The federal Green Party is launching a leadership contest to replace Elizabeth May, marking its sixth leadership change in seven years after a period of internal turmoil, electoral setbacks and repeated changes at the top.Blacklock's Reporter says voting to select the party's next leader began this week, with the winner to be announced on Nov. 14.Former Kitchener Centre MP Mike Morrice is expected to formally enter the race. Morrice was previously the Greens' only MP east of Vancouver Island during his single term in Parliament.May, 72, announced she would step down after leading the party through its disappointing 2025 federal election campaign. She has also spoken publicly about suffering a hemorrhagic stroke in 2023."Not to put too much of a somber tone on it, but I am so lucky to be alive," May told reporters previously."I had a hemorrhagic stroke. I didn't have a doctor. My husband calls it a stroke of luck because I hadn't had a family doctor for eight years and thanks to having a stroke I have a doctor."The Green Party has elected only four MPs during its 40-year history, but leadership instability has become one of its defining characteristics.May resigned as leader in 2019 and was succeeded on an interim basis by former CBC Halifax host Jo-Ann Roberts..In 2020, Toronto lawyer Annamie Paul became leader but resigned less than a year later after prolonged internal disputes she described as "the worst period in my life."Amita Kuttner then served as interim leader in 2021, publicly acknowledging the party's internal divisions and saying members had been "at each other's throats."May returned as leader in 2022 and later appointed Jonathan Pedneault as co-leader in 2025. Pedneault resigned after losing his bid to win the Montreal riding of Outremont in the 2025 federal election by 21,485 votes.The Greens also suffered a sharp decline in popular support during that election, with the party's vote total falling 38% to 244,952 ballots.During the campaign, May urged progressive parties to cooperate in an effort to prevent a Conservative government, arguing greater collaboration would create a more cooperative Parliament.The strategy drew a hostile response from some voters, according to Green campaign manager Robin Marty."I have never experienced anything like it," Marty said after the election. "Volunteers in tears, getting hurled abuse, others saying they never want to volunteer again. This is very concerning."The New Democratic Party also focused heavily on defeating the Conservatives during the 2025 campaign, but the strategy failed to improve its fortunes. Under then-leader Jagmeet Singh, the NDP was reduced to just seven seats — its poorest federal election result since 1935 under its predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.
