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Green Party of Canada leadership election From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2020 Green Party of Canada leadership election took place between September 26 and October 3, 2020,[4] to elect a leader to replace Elizabeth May, who resigned on November 4, 2019,[5][6][7] after leading the party for more than a decade and achieving a record three seats in Parliament in the 2019 federal election. Eight candidates ran to replace her. While these candidates offered different visions for the future of the party and made various policy proposals, they all agreed that climate change is a serious issue, opposed the construction of new pipelines,[8] supported a guaranteed livable income,[9] and supported adopting some form of proportional representation in federal elections.[10]
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Turnout | 68.8%[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Date | September 26–October 3, 2020 |
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Convention | Ottawa, Ontario[lower-alpha 1] |
Resigning leader | Elizabeth May |
Won by | Annamie Paul |
Ballots | 23,877[1] |
Candidates | 8+ NOTA |
Entrance Fee | $30,000[2] |
Spending limit | $500,000[3] |
No polling for the leadership race was released during the contest, and so frontrunner status was largely determined in the media on the basis of candidate fundraising. In that sense, the two frontrunners were Annamie Paul and Dimitri Lascaris.[11] Paul, an activist and lawyer from Toronto, won the election on the eighth round of voting. Her win was described as a win for "the more centrist camp".[12]
The vote was held online between September 26 and October 3, as well as by mail-in ballot. All party members as of 11:59 p.m. PDT on September 3, 2020, who were 14 years of age or older were eligible to vote. The vote was conducted through a one member, one vote preferential ballot with a none of the above option. The candidate with a majority of votes after a minimum of one ballot would win the leadership.[13]
The Greens originally planned to announce the election results at the party's biennial convention in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island,[14] however the convention was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[15] Instead, the candidates gathered in Ottawa, Ontario for the results, which were announced online at 9:00 p.m. ADT on October 3.[13]
![]() | Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
Source Archived September 23, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
Candidate | 1st round | 2nd round | 3rd round | 4th round | 5th round | 6th round | 7th round | 8th round | |||||||||
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Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | Votes cast | % | ||
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Annamie Paul | 6,242 | 26.14% | 6,245 | 26.15% | 6,305 | 26.41% | 6,478 | 27.13% | 6,952 | 29.12% | 7,614 | 31.89% | 8,862 | 37.12% | 12,090 | 50.63% |
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Dimitri Lascaris | 5,768 | 24.15% | 5,773 | 24.18% | 5,813 | 24.35% | 6,586 | 27.58% | 7,050 | 29.53% | 7,551 | 31.62% | 8,340 | 34.93% | 10,081 | 42.22% |
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Courtney Howard | 3,285 | 13.76% | 3,286 | 13.76% | 3,348 | 14.02% | 3,404 | 14.26% | 3,762 | 15.76% | 4,523 | 18.94% | 5,824 | 24.39% | Eliminated | |
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Glen Murray | 2,745 | 11.50% | 2,746 | 11.50% | 2,821 | 11.81% | 2,846 | 11.92% | 2,992 | 12.53% | 3,725 | 15.60% | Eliminated | |||
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David Merner | 2,636 | 11.04% | 2,636 | 11.04% | 2,697 | 11.30% | 2,727 | 11.42% | 2,856 | 11.96% | Eliminated | |||||
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Amita Kuttner | 1,468 | 6.15% | 1,470 | 6.16% | 1,486 | 6.22% | 1,748 | 7.32% | Eliminated | |||||||
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Meryam Haddad | 1,345 | 5.63% | 1,346 | 5.64% | 1,358 | 5.69% | Eliminated | |||||||||
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Andrew West | 352 | 1.47% | 356 | 1.49% | Eliminated | |||||||||||
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None of the options | 36 | 0.15% | Eliminated | |||||||||||||
