Green Party Deputy Leader Jonathan Pedneault stepping down for ‘personal reasons’

Green Party Deputy Leader Jonathan Pedneault has announced he is stepping down, citing personal reasons.

He made the announcement alongside Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, in Ottawa. 

— This is a breaking news story. More details to come. Previous story continues below. 

Green Party of Canada heads Elizabeth May and Jonathan Pedneault clinched the 2022 leadership campaign on the sixth ballot as one of the double-billed co-leadership tickets in the race, but have since been operating as leader, and deputy leader respectively. 

That’s because making a co-leader model official requires members to approve a change to the party’s constitution. That modification has yet to be made, amid internal debates and delays.

May and Pedneault are scheduled to speak to reporters on Parliament Hill at 9:30 a.m. ET.

After first stepping down after 13 years as leader in November 2019, May returned to the helm promising to re-unite the party and double-down on pushing for climate action.

Her resumption of the role followed Annamie Paul‘s brief but tumultuous tenure at the top of the party, as well as interim periods under the leadership of Jo-Ann Roberts and Amita Kuttner.

May is one of two Green MPs in the House of Commons. She represents Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C., a riding she’s held since 2011 when she became the party’s first elected Member of Parliament. Her seat-mate Mike Morrice represents Kitchener Centre, Ont.

Pedneault – a human rights investigator, activist, and documentary maker – did run in the 2023 Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount, Que. byelection in hopes of securing a third seat in the House for his party, but placed fourth.  

Earlier this year, May spoke optimistically about the party’s prospects for 2024 and beyond. She predicted that come the next election her party would “surprise people with electing a lot more MPs than we’ve had in the past.”

Asked at the time why she thought the political landscape could generate different results for the Greens than in elections past, May said in her home province she is seeing a high degree of “disillusionment” with the Liberals and NDP, as well as “a lot of concern” about a Conservative government.

In last month’s Toronto-St.Paul’s byelection that delivered a stunning upset to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his party, the Green candidate Christian Cullis placed fourth.

This is a developing story, check back for updates…