File:Green Party Campaign Sign, Old South London, Ontario (21834450751).jpg

Mr. Lascaris received 2.82 percent of the vote in the London West riding, which saw the Liberal candidate Kate Young unseat the Conservative incumbent Ed Holder 45% to 35%.

The Green Party of Canada (French: Parti vert du Canada) is a Canadian federal political party founded in 1983 with 10,000–12,000 registered members as of October 2008. The Greens advance a broad multi-issue political platform that reflects its core values of ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy and non-violence. It has been led by Elizabeth May since August 26, 2006.

The party broke 1% of the popular vote in the 2004 federal election, when it received 4.3% and qualified for federal funding. Its support has ranged between 3.1% and 14% since the 2006 federal election. In the 2008 federal election, the Green Party of Canada was invited to the debates for the first time and achieved a high mark of 6.8% of the popular vote. With just under a million votes, it was the only federally funded party to receive more votes than in 2006, but it still failed to win any seats. In the 2011 federal election the Green Party of Canada decided to focus on increasing seats over increasing votes, and succeeded in sending its first MP to Ottawa, while its share of the popular vote dropped to below 4% for the first time in eleven years.

On August 30, 2008, independent MP Blair Wilson joined the Green Party during Parliament's summer recess, technically becoming its first Member of Parliament (MP). He was defeated in the 2008 federal election, which was called before he had a chance to sit in the House of Commons as a Green MP. On May 2, 2011, Green Party leader Elizabeth May became the first elected Green Party MP to sit in the House of Commons. She won the riding of Saanich—Gulf Islands in coastal British Columbia. In winning her seat, May also became one of the few Greens worldwide to be elected in a federal, single-seat election. On December 13, 2013 Thunder Bay—Superior North MP Bruce Hyer, who had left the New Democratic Party (NDP) in 2012 to sit as an independent after breaking party lines to vote in favour of a repeal of the Long Gun Registry, joined the party, resulting in a record two-member caucus in parliament.

In the Federal election on October 19, 2015, May was re-elected in the riding of Saanich—Gulf Islands and was the only Green Party member to win a seat. Bruce Hyer lost the election to Liberal Party candidate Patty Hajdu in his riding of Thunder Bay-Superior North.

The Greens have always had leftist and centrist factions that have been ascendant at different times in the party's history. Many Greens also claim that this traditional left-right political spectrum analysis does not accurately capture the pragmatic ecological orientation of an evolving Green Party. The ecumenical approach (expressing affinities with all Canadian political tendencies and making cases to voters on all parts of the left-right spectrum) has been advocated by those who believe their success can also be measured by the degree to which other parties adopt Green Party policies. By this measure of success, the adoption of a revenue-neutral Carbon tax at the British Columbia government level, greenhouse gas emission reduction programs, and the promotion of the Green (Tax) Shift by the federal Liberal Party under former leader Stéphane Dion, indicate that Green Party policies are gaining traction in Canada.

An emphasis on a green tax shift in the 2004 platform, which favoured partially reducing income and corporate taxes (while increasing taxes on polluters and energy consumers), created questions as to whether the Green Party was still on the left of the political spectrum, or was taking a more eco-capitalist approach by reducing progressive taxation in favour of regressive taxation. Green Party policy writers have challenged this interpretation by claiming that any unintended "regressive" tax consequences from the application of a Green Tax Shift would be intentionally offset by changes in individual tax rates and categories as well as an 'eco-tax" refund for those who pay no tax.

Under Elizabeth May's leadership, the Green Party has begun to receive more mainstream media attention on other party policy not directly related to the environment — for example, supporting labour rights and poppy legalization in Afghanistan.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Party_of_Canada