Green party leadership balloting kicks off

OTTAWA • After a disappointing federal election result last year, a series of public scandals over internal conflicts and continued a downward trend in fundraising, the Green Party of Canada is getting ready to install a new leader — or leaders.

Green members started casting their ballots Saturday in a contest that will culminate with the announcement of a victor on Nov. 19.

There are six names on the ranked ballot, but four of the candidates intend to implement a co-leadership model that would see them sharing the role with another of the contenders if they are elected.

One of them is a familiar face.

Elizabeth May, the longtime member of Parliament from B.C. who led the party from 2006 to 2019, is looking for a comeback with running mate Jonathan Pedneault, a human rights researcher from Montreal.

During a leadership debate last week that attracted fewer than 500 of the party’s roughly 22,000 members, May pointed to her experience and argued she left things in excellent shape when she resigned.

“I left at the point that we had our biggest success ever with three elected MPS, a strong party with a good bank account, and I was sure that we had a great succession plan,” she said.

That year, the party elected three members to Parliament and received 6.5 per cent of the popular vote.

In the first election after May’s departure, support

I WAS SURE THAT WE HAD A GREAT SUCCESSION PLAN.

plummeted to 2.3 per cent, the lowest share in 20 years.

Annamie Paul, who became the first Black woman to lead a federal party in Canada in 2020, resigned as Green leader not long after the election.

She pointed fingers at actors within the party whom she said were racist and misogynist.

May is calling for an investigation into the claims and said mistakes were made on all sides.

The other co-leadership pair, non-profit organizers Anna Keenan and Chad Walcott, argue their fresh faces are what the party needs in a “make-or-break moment.”

One of the two independent candidates running for leadership, Simon Gnocchini-messier, is pushing for the party to form a social democratic coalition.

During the debate, he said Greens are on the same page about wanting to move on and focus on policies to address the climate emergency.

But the other independent candidate, longtime party activist Sarah Gabrielle Baron, conceded that the leadership race itself was marked by controversy.