Exhausted Votes | 0 | 0.00% | 19 | 0.08% | 49 | 0.21% | 88 | 0.37% | 265 | 1.11% | 464 | 1.94% | 851 | 3.56% | 1,706 | 7.14% | |
Total | 23,877 | 100% | 23,877 | 100% | 23,877 | 100% | 23,877 | 100% | 23,877 | 100% | 23,877 | 100% | 23,877 | 100% | 23,877 | 100% |
![]() | Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
Candidate | Maximum round |
Maximum votes |
Share in maximum round |
Maximum votes First round votesTransfer votes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Annamie Paul | 8 | 12,090 | 50.63% |
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Dimitri Lascaris | 8 | 10,081 | 42.22% |
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Courtney Howard | 7 | 5,824 | 24.39% |
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Glen Murray | 6 | 3,725 | 15.60% |
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David Merner | 5 | 2,856 | 11.96% |
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Amita Kuttner | 4 | 1,748 | 7.32% |
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Meryam Haddad | 3 | 1,358 | 5.69% |
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Andrew West | 2 | 356 | 1.49% |
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None of the options | 1 | 36 | 0.15% |
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Exhausted votes | 1,706 | 7.14% |
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No. | Date | Place | Host | Topic | Moderator | Language | Participants | References | |||||||||
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P Participant A Absent invitee N Non-invitee O Out of race (exploring, withdrawn or disqualified) |
Green | Haddad | Howard | Kuttner | Lascaris | Merner | Murray | Paul | Perceval-Maxwell | West | |||||||
1 | June 21, 2020 | Online | Fair Vote Canada | Democracy | Elizabeth May, Jim Harris |
English | P | P | A[lower-alpha 2] | P | P | P | P | P | P | A | [55][65][60] |
2 | June 23, 2020 | Online | TVOntario (TVO) | Various | Steve Paikin | English | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | [57][59][60] |
3 | June 29, 2020 | Online | Green Party of Manitoba | Various | James Beddome | Bilingual | P | P | A | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | [66] |
4 | July 20, 2020 | Online (Quebec) | Green Party of Canada | Various | Chad Walcott, Julie Tremblay-Cloutier |
French | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | O | P | [67][68] |
5 | July 21, 2020 | Online (Prairies) | Green Party of Canada | Various | Naomi Hunter, Sai Rajagopal |
English | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | O | P | [69][70] |
6 | July 23, 2020 | Online (Atlantic) | Green Party of Canada | Various | Jenica Atwin, Peter Bevan-Baker |
Bilingual | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | O | P | [68][71] |
7 | July 27, 2020 | Online (North) | Green Party of Canada | Various | Lenore Morris, Rylund Johnson |
English | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | O | P | [72][73] |
8 | July 28, 2020 | Online (BC) | Green Party of Canada | Various | Paul Manly, Jonina Campbell |
English | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | O | P | [74][75][76] |
9 | July 30, 2020 | Online (Ontario) | Green Party of Canada | Various | Mike Schreiner, Roberta Herod |
English | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | O | P | [68][77] |
10 | August 5, 2020 | Online (Quebec) | Quebec wing | Quebec Issues | Ralph Shayne, Érica Poirier |
French | A | P | A[lower-alpha 3] | P | P | P | A | P | O | A[lower-alpha 4] | [78] |
11 | August 23, 2020 | Online | Young Greens of Canada | Youth Issues | Bryanne Lamoureux, Clément Badra |
Bilingual | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | O | P | [79][80] |
12 | September 3, 2020 | Online (Québec) | Green Party of Quebec | Quebec Issues | Halimatou Bah, Alain Joseph |
French | O | P | P | A[lower-alpha 5] | P | P | P | P | O | A[lower-alpha 6] | [81] |
13 | September 10, 2020 | Online | rabble.ca, Canadian Foreign Policy Institute |
Foreign Affairs | Judy Rebick | English | O | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | O | P | [82][83] |
14 | September 20, 2020 | Online | Heartwood Institute | Electoral Strategy | Jim Harris, Abhijeet Manay, Liz Lilly |
English | O | A | P | P | P | P | P | P | O | P | [84] |
15 | September 22, 2020 | Online | South Okanagan - West Kootenay EDA | Food Security | Tara Howse | English | O | P/O[lower-alpha 7] | P | P | P | P | P | P | O | P |
