Greens confirm vote against leader stopped

OTTAWA — The Green party has confirmed that a planned non-confidence vote against leader Annamie Paul is off the table for the time being, neutralizing an imminent threat to her prospects ahead of a likely election this year.

In a short statement posted to the party website Monday, the Greens said no further non-confidence motions against Paul will be proposed by the current federal council — the party’s main governing body — or prior to a party convention.

“This experience has been incredibly painful for me and for my family,” Paul said at a news conference Monday afternoon in Toronto Centre, the riding she hopes to win following two unsuccessful attempts that have kept her out of the House of Commons.

“It is extremely hard to have your integrity questioned when you value it so much.”

Paul admitted that she had “thought of packing it in” amid what she dubbed a “one-sided campaign” waged against her leadership by party brass in recent months, but said she felt she owed it to the Greens who elected her to continue.

“Diversity in politics matters,” she said, repeating what she said she told her two children: “We are both literally and figuratively survivors.”

A party membership review, launched last week by Green interim executive director Dana Taylor, that would have suspended Paul’s membership, has also been shelved, Paul confirmed.

The shift appears to keep her insulated from an immediate ouster until an expected federal election in the coming months, as the party council will turn over on Aug. 20, though a general meeting of members is scheduled for Aug. 21.

The move also helps cement the prospect that a Black Canadian will lead a mainstream party into a national campaign for the first time in the country’s history.

Despite the retreat by party executives who have clashed openly with Paul, tensions remain as Greens struggle to pitch an agenda that has been overshadowed by months of internal strife.

“This is a wounded party,” said Daniel Beland, director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.

An Angus Reid poll published Friday showed only three per cent of respondents intended to cast a ballot for the Greens.

The figure falls far short of the 6.55 per cent of the vote they garnered in the 2019 election, despite climate change and the environment now tying for the most important issue in voters’ minds, according to the poll.