Former Green Party leadership candidate Anna Keenan has announced that she will run as a Green Party candidate in the riding of Malpeque, Prince Edward Island in this election. The announcement marks her return to federal politics after placing a distant second in the 2022 leadership race, where she positioned herself as a voice of renewal in contrast to the return of long-time leader Elizabeth May.
In her campaign launch post, Keenan emphasized the need to “stand up for democracy itself,” pledging to be an independent voice in Parliament and reaffirming her support for electoral reform. “Voting strategically has kept the two major parties in power and hasn’t got us anywhere,” she wrote, referencing her years of advocacy for proportional representation. This contrasts with Elizabeth May, who just last week published a video saying “In this election, every vote counts because there are places where you’re this close to electing a progressive MP and you don’t know it until after the election is over,” May says. “Afterwards, you think, gee, I wish I’d known.” a surprising move which critics argue supports strategic voting and undermines Green Party candidates.
Keenan’s return could also reignite unresolved tensions within the Green Party. During the 2022 leadership debate, Keenan offered some of the sharpest criticisms of May’s leadership style—particularly the decision to install Jonathan Pedneault as co-leader without a direct vote from the membership. Keenan warned at the time, “Co-leaders need a clear mandate from members—not appointments. That’s how we avoid internal conflict.”
During the 2022 leadership race Keenan took aim at May’s inconsistency on NATO
“I do agree that we need to review our membership in NATO and that’s consistent with what I’ve said. Talking to European Greens who are around in their 80s and 90s, it’s been very clear: Greens across the world have said that NATO needs to disband” she said during the 2022 leadership debate while facing off against May.
These issues have become increasingly relevant since that time in light of the party’s growing and loudening support for militarism, NATO, weapons manufacturing and military spending. Under May’s and Pedneault’s leadership in the past week the party has also supported Liberal plans for a military buildup in the Arctic and following the 2022 leadership race adopted an increasingly hawkish stance toward Russia by openly calling for war and supporting the shipment of Canadian and American tanks and weapons to the front lines. “Greens globally say NATO should disband, like the Warsaw Pact did,” Keenan stated during the 2022 debate. Her decision not to defend May’s record on NATO sent a message: the party’s foreign policy was veering away from its foundational values of nonviolence and demilitarization.
Despite her nuanced support for Palestinian rights Keenan has remained notably quiet on the war in Gaza over the past few months despite the ongoing genocide. Neither her campaign announcement nor recent posts mention Gaza, genocide, or sanctions. This silence has not gone unnoticed by grassroots activists, particularly given the urgency of the situation and the clear divide within the party on establishment orientated foreign policy. However, she did use the term apartheid to describe Isreal while comparing the country to a wife beater in that 2022 leadership debate saying:
“I think that apartheid is the right word to use to describe what’s happening in the state of Israel. And if we are a friend of Israel as Canada, then we need to call our friend in. If we see a friend in our community that is abusing their wife or their partner, we need to call them in. We need to do the same in our international relations.
She stoped short of calling for sanctions and at one point praised May for her work to overturn the 2016 vote in which party members endorsed a call for sanctions; a goal May failed to achieve. This week, former federal Green leadership candidate Alex Tyrrell continued to push for a bold anti-war stance and sanctions against the Israeli government and called on May to do the same. The editorial team at Global Green News recently published a piece analyzing Elizabeth May’s refusal to use the term “genocide” in relation to Gaza, despite growing international recognition of Israel’s actions as such. Keenan, for her part, has yet to clarify whether she shares May’s pro-Israel views or whether she will side with the party’s more peace-oriented wing. Many are still unsure as to what she meant about Israel being Canada’s “friend” and why she used the bizarre analogy of “calling in” an “abuser” rather then applying legal sanctions like criminal charges.
Keenan’s return also raises questions about the future of the Green Party’s co-leadership model. In an interview with the Toronto Star last year, she reiterated her concerns about legitimacy and process: “It would be highly beneficial for any co-leader of the party to know that they have a very clear mandate from the members.” Thereby implying that the appointment of Pedneault through a yes-no vote as the party establishment ultimately opted for would be undemocratic.
As the federal election heats up, Keenan is positioning herself as a pragmatic, independent-minded candidate. But her previous support for expelling anti-war figures like Tyrrell – a move she directly benefited from and her own flirtation with hawkish foreign policy stances with respect to Russia leave many wondering what kind of voice she would bring to Parliament. In a recent post she declared “my party doesn’t whip votes. So, I am free to be independent voice for our community in parliament.” The question is will she use this lack of party discipline to challenge the party’s increasingly militaristic foreign and domestic policy, or will she reinforce it under the guise of pragmatic go unity? Will she carve out a space for her ideas as a leadership contender or praise May’s approach in return for visibility and the chance of becoming May’s chosen female successor to co leadership? Hopefully Keenan will make these decisions based on a sincere desire for peace rather than on carful political calculations and maneuvering – only time will tell.
