When Canada’s Green party wanted fresh leadership, it turned to a Princeton educated lawyer and adviser at the international criminal court who became the first Black and Jewish woman to ever lead a federal party in Canada.
But after less than a year of legal feuds, infighting and an electoral rout Annamie Paul stepped down, calling her time as leader “the worst period of my life”.
Now the Greens are seeking to chart a new course – by bringing back the same person who previously led the party for more than a decade.
“It’s a little bit of deja vu, but it’s not the same thing,” Elizabeth May said after winning the leadership ballot on Sunday.
May, a longtime environmental activist and lawyer, held the top job with the Green party for 13 years, making her one of the most recognizable faces in the country’s fight against climate change.
This time May has has pledged to serve as “co-leader” with Jonathan Pedneault, arguing that “Greens do things differently” and rejecting the top-down leadership structure of political parties.
Pedneault, a former journalist and human rights activist who has never held elected office, will serve as deputy leader to May until the party’s official leadership structure is changed next year.
When she retired in 2019, the Greens had finished with their best popular vote result, and were increasingly seen as a party with bold policy to navigate a changing climate.
“Three years ago I stepped down as leader confident that the party was strong and ready, with three elected MPs, to see a change,” May said on Sunday.
But her successor Paul was unable to win her own seat in the federal election, and oversaw a campaign where the Green’s share of the popular vote dropped to 2.3% in the 2021 election from 6.6% in the 2019 election.
Paul faced an early attempt to oust her as party leader, amid allegations of sexism and racism in the party, and quickly stood down.
May said the feuding was a “bit of a rough patch” but said the party was now “united” in wake of the results.
But even the leadership campaign was marked by dysfunction.
The party president, Lorraine Rekmans, resigned soon after the campaign began, telling members that her “optimism has died” and that she had no confidence in any of the contestants. Rekmans, one of the few prominent Indigenous officials in the party, lamented there was “no vision for a better future, but only an effort to look back and settle old scores, while the planet burns”.
The party closed its Ottawa office in October in an attempt to shore up its dismal finances.
Less than 40% of eligible members voted in Sunday’s election, half the figures from the previous leadership campaign.
“It’s important to let people know if you disagree, we work through it, we listen, and take whatever time it takes to come to consensus,” said May. “I’m very optimistic about the party pulling together.”
• This article was amended on 22 November 2022. Jonathan Pedneault is a human rights activist, not a human rights lawyer as an earlier version said.