Meryam Haddad, 32,[85] is an immigration lawyer residing in Montreal, Quebec. Haddad immigrated from Syria at the age of 5 and has been a resident of Montreal since. She holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Ottawa and was the candidate for Châteauguay—Lacolle in 2019. She is openly lesbian.[43][86]
In the lead-up to the 2020 British Columbia general election, Haddad criticized the Green Party of British Columbia over leader Sonia Furstenau's positions on defunding the police and Indigenous land rights, saying she would endorse the BC Ecosocialists over the Greens' provincial wing. She was disqualified from the election by the Green Party on September 22 for "intentionally undertaking an action that would bring the Green Party of Canada into disrepute." Haddad appealed and was reinstated two days later.[63][64]
Courtney Howard, 41,[90] is an emergency room physician residing in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. She holds degrees from Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia, and McGill University. She is the President of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment[53] and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary.[91][92][93]
Amita Kuttner, 30,[103] is an astrophysicist residing on Lasqueti Island, British Columbia.[104][105] They hold a doctorate from the University of California, Santa Cruz.[29] During the 2019 federal election, Kuttner was the candidate for Burnaby North—Seymour.[104] Following the election, they served as the Green Party's Science and Innovation Critic.[106][29] They are also the co-founder and director of the Moonlight Institute.[107] Kuttner is openly non-binary and pansexual, and uses they/them pronouns.[108][109][110] They have refused to hold fundraising events with former leader Elizabeth May, saying the offer of assistance with fundraising does not address other systemic inequities in the race.[111]
Dimitri Lascaris, 56,[128] is a lawyer who was born in London, Ontario, and resides in Montreal, Quebec.[129] He holds a law degree from the University of Toronto. He was the federal candidate for London West in 2015 and the Justice Critic in the Green Party's shadow cabinet in 2016,[20] and is a former member of the Quebec Greens' National Executive.
Lascaris' candidacy was initially rejected by the party's vetting committee, which was appealed.[44] The appeal was accepted on June 2, and his candidacy was reinstated and approved.[135]
David Merner, 58,[161] is a retired lawyer residing on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. He holds degrees from Harvard College, University of Alberta, Oxford University, and University of Toronto. Prior to his university studies, David was largely educated in French pre-schools and primary schools. He was the former Green Party Critic for Justice (2018–2020), and was the Green Party candidate for Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke in 2019. From 2012 to 2013, he was the president of the Liberal Party of Canada's British Columbia wing and was their candidate for Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke in 2015. Prior to entering politics, Merner was a lawyer at the Department of Justice and for the Privy Council Office as well as the Ministry of Attorney General of British Columbia. He was also the recipient of the Head of the Public Service Award from the Government of Canada.[162]
Glen Murray, 62,[180] is a politician residing in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He holds a degree in Urban Studies from Concordia University. He is the former Liberal MPP for Toronto Centre (2010–2017) and a former cabinet minister under Premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne, most notably as the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change (2014–2017). He was a candidate in the 2013 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election but withdrew from that contest midrace. Murray previously ran for the Liberals in Charleswood—St. James in 2004.[181] In addition, he has also served as city councillor (1989–1998) and Mayor of Winnipeg (1998–2004). He has also been the CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute (2007–2010), and executive director of the Pembina Institute (2017–2018). He is openly gay.
