Green Party Leader more of a bully than a victim

The Green Party of Canada is certainly capable of betraying its loyal supporters.  I would know because Elizabeth May spitefully had me expelled from the party for respectfully persisting in policy disagreements with her (hence why I could not apply to renew my 2015 federal Green candidacy in later elections).  However, contrary to Ms. Audrey Green's sincere misunderstanding as expressed in her September 29th letter to the Eganville Leader, outgoing Green leader Annamie Paul is not one of those victims.

Unmentioned by the media is that Paul had forked over a secretive $180,000 salary from the Green Party (compared to Elizabeth May who had been paid $70,000 per year by the party).  After publicly telling the media of her "resignation", Ms. Paul then proceeded to tell the party's Federal Council that she had not fully resigned yet but that the constitution-mandated leadership review should somehow still be cancelled.  (She wants to keep that money flow going a while longer.)

If a person wanted to single-handedly destroy the very party that they were elected to lead, it is hard to imagine how they would behave differently from Ms. Paul.  Any other party leader would fire an advisor who publicly advocated for the defeat of two party MPs, yet that advisor got his wish in driving out both the MPs in question.  She barred her party critics from running as candidates in an election where the party was missing candidates in over 100 ridings.  And she has financially drained the Green Party by continuing to take it to court.

But Ms. Paul does deserve sympathy in one respect.  Many Greens encouraged her to run for Leader and voted accordingly, praising her non-political resume but ignoring her lack of experience with either Canadian politics or Green politics.  And then as Leader she did what a neophyte inevitably does in a position of too much power: thrash about aimlessly in the face of stress and criticism.  

It is clear that Annamie Paul is actually the Green Party's leading bully and antagonist, but she is the bully because she sadly has no idea what she is doing, and therefore has no idea of how to behave herself better.

Stefan Klietsch

Renfrew