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| Affiliation | Green |
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| Name | Jim Harris |
| Address |
Toronto, Ontario , Canada |
| Email | None |
| Website | http://www.jimharris.ca/ |
| Born |
February 12, 1961
(63 years)
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| Contributor | The Oncoming Storm |
| Last Modifed | Juan Croniqueur
Apr 02, 2023 11:40pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | Jim Harris is a Canadian politician and political activist. He has led the Green Party of Canada since 2003, and was the party's leader for the 2004 federal election. Harris has run in municipal, provincial and federal elections as a Green.
Harris was educated at Lakefield College School and then Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario in the 1980s. Initially a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Harris was converted to green politics after reading Green Politics by Fritjof Capra and Charlene Spretnak, which highlighted the emergence of the German Greens. He worked as the National Press Officer of the British Green Party in 1987, and is a lifetime member of that party.
After travelling the world for four years after his graduation, Harris returned to Canada and became active in that country's green movement. He helped to organize the Green Party of Ontario's campaign in the 1990 provincial election, and was himself a candidate in the Toronto riding of St. Andrew—St. Patrick. The party fielded 40 candidates and received 33,000 votes, a significant increase from seven candidates and 3,000 votes in the previous election. Harris himself received 1,112 votes for a credible fourth-place finish.
In 1993, Harris and other Ontario Greens sought and won a change in the party's constitution, allowing for the election of a full-time leader. The party was nominally led by Katherine Mathewson in the 1990 election, but she had little influence over the campaign or the party's policies. Harris and others argued that electing a full-time leader would allow the Green Party to organize itself more professionally, and present a united message in future campaigns. Harris ran against Frank de Jong, who won the party leadership. In 2003, de Jong supported Harris in his bid to become federal leader.
Harris served as an organizer for the federal Green Party in Toronto, recruiting 17 candidates in the 1993 election. New legislation brought in just before the election by Mulroney's Conservative party required a party to run 50 candidate or suffer de-registration and have its assets seized. By running 17 candidates in the Toronto region (which then had roughly 22 ridings) the Toronto team presented over one-third of the national requirement.
He was elected as the first president of the Green Party of Ontario in 2001, and served in that role until he moved to the federal arena in 2003.
Harris has written six books, two of which have been national best-sellers in Canada. He also delivers public speeches on change and leadership. Association Magazine ranked him as one of Canada's top speakers. Before being elected leader of the GPC, Harris spoke at about 50 international conferences a year, and conducts strategic planning sessions with executive teams on leadership, change, CRM, eLearning, innovation and creating learning organizations.
His second book, The Learning Paradox, was nominated for the National Business Book Award in Canada and appeared on numerous bestseller lists. Books for Business ranked it as one of the top-10 business books in North America. Harris was one of three co-authors of the second edition of The 100 Best Companies to Work for in Canada, which sold over 50,000 copies in Canada. His most recent book, Blindsided!, has been published in over 80 countries.
Harris was elected leader of the Green Party of Canada on February 14, 2003, defeating Jason Crummey and John Grogan with over 81% of the votes cast. He replaced interim leader Chris Bradshaw, who led the party from 2001 to 2003.
The party conducted a relatively high-profile campaign in the 2004 election under Harris's leadership, running candidates in all 308 ridings for the first time in its history. The party received 582,247 votes (4.3%), but failed to elect any candidates. Harris himself campaigned in his home riding of Toronto—Danforth, and placed fourth against New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton with 2,575 votes (5.4%) -- just 400 votes behind the Conservative candidate.
Harris's leadership of the Green Party has been controversial. He is generally regarded as an eco-capitalist, and has attempted to shift the party to the political right on a number of issues. In August 2004, he made the controversial decision of hiring as an advisor David Scrymgeour, a former National Director of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and aide to provincial cabinet minister Jim Flaherty.
Following the 2004 election, Harris was challenged for the party leadership by Tom Manley, a prominent party figure in eastern Ontario. Manley argued that Harris was changing the party too quickly, and reached out to Green supporters who were dissatisfied with its apparent rightward shift. He also argued that Harris's acceptance of big business is antithetical to the party's traditional focus on local production. Harris won re-election, with active tele-canvassing by Rosalee Doering, Dan King and other dedicated volunteers, though by a narrower margin than before.
The 2004 GPC platform, produced by wiki technology named LivingPlatform and coordinated by Michael Pilling, emphasized full cost accounting, triple bottom line and the green tax shift. The party's fiscal policy supported taxing resources rather than incomes, and included increases in gasoline taxes and land taxes. It also included a line supporting minor tax cuts on corporate income (although balanced with increases in resource taxes) which angered left-of-center greens.
In June 2005, Richmond Hill city councillor Elio Di Iorio resigned from the GPC's national executive. His resignation letter accused Harris of poor leadership, and of mismanaging the party's finances. Di Iorio described Harris as "socially awkward, control-centric, and in my opinion, somewhat sociopathic". Some in the party have rejected Di Iorio's comments, while others have concurred. A number of other resignations were tendered by prominent Greens just prior to Di Iorio's resignation.
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