Annamie Paul, 47,[199] is a human rights lawyer residing in Toronto. She holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Ottawa and a Master of Public Administration degree from Princeton University.[200] She was the Green Party Critic for Global Affairs (2019–2020) and the federal candidate in Toronto Centre in 2019.[201] Paul is also the Green Party nominee for Toronto Centre in the October 26, 2020 federal by-election, having received permission from the Federal Council to do so as a leadership candidate.[202]
Andrew West, 45,[215] is a lawyer residing in Ottawa, Ontario. He holds a degree in Environmental Law from University of Ottawa. He is the Green Party of Ontario critic for the Attorney General (2015–present). He stood as the provincial candidate in Carleton—Mississippi Mills in 2014, the federal candidate in Kanata—Carleton in 2015 and provincially in 2018, and as the provincial candidate in the 2020 Orléans by-election.
Don Elzer is an environmental activist, businessman, and former journalist from Vancouver, British Columbia. He is the founder and owner of Wildcraft Forest, a natural health company. He currently resides just outside of Lumby with his family.
Withdrew via email.
Judy N. Green is a computer scientist, veteran and small business owner residing in Nova Scotia.[221] She holds a Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) from Acadia University and a Master of Computer Science from Carleton University. She was the candidate for West Nova in 2019.[222]
Green's candidacy was rejected by the party's vetting committee on June 2, which was appealed.[47] The appeal was accepted and her candidacy was reinstated on June 10.[51] She withdrew on August 30 and endorsed David Merner.[62]
Constantine Kritsonis, 62, is a former Ontario representative on the Green Party Council. He stood as the Green Party of Canada candidate for York Centre in 2015, 2011, 2006, 2004 and 1997, and the Green Party of Ontario candidate in Oakwood in 1995.[223]
Withdrew following announcement of the election rules, citing the entrance fee at the time of announcement, $50,000, being too high.[25] Later endorsed Dimitri Lascaris.[151]
Dylan Perceval-Maxwell is a Montreal activist and businessman. He was the Green Party candidate in Laurier—Sainte-Marie five times from 1997 to 2008 and the candidate in Alfred-Pellan in 2011.[224] His 2006 campaign is the subject of the NFB documentary Democracy 4 Dummies.[225]
Disqualified by the party after inappropriate statements going against the Greens' core values.[61]
Julie Tremblay-Cloutier is a businesswoman from Oka who was the Green Party candidate for Mirabel in 2019, and a candidate for Oka City Council in 2017. Prior to entering politics, Tremblay-Cloutier was the head of a local pool and spa inspection company.[20]
Withdrew citing the leadership election rules, her lack of experience and resources to do fundraisers, and her concern that ideas and debates would become secondary to raising funds.[27]
Alex Tyrrell, 32, is the leader of the Green Party of Quebec (2013–present), and was the provincial candidate for Verdun in 2018, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce in 2014, and Jacques-Cartier in 2012. He was also the candidate in the Outremont, Chicoutimi, Gouin, Louis-Hébert, and Roberval by-elections in 2013, 2016, May 2017, October 2017 and 2018, respectively.[227]
Withdrew citing "Elizabeth May and her associates meddling in the election".[228]
Former leader Elizabeth May was the subject of criticism over perceived implicit endorsements. Alex Tyrrell contended that May appeared with candidates at fundraisers to push them towards the lead. David Merner said it would be wiser for May to stay out of the contest completely.[243][244] May responded that she was remaining neutral, but would help candidates from equity-seeking groups in fundraising efforts.[243]
Candidate Meryam Haddad accused fellow candidate Dylan Perceval-Maxwell of racism for comments he made during a TVOntario debate. When asked about calls to defund the police, Perceval-Maxwell suggested having police officers "give $20 to every person of colour they stop". Haddad called the suggestion racist, and said it would not further the goal of ending systemic racism.[245][246] Perceval-Maxwell suggested that Haddad was "angry that a white person came up with an idea."[247] On July 8, the party announced that Perceval-Maxwell was no longer a candidate for the leadership, citing statements "not aligned with the party's values."[61]
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