Constantine Kritsonis has seen it all. A six-time Green Party of Canada (GPC) candidate, longtime council member, and 32-year party activist, he has weathered countless elections, policy debates, and internal struggles. For Constantine, the Greens always stood for grassroots democracy, transparency, and nonviolence. But looking back, he says Elizabeth May’s leadership has too often meant the opposite — control, contradictions, and crisis.
Elizabeth May’s continued leadership of the Green Party of Canada has been put to a vote of party members. Despite saying publicly that she is stepping aside she is asking members to support her continued leadership so she can oversee the transition to a new leader. Many members, including Constantine Kritsonis do not buy this explanation and believe May is attempting to cling to power.
“Some greens suggested that I should keep party dysfunction under wraps for ‘the good of the party.’ But transparency is a green value. Members have the right to know what transpires in their name.”
From early policy battles over Israel–Palestine to the bitter collapse of the 2025 federal campaign, Constantine’s recounting offers a window into what he calls the perpetual leadership crisis that has defined May’s two decades at the helm.
Early Red Flags: Neutrality and the JNF
Constantine traces the roots of the problem back to 2010, when May shepherded through a policy of “neutrality” on Israel–Palestine. To him, neutrality only served the oppressor. Three years later, he watched with alarm as May attended a Jewish National Fund fundraiser in Ottawa, praising its work while protesters decried the JNF’s role in displacing Palestinians.
“Why is Elizabeth May at $100,000-a-table Negev Dinners? Greens should not be celebrating states engaged in violent ethnic cleansing, torture and apartheid.”
2016: The BDS Revolt
The 2016 convention was a turning point. Members, in what Constantine describes as a landslide democratic mandate, adopted a policy supporting Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS). They also backed a call to revoke the JNF’s charitable status.
May, however, rejected the outcome. She threatened to resign unless a costly Special General Meeting overturned the policy.
“It was political blackmail.”When shadow cabinet members defended the BDS resolution, May demanded they apologize to Andrew Weaver, the then-BC Green leader who denounced it. When they refused, she fired them. To Constantine, it marked a clear breach between leadership and grassroots.
Allegations of Harassment and Control
Around the same time, staff complaints against May surfaced. Three former employees accused her of harassment or toxic workplace behaviour. The lawyer chosen to investigate concluded the allegations had “merit,” though they did not meet Ontario’s legal threshold.
The controversy deepened when reports suggested May herself participated in deciding who would investigate her.
“Was May conflicted? Would the report be different under another investigator?”
Strategic Voting Hypocrisy
For Constantine, another glaring contradiction was May’s shifting position on strategic voting.
• 2015: May pleaded with Canadians not to vote strategically, calling it “disastrous” for democracy and for the Greens.
• 2019: She appeared at a rally for independents Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott, effectively sidelining her own party’s candidates.
• 2024: She went further, urging U.S. Green presidential candidate Jill Stein to step aside for Kamala Harris.
“May’s strategic voting message can only have contributed to the GPC’s recent electoral collapse to 1.2% in the polls, in an environment where good results get the party government funding and participation in the leaders debates.”
Elevating Annamie Paul and the Implosion
The 2020 leadership race became another crisis point. May, despite pledging neutrality, openly supported Annamie Paul with endorsements and fundraisers. Pro-Palestinian candidates were allegedly blocked, while Dimitri Lascaris faced May’s threat to resign if he won.
Paul’s tenure, marked by Noah Zatzman’s accusations of antisemitism against Green MPs and Jenica Atwin’s defection to the Liberals, was catastrophic.
“Elizabeth May had Annamie Pauled the GPC into a coma and it never recovered.”
Ukraine and the Expulsion of Alex Tyrrell
When Russia invaded Ukraine, May declared that the Greens supported Canadian military aid. Yet the membership had never adopted such a policy — in fact, the constitution forbids support for war. Interim leader Amita Kuttner publicly said the opposite.
When Quebec Green leader Alex Tyrrell criticized May’s pro-military stance and prepared to run for federal leadership, he was expelled.
“An expulsion that was about message control and not allowing Tyrell a platform that challenged May’s in a party leadership race.”
2025: Collapse and Review
By 2025, the party’s electoral fortunes had cratered to 1.2% of the vote, below the threshold for federal funding. Jonathan Pedneault resigned after confusion over his supposed “co-leadership,” which a General Meeting had explicitly rejected.
Yet May refused to step aside. Instead, she leaned on a leadership review mechanism introduced in 2010, which allows her to stay if 60% of respondents — without quorum — vote “yes.”
“May has pleaded for a ‘yes’ vote in the leadership review using the GPC members email list. But the legions of greens at gpcrenewal.ca asking for a ‘no’ vote and a leadership contest are banned from using the same list. That is akin to debate exclusion.”
Conclusion: A Call for Renewal
For Constantine, the lesson of the past two decades is clear. May may be respected in Parliament, but her internal record is one of repeated manipulation, suppression of dissent, and contradictions that weakened the Greens from within.
She’ll say she believes in grassroots democracy. But when members made decisions she didn’t like, she reversed them, condemned them, or fired them.
As the Greens face their lowest result in decades, Constantine insists the party cannot recover without new leadership.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The reasons to vote NO to May in the GPC’s leadership review are clear. Let’s turn a new page.”
