Things are not going well inside The Green Party of Canada. Michael Harris writes:
In a tense meeting of the Green Party of Canada’s national council on Tuesday, it was decided that the leadership of Annamie Paul will be put to a formal review vote on July 20, if the leader does not publicly repudiate statements by a former senior advisor, Noah Zatzman, and “explicitly support” the Green party caucus. As of this morning, no statement has come from the Green leader.
In the wake of last night’s meeting, two members of the national council resigned, both from the Maritime region. In practical terms, that will make it more difficult to get the necessary three-quarters vote majority on July 20 to recommend ousting the leader under the party’s constitution. Such a vote would be a huge blow to Paul, though the national council cannot unilaterally remove the leader via a vote of no confidence.
Last night’s meeting was preceded by an hour and 45 minute meeting between the leader Paul and former leader Elizabeth May, that did not go well. May was reportedly told that unless she supported the leader 100 per cent at national council, there would be consequences.
May attended only part of the national council meeting and left before the vote was taken.
The debate within the party is consuming it:
Sources close to the situation worry that if Paul is removed, it could mire the party in accusations of racism and anti-semitism based on her experiences as leader. That kind of caustic debate on highly-sensitive matters could easily sink any hope the party might have of gaining more seats at the next election, which could come as early as fall.
When any group decides to form a circular firing squad, they are writing their own obituary.
Image: Alan Zeichick
12 comments:
It's obvious that her leadership and managerial skills consist of ' sit down and shut up- I'll tell you what you think'. Calling people who don't like being bullied and belittle sexist and racists doesn't seem to be an improvement. Choosing Trudeau as the scapegoat appears just as ill judged.
The Mound of Sound believes the party is finished, rumley. It looks like he may be right.
One wonders if May regrets her previous support of Paul.
Here's a really dumb strategy: accuse Chrystia Freeland of being Trudeau's token feminist. https://globalnews.ca/news/7957996/green-party-annamie-paul-freeland-trudeau-female-shield/
When will the so called "left" discover that personal identity and woke credentials are no substitute for ability? Thanks to their choice of Annamie Paul the Green party is toast.
The members of the firing squad might just reshoot themselves in the foot.
Targeting Freeland was a really dumb move, Toby. Paul is the wrong person for the job.
They've decided to shoot themselves in both feet, John.
Jenica Atwin's Wikipedia MP entry is worth reading. She sponsored a private member's bill to get rid of Round Up (glyphosate) in this country, which only desperate corporate efforts managed to keep going in Europe when Bayer bought Monsanto to keep poisoning us all for profit. The Germans had to look out for their own. Boris thinks it's refreshing summer drink and the Irvings give the entirety of NB's farmed monocultural woodlands a good aerial drenching refreshing spray each year, so that we can all wipe our bottoms with Royale.
Atwell has a First Nations stepfather, is married to a First Nations man, and has two kids. She worked at First Nations Education Centre prior to running for MP and winning.
I do not suppose Anamie Paul has much to educate her about the way various groups of people in our country are discriminated against. As in, none. Atwell knows apartheid when she sees it, and Israel happily practises a form of it.They also almost forty years ago helped out the white apartheid government of South Africa, before that regime came tumbling down in the 1990s. Easy to look that up on the internet.
So I have no time for some dolt like Paul's adviser Zatzman calling Atwell out on anti-semitism. And Paul, acting like the classic tinpot dictator, throwing out fusillades of charges that effectively say anyone who disagrees with her is a racist or anti-semite, merely uses the usual age-old ploy of the cornered -- take 'em down with you.
Paul has been useless as leader. Not a sign of her down east, where there is (now likely was) a decent Green presence, including official opposition in PEI. I voted for a youngish aerospace engineer on the Green ticket last federal election. He actually had a brain compared to the seat-warmer party faithful candidates dredged up for the mainline parties in my constituency, and he did quite well. The Greens were doing better.
All now trashed by small-minded, narrowly-focused, parochial, downtown T.O. "intellectuals" who think they know it all, and speak for the entire country from the bowels of the GTA. Haven't heard a word about Green ideals from Paul or a real action plan on climate, and now never will. An abject failure from beginning to end, in my view.
Yup, the national Green Party is toast. They picked a useless leader, and what a farce it is if Paul is telling May to come to heel or there will be consequences. Paul isn't even an MP, and the likelihood of her winning Toronto Centre this early fall election is zero.
She is the wrong person for the job, Bill. And it looks like she'll bring the party down with her.
I have watched Ms. Paul's reactions to reporters' questions and she has been relentless in slamming her critics as anti-Semites, racists and/or misogynists. Why she would want to belong to much less lead a party with that sort of membership mystifies me.
What I haven't heard from her is one word about her former senior advisor, Zatzman. She's obviously defying the national council to carry through on their ultimatum. Either path - the council's or Ms. Paul's - seems more than a party still struggling to find political traction can survive.
Annamie Paul's poison pill could bring the Green house down. I don't think she is electable outside the GTA or even within. Maybe that's what the federal council is counting on - that and a snap election. I know I won't be contributing another dime to the GPC collection plate until I'm convinced this party has a future - and a viable leader.
One thing is certain, Mound: With Ms. Paul at the helm, the party has no future.
This is what happens when the easy money Ms. Paul has become accustomed to gets the slightest harder. She'll move on past the wreckage, back to another program where her brand of professionalism will be appreciated for what it isn't.
Wreckage is the right word, John. We'll see if the party recovers.
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