The Green Party’s Elizabeth May says she’s going to stay on as leader, despite saying earlier this summer that she might step down.
May said in several interviews earlier this month that she wasn’t sure if she could continue to lead the party after its members voted to endorse the controversial boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel.
May has led the party since August, 2006. She ran and lost in a London, Ont. byelection that year, and again in a Nova Scotia riding during the 2008 election. She was first elected to Parliament in 2011 to represent Saanich-Gulf Islands, a riding just outside Victoria, B.C.
May said the party's federal council met Sunday night and "overwhelmingly" wants her to stay on as leader, at least for the next year to 18 months. She said if someone else wants to do better, she'd be happy to step aside.
"It wouldn't be unfair to imagine that being leader of the Green Party of Canada is something that someone else could do better. I don't doubt that for a minute," May said.
The Green Party leader also said the council will review the decision that led her to question her future with the party. The council will put together a new policy to be presented to members at a special meeting with the goal of reaching consensus, the party said in a news release.
May referred several times to her work on the House electoral reform committee, which is studying a new way for Canadians to elect MPs. The government included May as a full voting member of the House committee studying electoral reform, an unusual step since parliamentary rules require only parties with 12 or more seats be included on committees.
May said the party needs her as leader as it builds strength, as she works on electoral reform, and as they prepare for the next federal election in 2019, which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised will be held under a different electoral system.
"I think the greater likelihood is that I will lead the Green Party of Canada into the 2019 election. But I'm more than comfortable with the idea that I might not. So that means speculation may swirl, but that's the honest answer so I'm kind of stuck with it," she said.
Despite speculation that, had she stepped down, she would have joined another party, May said that was never an option. The Green Party leader is not the boss of the party, she said, but the chief spokesperson for the membership and its decisions.
The party traditionally makes decisions by consensus, but had decided to try a more formal format called Robert's Rules of Order to run its last annual general meeting. It also moved away from its tradition of a post-meeting ratification vote. May believes that's how the boycott, divestment and sanctions resolution passed, and that the party's reconsidering the new process.
