I'm trying to recolor an svg for use on wikipedia. Is there a way to select multiple 'regions' or whatever they are called? I want to just drag a selection box over them to select them. I know I can hold shift down but that is way too time consuming.

You mean Shift+click is too time consuming? With you can drag around objects to select them ("rubberband" selection). Note that you must drag around the whole object to select it - dragging around part of the object will not select it. You need to start dragging from an area of the canvas that is blank, or hold Shift as you drag.

In the development version (0.46) you can use Alt and trace with your mouse over objects, all that you touch will be selected

Edit > Select All......?