| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Jim Harris (born ca. 1961) is the leader of the Green Party of Canada. He won the leadership with over 81 per cent of the votes cast in a three-way race in 2003. Harris claims to have been converted to the green philosophy after reading Green Politics by Fritjof Capra and Charlene Spretnak , which highlighted the emergence of the German Greens. In the 1980's he was a student at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and a member of the Progressive Conservative party.
Harris has run in municipal, provincial and federal elections as a Green. In 1987, he worked as the National Press Officer of the British Green Party and is a lifetime member of that party. After traveling around the world for four years following university, Harris returned to Canada and immediately entered green politics. In 1990, he organized the Green Party of Ontario's provincial campaign and ran as a candidate. In the previous election the party had run 7 candidates and received 3,000 votes. Due largely to his efforts, the party fielded 40 candidates and received 33,000 votes in 1990. Jim Harris was elected as the first president of the Green Party of Ontario in 2001, and served in that role for one and a half years.
Professionally, Jim Harris is a best-selling author and has written six books. He's also on the professional speaking circuit as a speaker on change and leadership. Association magazine ranked him as one of the nation's top speakers. Harris speaks internationally at over 50 conferences a year and conducts strategic planning sessions with executive teams, focusing on the most pressing issues: leadership, change, CRM, eLearning, innovation and creating learning organizations.
Harris' consulting clients include Agilent Technologies, Association of Research Libraries, Barclays Bank, Centra, Certified Management Accountants, Columbia Tristar Pictures, Deloitte & Touche, European Snack Food Association, International Association of Business Communicators, IEEE, Johnson & Johnson, MasterCard, Munich Re, NEC, Novartis, Saba, Society of Professional Engineers, TNT Worldwide Express, the UK Cabinet Office and Zurich.
His new book, Blindsided!, is published in over 80 countries worldwide. Blindsided! is published by UK-based Capstone, part of John Wiley & Sons of New York. His second book, The Learning Paradox, was nominated for the National Business Book Award in Canada and has appeared on numerous bestseller lists. Books for Business ranked it as one of the top-10 business books in North America. Harris also co-authored The 100 Best Companies to Work for in Canada - a Canadian bestseller that sold over 50,000 copies.