Annamie Paul, leader of Canada’s Green Party, has announced her resignation after she failed to win a seat and to increase her party’s seat number in the country’s House of Commons in the 44th parliamentary election on September 20.
In her announcement on Monday, Paul said she was resigning because she could not bear to go through a fractious leadership review, a process that was formally launched on September 25 after the party’s poor showing in the election, reports Xinhua news agency.
In the election, the Green Party won two seats of the House of Commons and suffered a significant drop in its share of the popular vote.
The party placed sixth in the overall percentage of the vote, dropping to 2.3 per cent from the 6.5 per cent secured in 2019.
In 2021 just 398,775 Canadians voted for the Green Party, in contrast to the 1,189,631 votes secured in 2019.
Under the party’s regulations, Paul did not become Prime Minister, she would have to face a leadership review within six months. Voting in that process was set to begin on October 26.
Paul became the party leader in October 2020, making history as the first Jewish woman and first Black woman to be elected leader of a major political party in Canada.