Nine in the running as Green Party of Canada prepares to name new leader

Written By MARK PAVILONS

The Green Party of Canada will select a new leader this October and party faithful are gearing up to vote online.

Online voting opens Sept. 26 and would-be members have until Sept, 3 to sign up. Call 1-866-868-3447.

Contestants need 150 nominations from Green members to appear on the ballot in September .

You can vote if you are a member of the Green Party of Canada as of Sept. 3, and you will be 14 years of age or older on Oct. 3.

The election of the Leader will use a one-member, one-vote system using a preferential ballot. A majority vote shall elect the leader.

The following are candidate biographies.

Judy N Green was born in British Columbia and has lived and worked in five provinces. She started her career as an airframe technician with the Canadian Armed Forces and raised her family while completing an honours degree in computer science from Acadia University. While completing her Masters of Computer Science from Carleton University, Judy worked on cutting-edge high-tech solutions and went on to own and operate four vastly different small businesses.

Last year, she went from presenting the “Heading towards Extinction” seminars for XR to running for the Green Party of Canada in West Nova. She finished third, earning 12.69 per cent of the votes, more than tripling Green support and winning the student vote.

Born in Syria, Meryam Haddad immigrated to Canada with her family in 1993. She earned her law degree from the University of Ottawa in 2012 and has been a member of the Quebec Bar since 2013. Specializing in immigration law, for the past seven years she has represented asylum seekers from Yemen, Syria and stateless Palestinians, including members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Meryam is a 32-year-old immigrant lesbian. During the last federal election, she was a candidate for the Green Party of Canada in Châteauguay-Lacolle. In October 2019, she was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Immigration Critic.

Dr. Courtney Howard is an emergency physician in Yellowknife, N.W.T. and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. After a time working on a pediatric malnutrition project with Médecins Sans Frontières, she now serves a majority-Indigenous community in Canada's arctic and subarctic.

Dr. Howard led policy work for the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, and has done research on menstrual cups, wildfires, eco-anxiety and eco-grief.

She is the first female president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE). She co-chairs the Advocacy Committee of the WHO-Civil Society Working Group on climate change and health and sits on the board of the Canadian Medical Association.

Amita Kuttner (they/them) is co-founder of Moonlight Institute, a non-profit organization that seeks to create a framework for an equitable and just future. Dr. Kuttner holds a PhD in astronomy and astrophysics and a MS in physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC); their research focused on black holes and wormholes. They served as Critic for Science and Innovation for the Green Party of Canada from September 2018 to February 2020, bringing forward policy on artificial intelligence, emerging technologies and data privacy.

Dr. Kuttner has long been an advocate for diversity and inclusion, including leading Women in Physics and Astronomy at UCSC. They co-founded the UCSC chapter of 314 Action, an organization dedicated to electing scientists and STEM professionals to public office, and ran the Canadian organization effort for Scientists for Future.

Dimitri Lascaris is an accomplished securities class action lawyer, having led a team that has recovered more than $450 million from corporations and executives engaged in illegal financial practices, human rights abuses, and environmental destruction.

Born in London, Ontario, Dimitri graduated from the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 1991. He is a correspondent for The Real News Network, where he has covered the financial crisis, the climate emergency, and human rights abuses worldwide.

Dimitri has served on the boards of numerous public interest organizations, including The Unity Project for the Relief of Homelessness, Pro Bono Ontario and Toronto350.

In Canada's 2015 federal election, Dimitri ran for the Green Party of Canada in London West. Subsequently, he served as Justice Critic in the party's Shadow Cabinet and as Justice Critic in the Shadow Cabinet of the Green Party of Quebec.

David Merner has worked for more than 30 years in law, government, and political activism. Over his 28 years in public service, David provided constitutional, legal and policy advice to ministers in Conservative, Liberal, and NDP governments. He served at the Department of Justice and Privy Council Office in Ottawa, as well as at the Ministry of Attorney General in Victoria.

David has volunteered for environmental, conflict resolution, and democratic reform organizations, including on the boards of directors of The Land Conservancy of B.C., Mediate B.C., and Fair Vote Canada. He also has extensive campaign experience at the municipal, provincial, and federal levels, including campaigns for Green candidates in British Columbia, New Brunswick and Ontario. In 2019, David ran for the Green Party of Canada in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, finishing second with 26 per cent of the vote.

Glen Murray was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec. He attended Concordia University's School of Community and Public Affairs, majoring in Urban Studies. He moved to Winnipeg in the 1980s to work in communications and lead Canada's first AIDS clinic.

Moved by what he saw in the AIDS epidemic, he ran for public office and served as a City of Winnipeg councillor for nine years, and then as Mayor of Winnipeg for six years. His political life led him to Toronto where, after a time in the private sector, he successfully ran in one of Canada's most culturally diverse ridings, Toronto Centre, as a Liberal candidate.

Annamie Paul is a lawyer, international affairs expert and social entrepreneur from Toronto. She holds a Master of Public Affairs from Princeton University, a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Ottawa and speaks four languages. Annamie is an inaugural Action Canada Fellow, an Echoing Green Fellow, a member of the Recruitment of Policy Leaders Program, member of the University of Ottawa Common Law Honour Society and a recipient of the Harry Jerome Award. She has worked in diverse roles, in global conflict prevention, the International Criminal Court and Canada's Mission to the EU. 

Annamie has founded two social non-profits and has launched and supported non-partisan organizations that have helped women and minorities to enter Canadian politics. She is a first generation Canadian of Caribbean heritage and is married with two sons.

Andrew West is a lawyer and the Attorney General Critic for the Green Party of Ontario. He was a federal candidate in 2015 and a provincial candidate in 2014, 2018 and 2020. He was the CEO of the Ottawa Centre Green Party EDA and organized the Green entry in the Ottawa Pride parade twice.

Andrew has volunteered for several organizations including the CNIB Foundation, WWF Canada and Amnesty International. He was a committee chair for Amnesty's annual “Taste for Justice” fundraiser and was responsible for much of the campaign which raised money to help stop violence against women. Under his leadership, “Taste for Justice” gained the most media coverage and raised the most donations in the campaign's history.

Andrew grew up in Owen Sound, Ontario. He loves baseball, comedy and his wife Lydia. He is currently studying to be bilingual and usually has at least three French lessons a week.

For more, contact the Green Party of Canada at greenparty.ca or 1-866-868-3447.