British ColumbiaEmily Lowan, a 25-year-old climate activist, promised Wednesday to build a “formidable political movement” to take on B.C.’s largest corporations, billionaires and big oil.25-year-old won on the first ballot with 3,189 votes, promises party will become ‘force of nature’Wolfgang Depner · The Canadian Press · Posted: Sep 24, 2025 2:10 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoEmily Lowan was voted in as the B.C. Green Party’s new leader on Wednesday. (Justin McElroy/CBC)Emily Lowan, a 25-year-old climate activist, is the new leader of the B.C. Green Party. Lowan won on the first ballot with 3,189 votes, ahead of second-place Jonathan Kerr with 1,908 votes, while Adam Bremner-Akins finished third with 128 votes. A total of 8,641 eligible members cast their votes in the ranked-ballot election for a turnout of 61 per cent. “This campaign was electrifying,” Lowan told a room of supporters in Victoria, where the results were announced Wednesday. “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.” Lowan doesn’t have a seat in the legislature but said she plans to run in the next “viable” byelection or in the next general election. WATCH | The 3 people who vying to lead the B.C. Green Party: New candidates line up as B.C. Green Party leader seat up for grabsAfter Sonia Furstenau lost her seat in last year’s provincial election, three people are vying to be the leader of the BC Greens. Aug. 10 is the deadline to sign up new members. As Katie DeRosa reports, the leadership race comes at a time when climate issues are being eclipsed by tariffs and the economy.There are two Greens currently sitting in the legislature, Rob Botterell and Jeremy Valeriote, who has been acting as the interim leader of the party. The party signed a co-operation and responsible government accord with New Democrats after Premier David Eby won a narrow victory over the B.C. Conservatives in last year’s election. Incoming B.C. Green Party Leader Emily Lowan is seen with party MLAs Jeremy Valeriote and Rob Botterrell in Victoria after her win was announced. (Justin McElroy/CBC)Lowan said the Greens should consider an expedited re-negotiating of the pact, which is reviewable annually. She also said her election is a “wake-up call” for the governing New Democrats, who can no longer take “progressive” voters for granted.’I want to tax billionaires out of existence’Lowan is promising to build a “formidable political movement strong enough to take on this province’s billionaires, its largest corporations and big oil — who take far more than they give.” The newly-elected said she now plans to build on the momentum with an extensive tour of the province, which she jokingly said was “loosely titled ‘Fight the Oligarchs.'”Emily Lowan talks to CBC News remotely from Gitxsan territory in northern B.C. on Aug. 6. Lowan was voted in as B.C. Green Party leader on Wednesday. (CBC News )”I think what I have made clear over the course of this campaign is that I want to tax billionaires out of existence, not regular people, middle, upper-income people,” she said, when asked how her message might land with wealthier voters in Green ridings.”We have a select subset of billionaires in B.C. and they are scattered across the province,” she added. “This campaign and my message and platform should be a wake-up call to them in the ways that they have hoarded wealth and aren’t paying their fair share back to regular people in B.C.” She said the Greens will become a “force of nature” and promised that it will be a “bold and critical” opposition party. Former leader Sonia Furstenau lost her bid for re-election in last year’s election and stepped down from the post in January. Former B.C. Green leader Sonia Furstenau stepped down after she lost her seat in the 2024 provincial election. (Ben Nelms/CBC )Kathryn Harrison, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia, said Lowan’s resounding win on the first ballot reflected her organizing background and likely boded well for her new approach.But she says that the new leader needs to think about how she can mobilize youth voters to come out and vote for the Greens, who lost vote share in the last provincial election.”She’s a good speaker. She’s embracing her youth. So I think she’ll have to demonstrate that she’s, you know, ready for prime time in the future when it comes to leadership debates and that sort of thing,” Harrison told CBC News.With files from the CBC’s Meera Bains
B.C. Green Party votes in climate activist Emily Lowan as new leader
