Quebec Green leader wants federal post
Alex Tyrrell argues for a sharp left turn for the Greens and doing away with fossil fuel in 10 years
OTTAWA—The leader of the Quebec Greens says he will run to succeed Elizabeth May as leader of the federal Green party, arguing it is time for a sharp shift to the political left under an “eco-socialist” platform.
At 31, Alex Tyrrell says he can revive the national Green movement by attracting young people who are alarmed by the climate crisis.
He is promising an aggressive “10-year mobilization” to eliminate the use of fossil fuels in Canada and shut down Alberta’s oilsands within the first mandate of a Green government. He would raise taxes on corporations and the rich, increase the federal carbon price, create a new levy on all financial transactions, pour “hundreds of billions” of dollars into clean energy projects, and guarantee new jobs for people out of work due to the state-enforced abandonment of fossil fuel industries.
In doing so, Tyrrell says he would abandon the Green party’s long-standing commitment to fiscal conservatism, arguing that economic debt is less serious than the environmental damage of failing to confront climate change.
“There’s an emerging youthled climate movement in Canada that’s asking for and demanding more radical and rapid solutions to the climate crisis,” Tyrrell told the Star on Tuesday.
“I’m hoping to shake up Canadian politics and the Green party, similar to what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is doing in the United States and inside the Democratic Party,” he said, referring to the U.S. congresswoman who has championed a “Green New Deal” south of the border. “Canadian politics needs an injection of positive energy, of bold ideas, and that’s what I hope to bring,” Tyrrell said.
The federal Greens are searching for a new leader after May resigned in November. As leader since 2006, May won the party’s first seat in the House of Commons and oversaw its growth to a caucus of three MPs in the federal election last fall.
While the race to replace May hasn’t officially started, Tyrrell is the third candidate to declare their intention to run. David Mercer, a retired lawyer and former Liberal who lost faith in the party over the nationalization of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline, is mobilizing his campaign. And Julie Tremblay Cloutier, a businesswoman in Oka, Que., told the Star in December that she will also run for the job.
As leader of the Quebec Greens, Tyrrell has challenged the federal party’s policies under May’s leadership.