What can they be thinking? The rank and file of the Green Party of Canada must be outraged. The idea of a dust-up between the executive of the party and its newly elected party leader Annamie Paul is destroying the chances of the party making any inroads on parliament in the coming election. This is amateur time for Canada’s greens.
For the executive to forget that the party doubled its vote in 2019 is denying all the hard work involved. It is denying the legacy of Elizabeth May. It was her determination that held that party together through the last election and gave encouragement to the party’s candidates.
It is certainly not the role of the party executive to keep the new leader on a leash. Typically, the party leader is responsible to the party as a whole and is leader of the elected wing of the party. The executive represents the party organization across Canada and is the clearing house for party organization and structural needs.
And if that is not the way the greens have structured their party organization, they have done it wrong.
We can only hope the greens do not follow the liberal party organization. The liberal party of Canada is a political party that is headed for the scrap yard. It is a top-down organization under the totalitarian control of the party leader. The party leader, through his minions asks supporters for money—continuously—and directs who can be a party candidate. It is a party that fails to decide its own policies. The liberal party of today is not a functioning political party, it is a fan club.
What Annamie Paul needs is a party executive who can do their job of building and supporting the party. As leader she needs people working with her to build her strengths—not to use her as a billboard. She needs to talk about Canada’s problems, not hers. She needs the opportunity to lead.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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