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Adriane Carr (born 1952) is a Canadian academic, activist and politician. She is currently leader of the Green Party of British Columbia.
Carr was born in Vancouver and raised in the Lower Mainland and Kootenays. She earned a Masters Degree in Geography from UBC, and went on to a career as a geography instructor at Vancouver Community College.
Carr has been the BC Green Party leader on two separate occasions. She was recognized as the party's leader in the 1983 provincial election, held shortly after the party's founding (it should be noted that the Green Party was a fairly small organization during this period). Carr ran in the riding of Vancouver--Point Grey, and finished last in a field of eight candidates with 1549 votes. She also ran as a Green candidate for the Vancouver School Board in 1984, but after this had little further involvement with the provincial Green Party until the late 1990s.
She began working for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee in 1987, and took part in negotiations with first nations groups, environmentalists and the MacMillan Bloedel corporation to resolve an extended conflict over logging in Clayoquot Sound. She is married to Paul George, the founder of WCWC.
The Green Party of British Columbia was led from 1993 to 2000 by Stuart Parker, and its ideological direction was largely guided by former members of the New Democratic Party during this period. Carr emerged as a rival to Parker at the party's 1999 policy convention, and although Parker's initiatives won majority support on that occasion, he was defeated by a non-confidence motion in March 2000. On September 23, 2000, Carr defeated Andy Shadrack and Wally du Temple to become party leader for a second time.
After winning the leadership, Carr shifted the party to the right, focusing more narrowly on environmental matters while downplaying or ignoring other progressive causes. Parker had resigned from the party July 31, 2000, accusing the WCWC of attempting to manipulate the party's direction. He later encouraged Green voters to support the NDP in the 2001 provincial election.
Carr ran in the 2001 election in the riding of Powell River-Sunshine Coast, against former Liberal leader and current NDP cabinet minister Gordon Wilson. Many believed she had a chance to win the seat, and become the first Green Party candidate to sit in a Canadian legislature; instead, she finished third with 6316 votes, against 6349 for Wilson and 9904 for Liberal Harold Long. The Green Party received 12% of the provincial vote in this election, a significant increase from its 2% total in the 1996 election. There are many, however, who believe that the party simply reaped the benefits of a protest vote against the NDP.
In 2004, Carr ran for the Greens in a by-election in Surrey-Panorama Ridge, held following the resignation of Liberal Gulzar Singh Cheema. She finished a distant third with 8.4% of the vote as the NDP recovered to win the riding. Most analysts regarded the result as a significant setback for the Green Party.
Carr appears to be a supporter of the eco-capitalist ideology favoured by federal Green Party leader Jim Harris (her party uses the slogan "Fiscally Conservative - Socially Responsible"). Carr is a vocal supporter of proportional representation, and has rejected calls for her party to join with the NDP.
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