Today, to the surprise of no one, Annamie Paul resigned as leader of Canada's Green Party only a week after the federal election in which the party lost half of their national vote while she finished a distant fourth in her Toronto constituency.
It was a spectacular fall for a woman who became both the first black person and the first Jew to lead a political party in Canada. And the fall began when Paul had the temerity for call de-escalation between Israel and the Palestinians and return to dialogue. Nothing less than a wholesale condemnation of Israel would do. Soon Green MP Jessica Atwin who likened Israel to Apartheid crossed the floor and joined the Liberals (who evidently had no such trouble with such views). The Green Party not only wanted to strip Paul of her leadership, but her very membership in the party. In her resignation speech, Paul said:
What people need to realize is that when I was elected and put in this role, I was breaking a glass ceiling. What I didn't realize at the time was that I was breaking a glass ceiling that was going to fall on my head and leave a lot of shards of glass that I was going to have to crawl over throughout my time as a leader. This was not easy. It has been extremely painful. It has been the worst period in my life, in many respects.
I can only hope the worst is over for Annamie Paul and that some organization will appreciate her obvious talents in a way the Green Party was unwilling to do. In which case, I believe Annamie Paul will find greener pastures.
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