Difficult campaign ends with a crushing defeat

Annamie Paul, the first Black woman to lead a major political party in Canada, lost badly Monday night as she fought for both her leadership and a federal seat following a cloistered campaign dominated by internal Green party strife.

Hours after the polls officially closed in Ontario, voters were still lined up at polling stations in Toronto-Centre, the downtown riding where Paul spent almost every day of her fiveweek campaign. But with more than a third of the vote counted, Paul sat in fourth place, trailing Liberal winner Marci Ien, as well as both the NDP and, in one of the most progressive ridings in the country, the Conservative party of Canada.

When Paul, who is also the first Jewish leader of a major Canadian party, addressed her supporters early Monday night, she still seemed optimistic. “I hope that bar is open,” she joked shortly after the polls closed. “I think it’s going to be a long night.”

But before midnight struck, it was over. Ien had a commanding lead with 45 polls reporting. Paul had less than 1,000 votes.

Paul’s unusual campaign — she made only two, brief, trips outside of Ontario during the entire election —was both tactical and enforced.

She faced an ugly, public mutiny from elements within her own party in the months before the vote and the Green party entered the campaign short on cash and shorter on unity, something Paul’s supporters believe hamstrung her efforts in the race.

“While other parties were probably putting campaign foundations in place, the Green party was just trying to figure out how quickly they could move forward and trying to get beyond some of the narrative that was out there,” said Marva Wisdom, a senior volunteer on Paul’s campaign and a longtime friend.

Wisdom called the internal efforts to depose Paul, led by a faction of the party’s national council, “unprecedented.”

“I can’t tell you what was in those people’s minds,” Wisdom said. “But certainly what they were doing made no sense to me whatsoever. And all I can say is they were afraid of change, someone who sounded different, and someone who looked different, and someone who brought so much energy and so many ideas to the party.”

The Green party entered Monday trailing even the People Party’s of Canada, a far-right fringe movement that rejects the scientific consensus on vaccines and other COVID-19 measures, in most national polls. And the early results Monday did not suggest a surprise wave.

As of 11:15 Monday night, the Green party had just two per cent of the national vote, down dramatically from the party’s showing in 2019. Still, the news wasn’t all bad.

The party’s Mike Morrice held a surprise lead in Kitchener-Centre, home to Liberal incumbent Raj Saini who dropped out of the campaign following allegations of sexual misconduct. Former leader Elizabeth May, meanwhile, owned an early lead in Saanich-Gulf Islands, the Vancouver Island seat she has held since 2011.

Speaking before the polls closed, Wisdom said it was too early to speculate on whether Paul would stay on as leader if she lost Monday. But Andrew Weaver, the former leader of the B.C. Green party and one of Canada’s most influential climate scientists, said it would be a shame if she stepped down.

“In my own view Annamie Paul is the best thing that ever happened to the federal Green party,” Weaver, who endorsed the Liberal party in this campaign, said. “I think she is an outstanding leader, and I thought she honestly won the leadership debate, and I think many people would agree with me.”

And if it was set to be a bad night for the Green party, Weaver still believes it was a good campaign for the Green movement. The party doesn’t and can’t own the climate issue anymore, he said, and that’s a good thing. “Does that mean the Green party didn’t do its job?” he said. “No, absolutely not.”

It was never about seats, he said. It was never about power. It was about making the other parties take climate change seriously.

“And when every party is now talking about an issue that was in your bailiwick for so long, you are successful, you really are,” he said. “You have won. And that’s kind of how I feel.”