TORONTO -- When Annamie Paul won the Green Party of Canada leadership last October, she spoke of the chance to influence the government on post-pandemic economic action, described her role as "to be that strong voice, carrying [the Greens'] message to the people of Canada," and announced her intent to run in a byelection in Toronto.
Some 10 months later, it's fair to say that things haven’t gone exactly according to plan.
Although Paul had the best showing of any non-Liberal candidate in Toronto Centre since 2013, she did not win the race. As for jump-starting the economy, well, figuring out how to do that seems to be a big part of why we're heading to the polls.
And when it comes to carrying her party's message, remember that she was voted in as leader right at the beginning of Canada's second COVID-19 wave. Restrictions on gatherings resumed soon after, limiting all politicians' abilities to boost their profiles through traditional rallies and events.
In an interview with CTVNews.ca, Paul conceded that the pandemic has in some ways hampered her ability to connect with Canadians.
"I know that people are still getting to know me," she said via telephone on July 23.
"I don't think anything replaces the face-to-face meetings and the personal connections that you get when you're in the same room or same place with people."
Paul said her party has been able to adjust to the realities of the pandemic era, reaching out to voters with virtual events – not unlike the virtual leadership campaign she was pressed into last year. While individual interactions may not be as effective in the virtual world, she said, they do allow her to reach more parts of the country far more efficiently than she could the old-fashioned way.
One positive surprise the pandemic has brought Paul is an up-close look at how people across the country responded to it, and how it differed from what some may have expected.
"[There] had been a growing perception for some time that people in Canada and other wealthy countries were becoming extremely individualistic, extremely self-centred, and that the idea of community and human responsibility to the community had died … people were really just focused on themselves," she said.
Over the past 17 months, though, that selfishness isn’t what Paul has noticed. Instead, she said, she has witnessed "a lot of generosity," with Canadians and their communities sacrificing for strangers and finding new ways to help each other survive.
"I was really happy to see that when we were put to the test, we really showed up for each other," she said.
"It's something that we're seeking to build on. We want to say 'Well, if we could be that generous in these difficult circumstances, imagine what we could do if we take that spirit of collaboration and co-operation and generosity and apply it to completing a social safety net, or apply it to fighting against the climate emergency."
LEADERSHIP BESET BY INTERNAL WOES
No matter how much Canadians have impressed Paul during the pandemic, another challenge has hampered her ability to focus all of her energy on impressing them – and this one is arguably much more of a surprise than COVID-19's endurance.
When Paul and the Green party have been in the headlines in recent months, it has rarely been because of anything related to policy or what they can offer Canadians.
Instead, the party has been embroiled in internal controversy. First, MP Jenica Atwin defected to the Liberals, citing internal party rifts around the Israeli-Palestinan conflict. Paul has said that she and Atwin never spoke about that issue.
Days later, it emerged that Paul was facing a challenge to her leadership. This culminated in a bizarre series of events during which party executives scheduled a non-confidence vote and even tried to suspend her membership, only for Paul to announce that both attempts had been shelved, only for it to emerge that the vote cancellation had been an arbitrator's call.
Wherever the feud between Paul and party brass ends up, it appears to have taken some wind out of the Greens' electoral sails. On an episode of CTV's Trend Linepodcast, Nanos Research chief data scientist Nik Nanos said that he can see the party's internal strife eating away at its voter support.
"Until Annamie Paul can put this to rest and behind her, it's going to be a distraction. Every time [journalists] do an interview with her, there will be a question related to this, even if there's another environmental catastrophe, even if she has a brilliant plan," he said.
Paul has repeatedly attempted to publicly push past the intra-party strife, arguing that it is more important for her party to show a united front as the election draws near. Seemingly every time she says that, however, the next headline has more to do with what is happening inside the Greens' own shop than what they want to say to voters.
In speaking with CTVNews.ca, Paul said that the Greens' pitch to the electorate will include the clear-eyed focus on climate change that has defined the party since its inception, but also strong stances on issues of social justice, fighting discrimination and helping those most in need.
