Paul Steps Down
The Green Party had a new Federal leader in the 2021 election following the resignation of Elizabeth May in 2019. May led the federal Green Party through 2006-2019 and continues to hold her seat in the riding of Saanich—Gulf Islands BC.
Annamie Paul was May's successor after a leadership race happened in October of 2020. Paul was the first black and female Jewish leader in a major federal party and one of the two leaders of colour alongside NDP’s Jagmeet Singh . 2021 was a hard year for the party financially, with the Green Party overspending their gross income and adding legal fees to battle their party leader.
Even more shocking, Green MP Jenica Atwin left for the governing Liberal party during this time, losing the party a seat when she made the switch. Atwin’s switch came during the time that Paul's political advisor Zatzman (since removed) made an unthoughtful comment about the Middle East and Paul chose not to reprimand or remove Zatzman.
Although Paul's win in the leadership race was a milestone victory for the party, it came with a lot of negative turns. Most notably, Paul found the party to be racist and not as supportive as she would like. This attitude comes from Paul feeling as though the party was more loyal to former leader May than to the party itself. May broke her silence in July of 2021 denying the idea, and Paul responded, asking her not to make public comments about the matter. May also went on to note that she no longer sits on any of the governing councils of the federal Green Party.
Other members of the party had called a no-confidence vote prior to the election, but it was cancelled, with some having speculated that Paul moved so the vote could not happen. Some members have even gone as far to try and get her membership denied and have called a leadership review several times during her short run.
During the 2021 federal election, the Green Party was only able to retain 2 seats and dropped four percentage points. This is a major concern for the party, as the party itself also did not have representation in all ridings–both ridings in Barrie/Innisfil were without representation. Paul has since chosen to step down as leader of the party, coming in fourth for her riding for the 2021 election run.
As of November 12, 2021, Paul has announced her resignation from the party as well as removing her membership from the Green Party. Paul is disappointed and has noted this as the worst period of her life: "What people need to realize is that when I was elected and put in this role, I was breaking a glass ceiling. What I didn't realize at the time was that I was breaking a glass ceiling that was going to fall on my head and leave a lot of shards of glass that I was going to have to crawl over throughout my time as a leader," she said” (CBC). Paul further noted how her time as leader should have brought changes to the federal government, but with limited support, she was not able to accomplish what she thought she would.
With another leadership race about to begin, debt and a poor election result in the Green Party having seen better days.