Annamie Paul is the new leader of the Green Party of Canada

Elizabeth May‘s tenure over the Green Party of Canada has really come to a close. The leadership for the Green Party of Canada was announced this evening and the results are official. Annamie Paul is the new leader of Canada’s 5th party in Canada’s Parliament. Paul officially takes over the party from interim leader Jo-Ann Roberts.

Paul won, narrowly besting Dimitri Lascaris winning 54.5% on the eighth and final ballot. She led the field of candidates from the first ballot. Over 24,000 votes were cast. The Green Party claimed a 69% voter turnout of members.

Annamie Paul is a lawyer by profession and is from Toronto. She holds a Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton University and a law degree from the University of Ottawa. She is a former advisor to the International Criminal Court and served as a political officer to Canada’s mission to the EU.

Paul must still win a seat. She has the opportunity to run in one of two Toronto area by-elections, currently underway. Elizabeth May did not run a candidate against Jagmeet Singh when the NDP leader was looking to land a seat in Parliament, however, it is unclear at this time if the NDP will reciprocate and likewise allow Paul to run uncontested (at least by them).

Conservative leader Erin O’Toole offered his congratulations,

as did New Democratic Party leader Jagmeet Singh.

Maxime Bernier officially running in York Centre

It’s getting a bit sad isn’t it?

Maxime Bernier has announced that it’s official, he’ll be standing as the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) candidate in the upcoming by-election in York Centre. The former Harper cabinet minister who ran for Conservative Party leadership losing to Andrew Scheer tweeted that he had filed his paperwork to run for MP in the vacated seat.

Bernier left the Conservative Party in a huff after losing the leadership contest and after subsequently realizing that this meant that coming in second place meant that the party wouldn’t be under his control. Mad Max left the party to start his own and most saw it as an exercise in spite.

Maxime Bernier prior to failing the marshmallow test

Indeed, in the subsequent election, the People’s Party covered the margin between a Liberal win and a Conservative loss in about a half dozen seats.

Bernier has never faced a contested leadership in his new party, or even a vote for a leadership review after his complete washout as the leader of a party that won 0 seats in the last election.

The word is that Bernier misses his job as Member of Parliament and that the loss of his own seat in Beauce (that he won as a Conservative) was a particularly painful.

His bid for York Centre is unlikely to be successful, but he does have the chance (again) to be the spoiler for Conservatives who won the seat with Mark Adler in 2011.

Julius Tiangson will be the Conservative candidate in the race. He previously ran for the Conservative Party in Mississauga Centre in 2015. Ya’ara Saks will be the Liberal candidate.

The York Centre by-election is on October 26th and was called due to Liberal MP Michael Levitt resigning the seat to be the CEO of Canadian Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies.