Green Party of Quebec Leader: Guy Rainville
When Quebec Green Party Leader Guy Rainville took over the party's top spot last spring, he declared it was time for the Greens to grow.
Rainville, a geothermal consultant by day, said his priority as leader was to expand the party's membership from 2,000 to 20,000 and reach beyond its core cause of the environment to become "a complete and credible party with inspiring positions on economic, social, democratic and cultural issues."
Quebecers are ready to vote Green, Rainville believes. His priority in this campaign is to sell his party as an alternative to the main parties while trying to distinguish himself from the province's other left-leaning small party, Québec Solidaire.
Rainville has asked to take part in the provincial leaders' debate in the hopes of repeating his federal counterpart Elizabeth May's feat in the recent federal election campaign.
Describing himself as an "ordinary citizen," Rainville said he offers an interesting alternative to Quebecers who don't want an election right now or are disenchanted with the political process.
"[Jean] Charest is taking the population hostage for purely partisan reasons," he said recently. "The problem is, that once [it calls an] election, the party in power stops listening to people."
Rainville is campaigning on a platform that includes tax reform to encourage green consumption, taxing commercial water use, increasing Quebec's use of clean energy to 100 per cent and banning nuclear energy.
The Greens have yet to have one of their members elected to the national assembly but earned 3.89 per cent of the popular vote in the 2007 election. Former leader Scott McKay lost a spring byelection in the Montreal riding of Bourget, which was won by PQ member Maka Kotto.
The party plans to field candidates in all of Quebec's 125 ridings in the Dec. 8 election, 17 more than in the last provincial election.
Rainville was elected party leader in March 2008, beating incumbent leader Scott McKay. He says the environment is cause that has long preoccupied him and that he is passionate about.
"I've looked to get involved in different ways, but it's a question that worries me a lot," he said.
Rainville founded a community food project called Germe La Vie that teaches school children to grow and eat sprouts and beans.
He ran for provincial office in the 2007 election in the Deux-Montagnes riding but was beaten by Lucie Leblanc of the Action démocratique du Québec.
When he first joined the Greens in 2004, he was instrumental in growing the party's ranks on the island of Montreal and served as national counsellor and vice-president.
Rainville was born in 1963 in Chibougamau and has three children.