By Sally Barnes
If I lived in the riding of Toronto Centre I would vote for Annamie Paul, who survived a coup to oust her as leader of the Green Party and bears the scars from her foray into politics and the democratic process.
I’m no fan of her federal party–especially since it revealed itself to include a nest of anti-Semites–but I believe we need her and women like her in Parliament.
She is one candidate in this unwanted and unneeded federal election who isn’t afraid to say what she thinks and uses her intelligence and life experiences to make her case. She is passionate about her causes and pulls no punches.
Mind you, she is fortunate to be that rare political bird who isn’t encumbered with the baggage of party discipline and policies and financial contributors and lobbyists seeking favours. Her party has been decimated by internal strife that got down and dirty.
Up there on the national stage with four other party leaders, the public and the media regard her as a harmless eccentric with strong principles and zealous commitment. There is grudging respect for someone who survives an attempted coup by insiders of her own party and soldiers on with poise and determination despite odds that would choke a horse.
Working in an environment rife with hubris and inflated egos, she is so obviously comfortable in her own skin–and in her inelegant shoes made from recycled plastic harvested from our polluted oceans.
She has openly admitted that it’s not just the lack of resources and her focus on winning her own Toronto seat that has kept her from visiting other ridings in this national campaign. She told reporters this week that she knows the schism in the Green Party has left her about as welcome as a skunk at a garden party in some places.
Annamie Paul should enjoy this state of grace while she can and before getting elected and captured by a system that reduces so many members of the House of Commons to readers of partisan talking points and defenders of the indefensible.
To her credit, she speaks with great admiration for other women in politics who have paid a huge price for being outspoken or feeling out of place and unwilling to play the game of politics according to old rules and practices in the political backrooms and on Parliament Hill.
It wasn’t surprising that in the recent English language leaders’ debate that she cited Jody Wilson-Raybould, Jane Philpott and Celina Caesar-Chavannes as Liberal Party women MPs who were making a major contribution but ran afoul of Ottawa’s political culture, resigned, and have walked away from politics.
She says these women and other trailblazers have made it easier for her and others to get where they need to be. Hopefully that is not just wishful thinking.
Annamie Paul’s riding of Toronto Centre is upscale and has been a Liberal bastion since 1993. Anyone wanting to bet on her winning it in the upcoming election would be taking a real leap of faith.
Pity. Following their usual pattern, voters will return the usual numbers of candidates who will go to Ottawa and be place holders, enjoy the perks of office, and represent Ottawa in their home ridings–rather than represent their ridings with a strong voice in Ottawa.
As I prepare my popcorn and get ready for a very long night of what I forecast to be chaotic election returns, I will be keeping an eye on Toronto Centre and hoping the voters there do us all a favour by giving this very talented young woman an opportunity to shake up Ottawa.
God knows, it needs it!
Sally Barnes has enjoyed a distinguished career as a writer, journalist and author. Her work has been recognized in a number of ways, including receiving a Southam Fellowship in Journalism at Massey College at the University of Toronto. A self-confessed political junkie, she has worked in the back-rooms for several Ontario premiers. In addition to a number of other community contributions, Sally Barnes served a term as president of the Ontario Council on the Status of Women. She is a former business colleague of Doppler’s publisher, Hugh Mackenzie, and lives in Kingston, Ontario. You can find her online at sallybarnesauthor.com
Don’t miss out on Doppler!
Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!
Click here to support local news
John and Dale are preaching to this choir!
An excellent article Sally. Although I don’t’ believe the official emission targets of the Green party are even close to achievable, I have to say that Annamie Paul is a huge credit to her party. She obviously has high integrity, is intelligent and truly dedicated to an important cause.
She is a strong woman who speaks her mind and doesn’t back down under pressure and won’t be bullied. Canada would be much better served if more federal politicians had her level of courage, integrity and ethics. I hope she is successful in her bid to win in her riding in Toronto Center.
This is an excellent article Ms. Barnes. If I lived in the Toronto Centre riding I’d vote for Annamie Paul too. I am blown away by this woman. She is brilliant, funny, compassionate, respectful, thoughtful……I could go on but my woman crush is showing.
On more than a couple of occasions during her CBC interview with Rosemary Barton it occurred to me that while we – the electorate – say that we want our leaders to be forthright and transparent, we punish them when they do. For that and a number of other reasons (only slightly tongue-in-cheek) do I say that Annamie Paul is too damn good for the likes of us…..or politics.
Listening to Ms. Paul, it is the first time that I’ve really been able to think of the Green Party as more than a one issue entity more suited to being a movement than a political party. She brilliantly articulated how everything is affected by climate change way past the usual bromides like, “It doesn’t matter if the economy is thriving if you can’t breathe the air.”
Given that tackling global climate change is a Herculean task, one that depends on international consensus and the efforts of communities, companies, and individuals alike would Ms. Paul serve the planet better if she led the Green Party toward a coalition with the NDP?
I think there would be a far greater likelihood that an NDP-Green (or Green-NDP) Party could fast become a genuine contender to break Canada out of the two-party box we seem to come back to again and again out of fear of making a big move. As the saying goes, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
As a long-time Liberal who sticks with it because it mostly ‘ticks my boxes’ in a way that the Conservative Party never can, I’d definitely entertain a vote for an NDP – Green Party. I wouldn’t do it for my generation but I would certainly do it for the generations to follow.
Well said, Sally, and I agree with you entirely. Political infighting is rife in all parties. Annamie Paul deserves our admiration and respect, and our PSM candidate, Marc Mantha, is excellent. The time of traditional sweet-talking Ottawa- and self-serving politicians is long over, given the urgency of current converging crises.