BC Greens have elected 25-year-old climate justice advocate Emily Lowan as their new leader.

Lowan dominated the race on the first ballot, with 3,189 votes compared to Jonathan Kerr’s 1,908 votes and Adam Bremner-Akins 128 votes.

“Our bold progressive vision has captured the imagination of a new generation of Green members and others,” said Lowan on Wednesday.

“This campaign was electrifying. It was a lightning rod of hope. We brought in thousands of new members to this party, many of whom were completely disillusioned with politics, and you all definitely put the ‘party’ back in the Green Party,” she said.

Party officials unveiled the results in Victoria on Wednesday, after 10 days of voting and an almost three-month campaign.

The three candidates were Lowan, a 25-year-old climate justice advocate; Kerr, a 44-year-old family doctor and Comox councillor; and Bremner-Akins, a 23-year-old political science student.

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B.C. Green Party Leadership candidates Emily Lowan, left to right, Jonathan Kerr and Adam Bremner-Akins are shown in a composite image of three undated handout photos. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout — B.C. Green Party (Mandatory Credit)

“Our party is stronger as a result,” interim Green leader Jeremy Valeriote said at the results event. “New members, new energy, overflowing with ideas on how to improve our province.”

Previous Green leader Sonia Fursteanu resigned in January after failing to win the riding of Victoria-Beacon Hill in the October 2024 election. Furstenau had led the party since 2020.

Neither Green MLA elected in 2024 — Valeriote or Rob Botterell, Saanich North and the Islands MLA — chose to run for leader, meaning the new leader will have to focus on building the party outside of the legislature.

The Green leadership race was marked by controversy over verifying new members, after the party allowed people aged 14 to 30 to take out free memberships to vote. 

The party struggled to confirm whether those, and others who paid the regular $10 fee, were real people, embarking on what Lowan said was a confusing verification process for more than 3,200 new members. 

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That process involved an online verification tool and video conference calls with party officials. At one point, Lowan threatened to sue the party over demands to push back the voting deadline until at least 80 per cent of new members had been verified to vote.

“These contests can be damaging, as we’ve seen in other parties, and I think we’re both lucky, through a combination of luck and skill that we’ve pulled this one off successfully,” said Valeriote.