The dreams of B.C. Greens were again dashed last night when the party failed to win a seat and party leader Jane Sterk went down to defeat in Esquimalt-Royal Roads.

Sterk, 62, who early in the campaign had hoped to win two or three seats, blamed the first-past-the post system and NDP efforts to convince voters that a Green vote was a wasted vote.

At party headquarters in Victoria, where a groan went up as Sterk was defeated, supporters pinned their remaining hopes on a change in the electoral system and were on tenterhooks as they waited for the results of the referendum on the single transferable vote.

“It’s hard to predict a result in the first-past-the-post system that would favour a Green,” Sterk said as she watched results roll in on an Internet image on a white wall.

“We don’t have cable here,” she said, adding Green campaigns have been run on a shoestring.

Sterk had hoped that her reputation as a former Esquimalt municipal councillor would win her seat, but NDP incumbent Maurine Karagianis surged ahead.

“I’m not surprised on one level. It was a long shot,” Sterk said.

Hope for the future lies in a fair voting system, said Sterk, vowing that, whatever the referendum results, the Green campaign for 2013 will start immediately and the next election will see Greens in he legislature.

As more than 100 supporters cheered her on, Sterk delivered a strong condemnation of other political parties, some environmental groups and the media.

“I want to tell the NDP you cannot blame the Greens for your own failings,” she said to raucous applause.

“I think you should stop feeling entitled to votes, stop being disrespectful to Green voters who don’t buy your greenwashing, and it’s time to put your own house in order,” she said.

Sterk followed up by warning the Liberals not to bloat in their own arrogance and told the media to start covering “real news.”

“We will be in your face for the next four years and will challenge your conclusion that we are not relevant to the democratic process,” she said.

Many of the supporters and candidates for the Green party are under 30, and calling them the future of the party, Sterk promised the 2013 campaign will start now.

University of Victoria political science professor Dennis Pilon said the Green party’s poor showing is not a surprise and they appeared to hold onto their core support of eight to 10 per cent of the popular vote.

Sterk is a dedicated leader who can take the party forward, Pilon said.

“You need someone ready to dedicate the life to a losing cause for the short term and maybe a winning cause in the long run,” he said.

For more than a decade, federally and provincially, each election has brought shattered predictions of a Green breakthrough.

“The problem is the first-past-the-post system,” said Norman Ruff, University of Victoria political science professor emeritus.

The B.C. Green party saw a surge of popularity in 2001 when anger with the NDP government helped hand them 12.4 per cent of the popular vote, up from about two per cent in 1996, but no seats.

The popular vote then slipped to nine per cent in 2005 and still the party does not have one MLA to show for the effort.

Much of the time, the party is battling for the right to play with the big boys, rather than realistically hoping for seats.

“But, if they can come in around the 10 per cent range, then they have credibility,” Ruff said.

jlavoie@tc.canwest.com