Alex Tyrrell

Alex Tyrrell is the leader of the Green Party of Quebec.^[1] At 25 years old he is the youngest leader on the provincial scene.^[2] He was elected leader 21 September 2013.

Early life and education

Born in 1988, Alex Tyrrell grew up in the West Island of Montreal. His mother is a francophone, and his father an anglophone. He attended Beaconsfield and Windermere primary schools as well as Beaconsfield High School. During his early years, he was exposed to a particularly heart-wrenching political climate with the referendum on Quebec independence. During his secondary studies, he became interested in carpentry, science and technology. He has volunteered to teach carpentry to younger students. Later on, he enrolled in an alternative education program that enabled him to complete his high school diploma nearly six months before the majority of his classmates.

Passionate about green technologies, he enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering Technology program of Dawson College. During his technical studies at the CEGEP, he worked on the issues of biofuels and succeeded in producing his own biofuel. He converted his car so that it could roll with recycled vegetable oil. In his final year, he proposed to the college to set up and finance a project of design of electric vehicles for the students of his department.

He was also present in during the Dawson College shooting which left two dead and twenty injured. He confessed later that this experience has taught him how essential it is to improve mental health services and better control access to firearms. In 2011, Alex Tyrrell decided to change his academic background and enroll in an environmental science program at Concordia University in Montreal. He made this decision following the observation that there were very few jobs available in the energy transition and in the deployment of green technologies. He then decided to focus on his studies to better understand the problems of pollution, the impacts of climate change and issues related to the environment. During these studies, he is struck by the harsh reality of mining companies and large companies that have no respect for the environment. This reality has aroused in Alex Tyrrell a strong ecological revelation. He graduated from Concordia University in June 2017.

Social work

In spring 2012, Alex was actively involved in the student movement. He participated in several picket lines, manifest in the streets and promoted the movement by filming demonstrations and police interventions. He was arrested and detained by the SPVM police twice during the student movement.

In the final months of 2012, the Idle No More movement for Aboriginal rights is taking shape in Canada. Mr. Tyrrell actively participated in various events in Montreal in the streets, in shopping centers and in the public space. In early 2013, he met Raymond Robinson, one of the pioneers of the Idle No More movement, who went on a 43-day hunger strike on Parliament Hill that same year. The two men developed a friendship and began to militate together. In April 2013, Raymond Robinson embarked on a second, more brutal hunger strike, but this time he refused to drink. Alex became the communications officer for the project and spent the next few days with him during the meetings with the Chief of The First Nations Assembly and the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs of the Government of Stephen Harper . During the sixth day, candlelight vigils are being held across the country in support of Mr. Robinson, who resigned from the hunger strike the following day. As a result of this experience, the two men helped Aboriginal people protest against the shale gas in New Brunswick.

Federal scene

Alex Tyrrell became involved in politics for the first time in 2006 with the NDP under Jack Layton in Quebec, nearly five years before the "orange wave" that saw this political formation go from one to fifty nine seats in Quebec.

During his involvement with the NDP, Alex held several positions on the Executive Committee of the Lac-St-Louis riding and participated in the 2008 and 2011 election campaigns. In the 2011 election, he was the chief organizer for the campaign in this constituency and succeeded in harvesting more than 30% of the supports. He was subsequently elected president of the local association.

During the 2011-2012 NDP leadership race, he supported the candidacy of MP Nathan Cullen and became the co-organizer of this campaign in Quebec. Following the victory of Thomas Mulcair and the right wing of the party in this campaign, Tyrrell decided to take a step back from the federal political scene and turned his commitment to the student movement.

Party leader

Following the student movement in 2012, Alex Tyrrell became interested in the provincial political scene. He decided to become involved in the Green Party of Quebec by submitting his candidacy in the riding of Jacques-Cartier. During this election campaign, he presented himself as "The federalist progressive option". He finished in third place with 4.5% of the vote, which is the second most important result for all the Green Party oF Quebec candidates during this election.