"When people think about the climate … they should be thinking about us. When they're thinking about completing our social safety net and making sure that we're never this fragile and vulnerable again, they should be thinking about us as well," she said.
Additionally, Paul seems to stand ready to counter anyone who suggests that the hurt caused by COVID-19 is mostly behind us. "People are not back on their feet" in her Toronto neighbourhood or many other Canadian communities, she said.
"This has been an incredibly traumatic, difficult, and in many cases debilitating experience for many people in Canada. They have either lost people … or they lost their job, or they had been shut in their homes for months at a time."
Paul has not lost her job during the pandemic – she gained one, in fact – and she says the lockdowns in Toronto have helped her get to know her children better. But she has felt the same pain as millions of other Canadians. Her father died last spring; she has said that he acquired an avoidable infection in a long-term care home.
'ALWAYS THINKING BIG'
Many Canadians may only know Paul as the first Jewish woman to be elected leader of a major political party in Canada, and the first Black woman to be elected leader of a major political party in Canada.
Her life has not been lived as publicly as those of the men she will be on-stage with during the leaders' debate, but neither has it been lived in the shadows.
She is a non-practising lawyer who has worked at the International Criminal Court and for Canada's mission to the European Union, among other postings.
Born and raised in Toronto – and returning there every summer during her time abroad – she is the daughter of two immigrants, the wife of a human rights lawyer, and the mother of two sons.
And while she might be new to campaigning, she's spent plenty of time around the Canadian political system. Some two decades ago, she created the Canadian Centre for Political Leadership – an attempt to bring more diverse voices into the realm of municipal politics.
Velma Morgan, who knew Paul in those days, worked more directly with her in 2019. She is the chair of Operation Black Vote Canada, which Paul worked with to create the 1834 Fellowship program – an initiative to prepare Black youth for civic leadership.
A few months later, when Paul declared her intention to run for the Greens' top job, Morgan signed on to help with her leadership campaign. She remembers being excited by Paul's passion for listening to those who are rarely heard – and even more excited when Paul emerged as the new Green leader.
"Given what was happening during that time ... in terms of systemic racism and representation, she was like the light in Canadian politics. We thought 'OK, finally, a fresh voice, a new voice that wanted to do things differently to get different results,’" Morgan told CTVNews.ca via telephone on July 29.
"When she talks about being daring and thinking big, that's the person that I know. She's always thinking big, and better – how can we make Ontario better, how can we make Canada better."
CAN SHE KEEP THE GREENS RELEVANT?
Paul will face a difficult balancing act during the campaign. She's running again in Toronto Centre, meaning her becoming an MP will depend on her ability to break the Liberal stronghold that she couldn't quite crack last year.
But winning Toronto Centre alone isn't enough. The Green leader told CTVNews.ca that her party's top priority is "getting more Greens elected," suggesting that she is looking build on the record-high three MPs the party sent to Ottawa in 2019.
Of those three, Atwin has left the party, while Paul Manly and former leader Elizabeth May are both running for re-election.
The Greens will undoubtedly look to expand their parliamentary footprint beyond Vancouver Island. Regions where that could be considered likely include mainland British Columbia, as well as Prince Edward Island, where the Greens are the official opposition, and New Brunswick, where Atwin won in 2019. Green candidates finished second last time around in the southern Ontario ridings of Kitchener Centre and Guelph.
In Nanos's view, the only way a breakthrough can materialize in any of these places is if the party first gets back to its roots.
"In the ideal world for the Greens, if they want to do OK or do well in the next federal election … they have to put these squabbles behind them, and put the importance of the environment as an issue ahead of internal squabbles," he said.
"If not, the Green party will just be irrelevant in the upcoming election."
Even if the Greens are able to do that, though, it may not be long until their internal problems are once again front and centre. Party bylaws stipulate that if the Green leader does not become prime minister, there must be a leadership review within six months.
