Elizabeth May pledges to turn down the heat within conflict-riven Green Party after becoming leader again

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Elizabeth May said she decided to run for the leadership of the federal Green Party for a second time last spring over concerns that the world wasn’t acting fast enough to fight climate change. But after winning Saturday, one of her first priorities is to bring down the temperature within the conflict-riven party.

The 68-year-old Ms. May stepped down as leader three years ago after a 13-year run saw the party elect its first parliamentarians. On Saturday, she led by a wide margin on all six ballots, “which says that people are looking for familiar stability,” outgoing interim leader Amita Kuttner said. The party also recently welcomed a new president and executive director.

This time, Ms. May is bringing along a co-leader, former journalist and human-rights activist Jonathan Pedneault. He came in third but campaigned as part of a team with her after he decided early this year to join the party and run for leader.

The pair reached a memorandum of understanding after hammering out “the clear lines and lanes” they will follow and reaching consensus on most positions, Ms. May said. (One issue on which they still differ: Ms. May is a staunch monarchist while Mr. Pedneault said he’s “not a fan personally. I think we’d work well as a republic. But this is a debate for another day.”)

The co-leadership won’t be official until the party changes its constitution, which members are expected to vote on at the next general meeting in 2023. Until then, he will serve as deputy leader.

A proposal that would have paired the two top vote-getting candidates in a leadership race was voted down at the party’s last meeting, because “when people saw that, they said, ‘No, they’d hate each other, why would we do this?’” Dr. Kuttner said.

But the outgoing leader said the party should be “fine” with a new proposal after the May-Pedneault team ran against another squad made up of Anna Keenan and Chad Walcott. Other Green parties, including in Germany, have co-leaders.

The Green Party of Canada has been marked by fierce infighting, notably since Ms. May stepped down and members elected Annamie Paul to replace her. The party’s share of the vote collapsed to 2.3 per cent in last year’s election from 6.6 per cent in the 2019 election, though it still won two seats in 2021. The drop was owing in part to the fact that the Greens didn’t field candidates in 87 ridings.

Ms. Paul resigned after the 2021 federal election, stemming from internal divisions that saw her and the party launch legal action against each other and the party brass attempt to remove her over criticism of her leadership style. She in turn accused some in the party of racism and sexism. Prior to the election, the lone New Brunswick Green MP Jenica Atwin joined the Liberal Party over differences about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Dysfunction and drama continued into this year. One leadership hopeful was expelled for tweeting pro-Russia statements after its invasion of Ukraine. Some candidates complained about the brief, 11-week campaign and inability to directly contact members; turnout of 36 per cent of eligible members was barely half that of the 2020 campaign.

Shortly after the campaign started Aug. 31, party president Lorraine Rekmans resigned, stating that her “optimism has died.” She said she had no confidence in the contestants and that there was “no vision for a better future, but only an effort to look back and settle old scores, while the planet burns.” Candidate Sarah Gabrielle Baron lamented that “my party appears to be falling apart around me.”

Ms. Rekmans resigned after the party’s two sitting MPs, Ms. May and Mike Morrice and other leadership candidates issued a joint statement decrying the misgendering of Dr. Kuttner – the first non-binary and transgender federal party leader – during a party Zoom call.

The six candidates presented a united front at the leadership event in Ottawa on Saturday, acknowledging the party’s recent strife but expressing goodwill toward each other. Dr. Kuttner said they dressed in drag to make light of the misgendering episode and bring what the former leader acknowledged was much-needed levity to the proceedings.

“We have to be empathetic,” Ms. May said. “It’s important to let people know if you disagree, we work through it, we listen, and take whatever time it takes to come to consensus. I’m very optimistic about the party pulling together.”

But the co-leaders acknowledged that there was much work ahead to rebuild and unify their party, starting with an in-person retreat for senior Green Party leaders and MPs. There was also campaigning to help party hopeful Mary Kidnew running in a December by-election in Mississauga-Lakeshore, and the need to move quickly to raise tax-deductible donations from supporters before the end of the year.

Party members “by and large are committed to the Green Ideal,” Mr. Pedneault said. “We all have to be adults here, me, Elizabeth and everyone else in understanding a political party needs to function through compromises. There needs to be a lot more listening and a lot less ego in this party.”

Ms. May wouldn’t say how long she hoped to be leader, committing only to run in the next election, likely in 2025. “I may run again in 2029, I haven’t decided. But I am in good health, praise the Lord, I have two new knees, they’re still under warranty, so I’m good for a while.”