Manly takes a pass on Green party leadership
Green politician Paul Manly ran in two elections within five months of each other this year. Understandably, the Nanaimo-Ladysmith MP-elect is not keen on waging another campaign, even if it’s for the leadership of the Green Party of Canada.
“I have so much on my plate right now that to take off on a leadership race and travel across the country to do that just doesn’t seem like it’s the right thing for me,” Manly told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview.
Not interested as well is Jenica Atwin, who became the third elected Green MP after winning Fredericton in the October 21, 2019, ballot.
This could mean that no Green elected MP will be vying for the post vacated by former party leader Elizabeth May. May, who has secured a third term as MP for Saanich–Gulf Islands, will remain parliamentary leader of the threemember Green caucus.
Former CBC broadcaster Jo-Ann Roberts serves as interim leader. The next leader will be chosen at a convention in Charlottetown in October 2020.
“I’m a new MP, and there’s a lot of issues that we face here in NanaimoLadysmith,” Manly said. Manly first won Nanaimo-Ladysmith in the May 6, 2019, by-election. He was reelected on October 21.
“I already heard about a couple of people stepping up,” Manly said without mentioning names.
One of them is David Merner, who ran and lost in the last election as Green candidate in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke. Merner has confirmed to Straight editor Charlie Smith that he will be running for leader of the Green
Party. A former Justice Department lawyer, Merner was a member of the Liberal Party for many years.
Merner switched to the Greens last year, citing the broken election promises of the Liberals as his reason. He claimed that the government’s purchase of the Kinder Morgan oil pipeline was the last straw.
Alex Tyrrell, leader of the Green Party of Quebec, has also expressed interest in May’s former job.
Tyrrell wants to see the party transformed into an electoral organization that espouses ecosocialism, a train of thought that holds that the protection of the environment is incompatible with capitalism.
When asked how ecosocialism is relevant to the future of the Green Party, Manly said that although leaders can bring forward certain ideas, the party members “still have the final say on what the policies of the party are”.
“The Green Party is a big tent, so there are people who like the idea of ecosocialism,” Manly said. “I don’t think we’re an ecosocialist party. We don’t follow that kind of ideology.”