In 2013, the Green Party of Quebec announces a leadership race following the resignation of outgoing leader Claude Sabourin. Alex Tyrrell is the first person to declare his candidacy.

He proposed to unite the party around progressive values, to modernize the program and to return the party clearly to the left of the provincial scene. He proposed to broaden the party's environment-oriented agenda to present a more comprehensive platform that demands massive investment in public services such as health and education. Since the departure of Scott McKay and Daniel Breton for the Parti Québécois, the Green Party of Quebec was marked by internal divisions and major organizational problems. Alex Tyrrell presented himself with the slogan "Uniting the PVQ" a direct reference to the internal divisions that prevented the party from advancing in Quebec politics for years. Eventually, he won the race with a slight lead over his main opponent Patricia Domingos. On the same day, members of the Green Party took a stand against the Quebec Charter of Values from the Marois government. As soon as he joined the Green Party of Quebec, he was immediately confronted with the deep internal divisions that had emerged following the defection of several influential members who had joined the Parti Québécois of Pauline Marois. Alex Tyrrell, as new leader, launched internal elections to clean up the executive council monopolized by Parti Québécois supporters and members of the Quebec Equitable Party, a newly-elected provincial political party led by Patricia Domingos; Alex Tyrrell's main opponent in the Green Party leadership race a few months earlier.

Alex Tyrrell wrote and adopted a new political program for the party. The party will continue to address environmental issues but will also engage in social struggles and present an eco-socialist program in the 2014 general elections. In 2017, Alex Tyrrell announced that the Green Party of Quebec is a federalist political party.

Electoral results

References

Green Parties in Canada
Overview Federal Green Party of Canada Provincial & territorial Alberta British Columbia Manitoba New Brunswick Nova Scotia Ontario Prince Edward Island Quebec Saskatchewan Yukon Current provincial & territorial leaders Beddome Bevan-Baker Coon de Jong (interim) Keeping Schreiner Setyo (interim) Trappenberg Tyrrell Weaver Municipal Burnaby Vancouver Former parties Alberta Montreal Winnipeg See also Office-holding politicians Current party leaders
Green Party of Canada Leaders Hancock Trieger Cholette Lea Priesnitz Garfinkle (interim) Russow Bradshaw (interim) Harris May Deputy leaders Hyer Current MPs May Former MPs Wilson Hyer Leadership elections 2003 2004 2006 Parliamentary election candidates 1988 1993 1997 2000 2004 2006 2008 2011 2015 See also History Young Greens of Canada
Green Party of Alberta Leaders Ashmore Keeping Contested elections 2012
Green Party of British Columbia Leaders Carr Parker Hetherington Carr Sterk Olsen Weaver Current MLAs Furstenau Olsen Weaver
Green Party of Manitoba Leaders Beddome Basham Nelson Buchart Nelson Basham Beddome
Green Party of New Brunswick Leaders Milligan (interim) Millett (interim) MacDougall Doucet (interim) Coon Current MLAs Coon
Green Party of Nova Scotia Leaders Wright McGowan Durkee Watson Percy Nheiley (Interim) Trappenberg Contested elections 2006
Green Party of Ontario Leaders Mathewson De Jong Schreiner Deputy leaders Smith Torrie O'Donnell Van Veldhuysen Daye Nguyen Leadership elections 1993 2001 2009 Contested elections 1990 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011
Green Party of Prince Edward Island Leaders Labchuk Lanthier (interim) Bevan-Baker Deputy leader Lynne Lund Leadership elections 2012 Current MLAs Bevan-Baker
Green Party of Quebec Leaders Blanchette Ouimet Grant Ferland Laridhi Savignac McKay Rainville Sabourin Tyrrell
Green Party of Saskatchewan Leaders Webster Anderson Lau Kern Finley Jones Shasko Lau Setyo (interim)
Yukon Green Party Leaders Calhoun de Jong