An interpretive, paradigmatic, and comparative analysis of Canadian and Australian green parties

Green parties have acquired political influence in Australia, and more recently, Canada. Specifically, Australia has federal and state Green parliamentarians, while polling data demonstrates that since 1991, Canadian Greens have, taken together, increased their share of the popular vote. Notwithstanding their electoral successes, the two countries' Green parties have also had a notable effect on the public's conception of environmental issues. To date, however, there has been barely any examination of the paradigm, or more specifically, the beliefs of the federal and state/provincial Canadian and Australian Greens, let alone a comparative analysis of the two countries' set of Green parties. Hence, I provide a paradigmatic, comparative analysis of the Green parties of Canada and Australia, most substantially, via the interpretive approach which identifies the ethnographic writer/researcher as, on balance, a part of and not entirely removed from the research study (hence, the use of the word 'I' throughout the dissertation). I argue that the recent scholarly publications detailing the nature of the Australian and Canadian Greens do not offer a paradigmatic examination or comparative analysis of the two countries' Green parties, and accordingly, I attempt to fill this gap in the literature. Moreover, I ask if the Greens of Australia and Canada share similar or different paradigmatic positions. My findings reveal that the two countries' Green parties share a common belief system, and to varying degrees all value, for instance, environmental protection, social justice, interdependence, diversity, and nonviolence. This said, I offer three notable differences. Several of the Australian Green parties advocate plantation forestry, which is in direct contrast to the philosophy of ecoforestry ‚ÄövÑvÆ an ecosystem-based interpretation of forestry advocated by most if not all of Canada's Greens. Together, the Green parties of Australia recognise the relationship between physical activity, health, and societal well-being more often than their Canadian counterparts. Generally speaking, Canada's Greens lean towards principle-based politics (though, the Newfoundland Green Party is somewhat of an exception), while Australia's Greens tend to embrace constituency-based politics.