P.E.I. Green Party launches campaign

P.E.I. Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker launched the party's provincial election campaign Thursday night.

No election has been called, but with a new Liberal leader and premier named in the last week, and new Progressive Conservative leader being elected Saturday, an election is expected this spring.

The Green Party ran third in the last two provincial elections but has never elected an MLA. Bevan-Baker told CBC News that time is coming.

"There's just this sense that people are hungry for change, for some new ideas and for some new faces," he said.

"Real change, I'm not just talking about the flip from red to blue and blue back to red which is the way we've done it here for 150 years."

He is running in District 17 Kellys Cross-Cumberland against incumbent Liberal cabinet minister Valerie Docherty. Docherty won the seat easily in 2011, pulling in a majority of the votes against five contenders. Bevan-Baker placed third with 9.4 per cent of the vote.

UPEI political scientist Don Desserud said it is tough for third parties on P.E.I., and sometimes it's all about the candidate.

"You have a specific riding with a lot of votes concentrated on in that one riding in support of a candidate, and then you could see an upset," he said.

The Greens do not expect to form a government, but they are counting on getting Bevan Baker elected.

Bevan-Baker is a veteran of nine election campaigns, at both the federal and provincial levels. He is the first candidate to announce for the 2015 election for the Green Party.