The Death of the Canadian Green Party
The Death of the Canadian Green Party
Americans reading this article probably won’t know who Elizabeth May is, but everyone in Canada does. She was the the leader of the Green Party from 2006 to 2019, and usually their only sitting MP who could get elected. So when she resigned from leadership (citing family reasons) after the 2019 federal election, it was a big deal, because her name was synonymous with the party. She was the Green Party.
She left on a high note, the party having achieved one million votes for the first time ever. With the world only getting greener over the coming decades, and Canada becoming increasingly lefty, the long-term future was bright. One need look no further than the German Green Party — in 2021 the German Greens obtained 14.8% of the vote. In theory, was no reason the Canadians couldn’t replicate that success. After all, under Elizabeth May they had already received 7% of the popular vote in 2019. Pretty respectable.
Unfortunately, they dropped from 7% in 2019 to a paltry 2% in 2021. Even Maxime Bernier’s PPC (who were barred from attending the debates) got more than twice as many votes as the Greens. Why?
This piss poor performance was largely because in 2020 they elected Annamie Paul, a Toronto-based activist and lawyer, as their next leader. I say “elected”, but really Elizabeth May handpicked her as a “centrist” to spite the socialist faction of the Green Party. It was seen as a passing of the torch to the next generation, but it went horribly wrong. Did they promote her only to cash in on woke points and identity politics? It seems so. Annamie Paul came in and left like a wrecking ball, and is now ensuring that the ship she captains sinks under the weight of her own failed leadership.
The first time I ever heard Paul speak was the the 2021 debate. I was unimpressed, she avoided every question and always retreated to the same canned line, seemed to lack the ability to think on her feet. She spoke many words (all candidates are allotted equal speaking time, meaning she was tied with Trudeau in speaking time), but said nothing of substance. No leadership capacity, no charisma, no vision, and no platform.
She literally didn’t have a platform. The party released its platform costing just ONE DAY before the election, and only ran candidates in 223 out of 338 ridings — the lowest number in the past seven general elections. The party also did not have a national campaign chair to co-ordinate its election effort. Bushleague. This was foreseeable, as a couple months before the election, the party itself warned that they were approaching a financial “tipping point” and “couldn’t run an election campaign with any effectiveness.” They then proceeded to run a campaign without any effectiveness.
What was causing all this strife? What ultra-important issue could cause them to tear themselves apart? Something they absolutely had to devote all their attention to, rather than try to win an election?
A weird obsession with Israel
This all boils down to a disconnect between leadership and the membership. Paul (who is Jewish) strongly supports Zionism, while most of her membership supports Palestine. As a result, Paul never had the respect of her own party, never made inroads, and was never trusted. If you look into the membership's voting history vs. the leadership's wishes, including under May, there have been a lot of items that have run counter to what the party leader has wanted. What that says about the party I have no idea.
I am not going to get into the logistics of their internal drama — sassy Facebook posts, snubbed meetings, votes of no confidence, lawsuits, MP defections, and massive layoffs — the short story is that the party burned what little cash they had left on legal fees fighting themselves internal, all over a tiny strip of land at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa. This whole thing has a very “highschool meangirls” vibe to it, more of a cafeteria fight than a serious political party. It just goes to show that the average leftist is living in fantasy land where rhetoric is reality.
I wish I were kidding, because it is such a dumb hill to die on. So avoidable. There's an imminent election, how is Zionism a priority? Why would your primary rhetoric be about entirely different country? I don’t even care which side of the issue you fall on — maybe you even throw around words like “genocide” or “apartheid” or “theocratic ethnostate” — it simply doesn’t affect Canada. Not our problem. We are a 2nd-rate world power with a tiny population, and I guarantee you neither Israel nor Palestine spend a second of their free time thinking about us. Yet we allow them to live in our heads, rent-free, and dominate our political discourse. Why? I notice this weird obsession in Canadian politics that mainly effects the Green Party and NDP. They sanctimoniously love to make it everything their problem.
Some unsolicited advice: the country of Jordan is beside Israel, and they each have about 10 millions inhabitants. When was the last time you thought about Jordan? Exactly: never. The Green party would be infinitely more successful if they were to drop this issue entirely and devote as much political capital towards Israel as they do towards Jordan, which is to say, none.
Graceless Exit & Fake Resignation
Paul announced her pending resignation as Green party leader on September 27, 2021. Here we are 1 month later, and she has not actually left. She still has the top job. Why?
Legal ratfuckery. If you look at the wording of this tweet she says she will “begin process of resigning” — a lawyer doesn’t use wording like that accidentally.
