Federal Greens fail to follow through on promise of free memberships for youth
Written by: Lahari Nanda
Meryam Haddad is alleging that the Federal Green Party is backing out of the motion-approved policy promise of free youth memberships, using a reduction in campaign funds as an excuse.
“It was a question of accessibility,” said Haddad. “They wanted to make the membership accessible and affordable to the youth, specifically to get people on board during the leadership race.”
The announcement for free memberships to the Greens for youth aged 14-29 came with various objectives in mind. These were the maintenance of the party’s core value of “participatory democracy,” an independence from monetary support to remain politically visible, and the need to increase accessibility.
Haddad’s campaign for leadership of the Green Party revolves around seeking just and equitable political representation for “equity seeking groups,” according to an interview done by NNSL Media. Her focus is on the climate movement and climate justice.
Haddad is a socialist candidate for the Green Party. She is an immigration lawyer, having come to Canada in 1993 as an immigrant from Syria. During her initial years in Canada she chose to participate in politics only by voting. But as the systemic inequalities in Canadian politics became evident, she decided that “voting and protesting wasn’t enough anymore,” according to The Canada Files (TCF).
“The only way to lead a movement for change was [...] by taking over the Green Party of Canada,” Haddad said in an interview with TCF. In her campaign to lead the Green Party, Haddad’s move to provide free memberships to youth is only one aspect of the projected change. She added that the focus of the Green Party needs to be tackling the climate crisis and making the voices of those whose future is at stake heard.
“For me, it was all about movement building. I’m in this race to help people feel heard,” she commented.
According to the motion passed by 48.8 per cent of the party, the Green Party aims to welcome "more Canadians while at the same time setting ourselves apart from the rest of the national parties” by abolishing membership dues.
Ever since the Green Party of Canada became one of scores of Green Parties around the world, participatory democracy has been at its core. Why? To make environmental justice, equitable political voice and transparency, as well as equality, a visible reality.
In removing the economic barrier to political participation and candidacy, Haddad’s campaign will move one step closer to achieving equitable political representation for underserved demographics, while upholding the Greens’ core value of participatory democracy.
The barriers associated with finances work alongside barriers of age, where, according to Haddad, the average age of a member of the Greens is 65 years, which is much higher than that of any other party in Canada.
However, despite the expected change in membership regulations and fees, the Federal Council of the Green Party said that they cannot offer free membership to “up to 10 youth signing up every day” due to financial constraints.
In order for the membership to be made free, the registration page on the Greens’ website would have to reflect the availability of a free membership. However, last weekend, this change was rejected because upon somebody new registering for free, the money that previously would be directed towards a candidate campaign and the party’s administrative work would no longer be available. Half the registration fee would be directed towards the leader’s campaign while the other half would go to the Green Party itself. The campaign half would fund the $30,000 required for candidates to remain eligible to run in the leadership race.
Haddad said, “How complicated is it to change a page on a website?” adding that the party leaders said “they don’t have the time to do this [change the webpage to reflect free memberships]”, but that it is “still possible to waive the fees” without changing the page. However, the outreach of party staff to youth wanting to register will be greatly reduced without a change to the main party webpage.
For this purpose, Haddad’s team has created a google form that allows youth to register for membership and when the implementation begins, be listed as members. Haddad said that it may not be possible for everyone to become members, depending on what the party leaders decide.
A link to the form is here.
With the funding from memberships gone, leadership candidates would have to fund their own campaigns, potentially resulting in fewer candidates. This would put the Green Party at a risk of having very few candidates, restricted to those who can afford to run, thus defeating the purpose of participatory democracy.
“We’re natural allies [of ecocentric political movements] in my head,” Haddad said, adding that she was seeing a “pattern of shocking mismanagement” after the implementation of free membership for youths stagnated.
“I do not know where to put pressure [to make things] advance faster,” Haddad said, explaining that while the federal council approved decisions, they are ultimately implemented by party staff meaning that the responsibility to follow through on the terms of the motion lies with them.
“The Green Party should be the voice of the youth, [...] we’re the most progressive on most issues and it’s a grassroots party. Young people are very inspired by grassroots movements,” she said.
“I thought we would be able to create a green wave from coast to coast to coast,” Haddad told TCF. “Seems like nobody really cares about our future.”
Meryam Haddad’s campaign team will continue to collect data from youth to shortlist them for registration, but there is no guarantee that everyone will be able to become a free member of the Green Party.
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