Green Party leadership election results to be announced tonight

The race to become the next leader – or the next leaders – of the Green Party of Canada will end on Saturday evening.

As party members gather at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa, the results are expected to be announced at 8 p.m. local time in a race that will feature six candidates.

Four of those candidates have paired up to campaign in two separate joint slates, promising that if one is elected leader, the other will be named deputy leader until a constitutional amendment allowing co-leadership. can be offered to party members.

Elizabeth May, the party’s longtime former leader and one of its two sitting MPs, is half of a joint ticket, alongside Jonathan Pedneault. The two presented themselves as safe hands at the helm, combining experience and youth.

Anna Keenan and Chad Walcott also come across as a joint ticket, presenting themselves as « unapologetic progressives. »

The race also has two individual candidates, Sarah Gabrielle Baron and Simon Gnocchini-Messier.

The deadline for the party to receive mail-in ballots passed Nov. 10, and online voting will remain open until 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday. The party says 22,000 members are eligible to vote in this contest, compared to 32,000 in the last leadership race.

Candidates seek to reinvigorate the party

The candidates have been officially campaigning since May in a bid to take control of a party that has faced significant challenges in recent years.

The party has been embroiled in internal disputes and fought off the 2021 elections facing serious fundraising issues.

This leadership race was sparked by the resignation of former leader Annamie Paul following the last federal election. Paul placed fourth in her Toronto Center contest, although the Greens won two seats, with May holding her Vancouver Island constituency and Mike Morrice breaking through in Kitchener Centre.

During his press conference following the 2021 federal election, Paul described his time as leader as « the worst time of my life » in many ways.

Some party members criticized Paul’s leadership style and blamed her for MP Jenica Atwin’s defection to the Liberals earlier that year. At the time, Paul said the charges against her were motivated by racism and sexism.

The Greens secured just under 400,000 ballots, or about 2.3% of the popular vote, in the 2021 federal election. This was a sharp drop from the more than one million votes cast for the party in 2019.