Annamie Paul has stepped down as leader of the Green Party of Canada.
Speaking Monday morning in Toronto, Paul told reporters that with a leadership review looming she won’t spend any more time playing politics.
“I just will not spend any more time focused on political games as opposed to public policy,” says Paul, “Which is what I entered politics for in the first place, particularly at a time when it is so needed.”
She says that with what she calls a struggle for the soul of the party going on, she just doesn’t have the heart to continue.
“I just asked myself whether this is something I wanted to continue. Whether I was willing to continue to put up with the attacks I knew would be coming, whether to continue having to fight and struggle just to fulfil my democratically-elected role as leader of this party.”
Paul tells us that she knew it would be an uphill battle as leader from the moment she took on the role.
“When I was elected and put in this role I was breaking a glass ceiling. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was breaking a glass ceiling that was going to fall on my head and leave a lot of shards of glass that I was going to have to crawl over throughout my time as leader.”
She explains that she knew the pressure was there on Election Day even hours before the polls closed.
“On the day of the election itself, in the morning, the only email that I received from our council…the president of our council…was an email calling for an emergency meeting to launch a leadership review.”
On election night Paul finished third in her riding of Toronto Centre.
