn’t the only happy loser on the Green ticket.
Richard Zurawski, the party’s candidate in Halifax West, says Greens are exceeding expectations.
“I think people are starting to get the fact that climate change is a monster issue, and if we don’t do something yesterday, we’re into a lot of trouble,” Zurawski said.
In British Columbia, Green Party leader Elizabeth May won her third straight election and incumbent Green MP Paul Manly also retained his seat.
