Decryption | The Green Party still torn by infighting

(Ottawa) For quite some time now, the Green Party of Canada has seemed to devote more energy to managing the quarrels between the Federal Council, activists and elected officials than to fighting climate change.

Melanie Marquis
The Press

Those who thought that the abscess had been burst with the resounding departure of Annamie Paul were wrong: in the last few days we were treated to the equally resounding resignation of the president of the party and a threat to slam the door of the from the only two green elected officials.

“My optimism is dead”

“I can’t stay, because it seems to me that there is no vision for a better future, only efforts to dwell on the past and settle old scores, while the planet burns. »

In her letter of resignation, the one who took the reins of the party barely a year ago, Lorraine Rekmans, expressed her discouragement at not having been able to right the ship.

The straw that broke the camel’s back seems to have been the fact that she misgendered interim leader Amita Kuttner when the leadership candidates were announced virtually on September 2 (she apologized the next day on Twitter ).

The cup, it must be said, was already almost full. The incident brought back to the carpet the question of discrimination within the party, which was already the subject of an investigation triggered at the time of Annamie Paul.

The resigning president was of the opinion that the leadership race should be put on ice.

The aspirants to the chieftaincy have turned up.

The only two Green MPs in the House of Commons, Elizabeth May and Mike Morrice, have threatened to sit as independents. The former green chief, however, denied having had this intention, according to The Canadian Press.

Nevertheless, the events of the last few days got the better of Lorraine Rekmans, who was the first Aboriginal to lead the group. ” I’m exhausted ; my optimism is dead,” she wrote in her resignation letter.

“Growth crisis”

On the phone, Jonathan Pedneault, who is running for the leadership of the party in tandem with Elizabeth May, can hardly deny the obvious: the formation is (still) going through a difficult period.

Anyone who is taking his first steps into active politics – he was a journalist and worked for 14 years for Human Rights Watch in Somalia, Afghanistan and Sudan – admits this with a mastery that an experienced politician would not deny.

“This type of internal crisis within the party is not synonymous with a party in disarray. It is synonymous with a party that is growing. We are currently in a growth crisis when it comes to new social realities such as diversity and inclusion,” he argues.

And the duo believe they have a cure for these ills. “Elizabeth and I are very familiar with governance issues, and we are determined to bring the party into a position that will be more stable,” the 32-year-old said.

By joining forces with a Quebecer, the former chef may be repairing bridges that had been broken under the leadership of Annamie Paul. His relations with the Quebec wing were very strained; she had refused the candidacy of former Bloc member Christian Simard because he was a sovereigntist.

Elizabeth May, meanwhile, had welcomed Pierre Nantel, currently candidate for the Parti Québécois, with open arms, even if she had initially denied that her recruit had sovereignist convictions.

Asked to specify which brand he is staying at, Jonathan Pedneault said this: “If Quebec decides to form its own country, I think it has all the tools necessary to become a state that will be functional. That being said, my major concern right now is the issue of climate change. »

What future ?

If the party born in 1983 is “self-destructing”, its setbacks may not be entirely attributable to infighting, says Stewart Perst, professor of political science at Quest University in Squamish, British Columbia. .

“In a way, the party is a victim of its own success, or more specifically of the fact that the federal parties have plans to fight climate change,” he says. And the fact that the Green Party’s coffers are so empty does nothing to help its cause, notes the political scientist.

“The party does not seem to be aware of the reason for which it exists”, believes for his part the former political strategist Karl Bélanger.

Because all these discords, whether it is that on diversity or that on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – which led to the departure of MP Jenica Atwin in 2021 – have “nothing to do with her fund trade”, that of embodying “the environmental conscience of the country”, he analyzes.

The formation is not on the verge of extinction, judges the one who worked for the NDP for years before founding Traxxion Strategies, a public relations company: “If the party manages to refocus its discourse on climate issues, he will be able to recover. »

The two specialists agree on one thing: Elizabeth May’s attempt to pass the torch to a new generation has failed, and her hold remains.

It is to be continued.

The next Green Leader will be announced on November 19.