Threat to Paul’s leadership dropped
Green leader admitted that she had ‘thought of packing it in’ amid a ‘one-sided campaign’
The Green party has confirmed that a planned nonconfidence 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 nonconfidence 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 last year 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.
Backed by sign-toting supporters, Paul held the news conference at St. James Park in downtown Toronto, with St. Lawrence Hall in the background. The neoclassical building served as a venue for the North American abolitionist movement shortly after it opened in 1850.
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 Béland, director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada.
An Angus Reid poll published Friday showed that 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.
“You see what’s happening in B.C. with the fires and what’s happening in Europe with the floods, and people tie that to climate change. So it would normally be a very good time to be the leader of the Green party, because the main issue that your party is about is really popular right now. But that’s not the case,” Béland said.
“Parties often have internal debates, but this exploded in public and on social media and the newspapers and so forth, and this has affected the image of Annamie Paul as the leader but also the image of the Green party.”
The nixed non-confidence vote by federal council would have required support from three-quarters of the 13-member governing body in order to proceed to a partywide vote the following month at a general meeting.
Green executives also moved to withhold funding from Paul’s campaign to win the Toronto Centre seat as Canada’s 44th federal election looms, possibly later this year.
Paul came in second to Liberal Marci Ien in a byelection last fall — they earned about 33 per cent and 42 per cent of the vote respectively — to replace former finance minister Bill Morneau in the riding.
“It is extremely hard to have your integrity questioned when you value it so much.” ANNAMIE PAUL GREEN PARTY LEADER