Elizabeth May stays on to lead Green Party of Canada

Green Party leader Elizabeth May put an end to a week of rumours on Monday, announcing she would continue to lead her party, at least for another year, after its executive agreed to review a controversial resolution adopted by members at their annual convention earlier this month.

Despite a week of reflection while on vacation in Cape Breton, N.S., the MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands said she hadn't made up her mind until after a phone call on Sunday evening with a federal council member, who said a special meeting could be called to reconsider the Greens' support for a controversial boycott of Israel over conflict with Palestine.

"I basically had been struggling with what’s the best thing for the party, what’s the best thing for the country, and further down the list, what’s the best thing for me personally?" she told National Observer after a press conference on Monday.

"So from the time I’d gone away on holiday, I’d gone through thinking, ‘I definitely have to step down,’ to ‘maybe I don’t,’ but let me take the time away for a week so I can take the time to really think it through and not make a snap decision.”

Irony in Green Party voting

May said last week she was "brokenhearted" over her party's support of the controversial boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) movement for Israel — a decision reached based on majority votes rather than the party's traditional consensus-based model. The leader has previously spoken loudly against BDS, and even more loudly for the need to abandon the first-past-the-post system in Canadian democracy.

May currently sits on a special federal committee spearheading a review of electoral reform options, and said if she remains leader of the federal Greens, she must be able to devote her full attention to that charge rather than internal party policies.

“It wasn’t until I was away on my holidays and reading that I realized how ironic it was," she explained. "The Green Party of Canada accidentally stopped using the consensus-based process... at the very time that we’re making the case to Canadians that our democracy will be healthier once we adopt proportional representation and consensus-based voting.”

Following a conference call with her party executive last night however, May said everyone agreed to review the controversial BDS motion in the coming months and make future decisions based on consensus, instead of majority votes.

A major global opportunity

While the party has not yet set a date for the policy review, May said her focus over the next few months will remain on electoral reform, pushing for stronger national climate targets, and opposing projects that matter to her constituents, like the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain expansion and Steelhead LNG project.

During the press conference in Ottawa, she said she supported Trudeau's pledge to introduce a national price on carbon pollution if the provinces don't agree to do their fair share, and targeted her own provincial premier, Christy Clark, introducing a "disappointing" climate change plan that needed to be improved.

“I think we have a huge potential particularly now to be a huge force for good in the world and actually recover climate action," she explained. "If we can do what needs to be done, if Justin Trudeau can pull back the weak climate target... and ratchet up to a robust climate goal and then challenge there countries to do it, we could be the lead of saving human civilization.”

It's not a hyperbole, she added, and after a week of support pouring in from all corners of the country calling for her to remain leader of the Green Party, it's a political future she wants to be part of.

May "humbled" by national support

May managed to get off the grid for a week in Cape Breton while she made her decision, and said she was shocked after seven days with no Internet, cell phones, newspapers, or televisions to find out she had been the subject of national media coverage and speculation. She returned to hundreds of emails and social media notifications voicing support for her continued party leadership from politicians and constituents across all party lines.

“The very kind things that have been said by people — that Canadians want my voice in Parliament — it’s enormously gratifying to hear," she said. “I almost felt like I’d been attending my own funeral looking at the messages I’ve received.

"Never in my life have I gotten a personal email from Neil Young, just letting me know, 'I want to you to stay on as leader.’ Holy mackerel!"

In the party ever needs any media coverage in the future, she joked, the experience has taught her that the best way to get it is to go out into the woods and turn down interviews.

The Green Party will hold a special meeting in the coming months to review resolutions from the August 2016 Convention that lacked consensus, review and adopt improved processes for policy-making, and review any outstanding motions.

— with files from Mike De Souza