So Bruce Wark of Halifax's The Coast has taken the time, as journalists can, to gently lead a new story into the world of my reading - apparently, the little tiny Greens are having a little tiny crisis:

a former Green Party leader named Joan Russow and three high-profile colleagues had quit the Greens to join the NDP. Russow’s three colleagues sent blistering, bellicose letters to party members last October explaining why they were quitting. They accused the new Green Party leader, Jim Harris, of acting like a dictator.

Over a phone line from Toronto, Jim Harris tells me he was elected Green Party leader just over a year ago. He says the high-profile resignations were “strictly a personality conflict” adding, “the people who quit the party were involved in obstructionism.” Harris acknowledges he was once a Tory worried about government deficits until he realized in the 1980s that the planet was carrying a crushing ecological debt with more species going extinct every hour. “So I shifted from being a fiscal conservative to being an ecological one.” When asked about his political philosophy, he says the terms “right” and “left” are irrelevant. “We say we are fiscally responsible, socially progressive and committed to environmental sustainability.” Harris is a 43-year-old motivational speaker who conducts seminars and writes books to help business leaders focus on change, “innovation” and “creating learning institutions.” He co-authored The 100 Best Companies to Work for in Canada—a bestseller that sold over 50,000 copies.

This is going to make me have a good hard think over my next camomile tea.