Green party insider resigns, says she’s tired of ‘backstabbing, secret alliances and plenty of drama’

In a public blog post, she also likened working for the Green Party to navigating a soap opera, “complete with backstabbing, secret alliances and plenty of drama.”

The party admitted in a statement to the Star that internal conflicts exist, but says it’s actively addressing them.

“We acknowledge the existence of conflicts and issues between certain members of our governance,” interim Green Party executive director Jon Irwin said in an email. “We are actively addressing these matters to ensure that the party remains a professional organization and a safe working environment.”

Woodland is the latest senior party member to resign in recent weeks, following deputy leader Jonathan Pedneault and executive director Kevin Dunbar. They left amid internal squabbling and delays over the question of co-leadership, which longtime MP Elizabeth May has pushed for since her return as party leader in 2022 after a period of turmoil and the controversial ouster of former leader Annamie Paul.

Woodland said in her resignation letter that she had faced “constant hostility,” including private and public insults and “rampant misogyny” from within the party.

Irwin said Woodland’s letter marked the first time he was made aware of concerns about misogyny, and said the party will be following “internal processes to investigate this matter seriously.”

Her resignation comes just weeks after Pedneault abruptly left the party amid internal debate over delays in making him co-leader. He cited “personal reasons” for his resignation, but the decision was not final until the night before he announced it, when several leadership options were discussed with the party’s federal council, including May stepping down and transferring leadership to Pedneault, the Star has reported.

Reached by the Star this week, Woodland said the party has been too focused on internal questions like co-leadership, and urged its leadership to focus on the next federal election, which is currently scheduled for 2025.

“It’s like we’re in a strange loop because we keep having this internal governance thing, and that ends up being the focus and that shouldn’t be the focus,” she said.

“What’s the plan for the election? What messages are we focusing on? Those don’t seem to be clear, and that, to me, is an issue.”

In response, Irwin said fund members are not involved in policy development. Woodland’s resignation, he added, was expected after she had previously resigned briefly in 2022 and because she had expressed an intention to step down again last year. Still, he said, it was “disheartening” to hear she was not satisfied with her experience.

The party’s state remains “deeply concerning,” Woodland wrote in her letter, referring to declining memberships and an increase in internal human resources investigations as examples.

Internal data obtained by the Star shows the party had 13,000 members as of June 2024, which is 8,000 fewer than it had at the start of 2023. Irwin said it’s normal for the number of party members to fluctuate, and that the figure had been higher than usual during several years of closely spaced leadership and federal election campaigns.

“Since then, membership has stabilized to our typical levels and is currently experiencing positive growth,” he said. “We anticipate further increases as we approach the next general election.”

The party received $1.94 million from donations in 2023, a slight decrease from 2022, when it held a leadership race. The past two years have seen the party’s lowest totals from fundraising in more a decade.