She is keeping the party hostage and extorting them by suing them for compensation costs incurred during previous legal battles with the party. This protracted resignation is a selfish act that emphasizes just how wrong she was for the job in the first place. Resignations aren't supposed to be conditional, but hers is special, I guess. I think she will not complete her "resignation" until unless the Green Party is closed for business with no staff, no funds, no future. She knows they are already broke, and is putting the screws to them, twisting the dagger. It is a really ugly. She especially has them over a barrel, because her contract stipulates that all party communications (e.g. tweets, press statements) are under her control. So the Party can't even make real announcements now, it can't really put out comments or materials.
How she would feel entitled to a cent of compensation is unimaginable after she single-handedly destroyed party support and electability. She is apparently demanding a salary of $250,000 after the last leader, May, received only $70,000. Keep in mind that these are people’s donations which she’s fighting to take with her. Her lack of introspection is stunning. Rather than accepting any blame for imploding the party on behalf of vested interests and weaponizing identity politics to do it, she has constantly lashed out at her enemies and accused them of racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism. I hate the fact the she got down the "sexist", "racist" road. So if you criticize her for anything it is a race thing. The truth is she is just a shitty leader. She needs to STFU and GTFO so that the party can begin healing.
It is honestly wild how the media isn't putting her under more visible blast for all this. I guess that is what I am trying to accomplish with this article.
The Future: 2 hopes
I am very bearish on the future of the Canadian Green Party. They are out of money and everyone knows it. A few years ago they had a warchest of $3 million, now they are running on fumes. How do you mismanage your finances that badly? At least it is a great glimpse of what Canada would be like if the Greens were in power — financial ruin, identity politics, chaos and malfeasance. No thank you! The sad part is, they did it all themselves. They created a toxic “greenwashed” atmosphere of victimhood and grievances. I am sure if their downfall wasn’t Israeli apartheid, it would be some other dumb thing. The party was a powderkeg brimming with pugilistic, eccentric, weirdo hippies and intellectual lightweights.
As far as I see it, they only have 2 ways to save themselves.
A strong, charismatic leader emerges: The presumed favorite to be the next Green party leader is Dimitri Lascaris, a lawyer/activist, he is probably the wrong guy for the job. He calls himself an “Eco-Socialist” and posts a lot of Israel/Palestine shit on twitter. No, they need a fresh start. A charismatic new leader without heavy Israel/Palestine baggage would be ideal. I am skeptical that one will materialize, their party roster is rather… thin. But if a strong candidate does emerge, it could save them.
Reforming First-Past-The-Post (FPTP): Based on popular vote, the Green party should have 7 or 8 seats rather than their current 2:
The current system is terrible for them, since would-be voters need to focus on strategically voting for the NDP or Liberal to beat the Conservatives. Proportional representation would empower more people to vote Green, it would make them feel like their voice was being heard. If abolishing FPTP ever becomes reality, the Greens will become a viable party.
Speaking of Electoral Reform: My Political Blackpilling
When I was in elementary school, every election season, our classes would hold mock elections. Every election season I voted for the Green Party. When I was finally able to vote legally in 2015 I voted for Justin Trudeau (cringe). Electoral reform was my number #1 voting issue, so if Trudeau was pitching me reforming FPTP + legal weed, I was sold. He spent the whole campaign running on electoral reform, bragging about how the first thing he was going to do was abolish FPTP. I genuinely thought he was going to do it. Fuck me, right?
The night he won, in his acceptance speech, he reneged on his promise of electoral reform. In the acceptance speech! Obviously, he knew in the back of his mind the whole time that if he were to win, he would renege instantly. He told the lie anyway, he shoveled shit to the Canadian people and we lapped it up. That is how little he thinks of us. It makes me feel so stupid to think back and remember trusting him. Looking back on it now, Trudeau’s acceptance speech in 2015 was the moment I became a jaded old man, rather than a bright eyed boy. In that moment I knew all politicians are crooks, and I have never come close to trusting one since.
“Justin Trudeau would go on to break many more promises during his term but his decision to abandon electoral reform still stands as a uniquely bitter and cynical betrayal”
— based and redpilled Elizabeth May
Here we are 6 years later, and electoral reform is dead in the water. It is on nobody’s radar. Trudeau has successfully buried it, just like he buried the Green party. Does Canada need three or four "green" parties, anyways? Green policies don’t differ that much from Liberals and NDP, who have siphoned off Green voters in 2021. Now that carbon tax etc. has become mainstream, it looks like the Green Party has lost it raison d'être and is now just another dysfunctional little bureaucracy. Perhaps the party was a good idea whose time has come and gone, or perhaps it is time for a new grassroots green movement that isn’t tarred by ego maniacs, cliques, and identity politics. So as the Green party dies, so does the last shred of my childhood optimism and innocence. We will never get electoral reform, nor will get an honest leader. Life is not fair.