The Parties
Green Party of Canada
Party Leader: Annamie Paul
Founded: 1983
Current Number of Seats: 2
Website: http://www.greenparty.ca
Profile
In 1983 at a convention in Ottawa, the Green Party of Canada was founded to center environmental protection and participatory democracy in Canadian politics. The first party leader was Trevor Hancock and the party had 60 candidates who ran in the federal election the following year.
The number of candidates rose each election to the point where the Greens now run candidates in nearly all federal ridings in recent elections.
Joan Russow became the party leader in 1997. She was the first Green leader to do a national leader’s tour as the Green party acquired the resources to present a full bilingual national platform and campaign.
The party ran 111 candidates in the 2000 election but did not win any seats, including in the riding of leader Joan Russow.
Jim Harris became the leader of the Green Party in 2003 and the party was able to run candidates in all federal ridings in the election of 2004. The Greens did not win a seat in this election but got 4.3 percent of the popular vote, enough to secure federal party financing.
Elizabeth May, who was an organizer and helped form the party in 1983, became leader in 2006 at a leadership convention.
May was invited to attend the debates for the 2008 general election campaign causing the popular vote percentage to increase, but no Greens were elected to the House of Commons.
Elizabeth May became the first Green Party member elected to parliament in 2011 and was joined in 2013 by an independent in the House who joined the Greens, creating a two-member Green Party caucus.
In October 2015, the Greens ran 336 candidates out of a total 338 ridings. Elizabeth May was the only one to win her seat.
In May 2019 Paul Manly won the Nanaimo-Ladysmith by-election, becoming the second elected Green MP. In the federal election later that year Manly and May were both re-elected as well as a third Green MP, Jenica Atwin.
Following the 2019 federal election Elizabeth May announced her plans to step down as leader while remaining an MP. In 2020 Annamie Paul was elected as leader.
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